* Musical-e-Azam’s Season-4 goes South as Music Durbar
* 29 artistes, 650 hrs of live and unplugged music
* 12 artistes in Mumbai; 17 in Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad
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Ever since it launched on Radio City 91.1 FM in 2006, Musical-e-Azam has featured some of the biggest names from music, such as Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Asha Bhosle, Jagjit Singh, Sonu Nigaam, Ghulam Ali, Alka Yagnik, Shaan, Zakir Hussain, Sunidhi Chauhan, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Roop Kumar Rathod, Talat Aziz, Mohit Chauhan, Shreya Ghosal, KK, Raghav Sachar , Javed Ali and Rekha Bharadwaj, amongst others.
Without doubt the biggest and most significant live-and-unplugged music show on Radio so far, Musical-e-Azam is returning in a bigger avatar, as the largest live radio show in the country, on Radio City, which, with Season-4, is taking it to its south markets too. Starting 8 am today, Monday, the 29th of November, the network will broadcast four different live episodes of the show in four languages: as Musical-e-Azam in Hindi from Mumbai (at 8 am) and as Music Durbar in Kannada from Bengaluru (at 8.30 am), in Telugu from Hyderabad and in Tamil from Chennai (both starting 9 am), with each episode featuring a different star. In all, Season 4 will showcase 29 artistes across 650 hours of programming. The network is backing it with a 360-degree marketing plan which includes outdoor, print and online and a B2C SMS push across its markets nationwide.
In Mumbai, Musical-e-Azam will be aired from 8 am to 10 am on ten weekdays (Mon-Fri) from 29th November to 10th December on Kasa Kai Mumbai. The episodes will feature Sajid Wajid, Sukhwinder, Richa Sharma, Bappi Lahiri, Shantanu Moitra, Shail Hada, Sunidhi Chauhan, Pritam, Neeraj Shridhar and Salim-Suleman, in that order. RJ Archana — herself a good singer — and Salil will host the show, which will be aired in Delhi, Lucknow, Jaipur, Baroda, Surat, Ahmedabad, Pune, Nagpur, Sholapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar, Alkola, Nanded and Jalgaon stations of Radio City.
In Hyderabad, Music Durbar will air on five days from 29th November to 3rd December, between 9 and 11 am. The Hyderabad series, hosted by RJ Vinayak Joshi, will feature music stars Hemachandra, R P Patnaik, Geeta Madhuri, Malavika and Chakri, and will also be played out at Vizag.
In Bengaluru and Chennai, Music Darbar will air for six days, from 29th November to 4th December. The Bengaluru episodes, anchored by RJ Vamsee, will air from 8.30 to 11 am, and will showcase the talents of Arjun, Sahamita Malnad, M D Pallavi, Badri Prasad, Guru Kiran and Raghu Dixit. The episodes from Chennai will feature music stars Sivu, Dharan, Priya Hemesh, Priyadarshini, Mahathi and Krishna Iyer. Hosted by RJ Gopida, these will also air in Coimbatore.
Apurva Purohit, CEO, Radio City 91.1 FM, told RadioAndMusic.com, We had an amazing response to Seasons 1, 2 and 3 of Musical-e-Azam, and hence this year, we decided to take a step further and expand it all over the country, making it the largest live radio show in the country This year, the entire world would have the deferred live of Musical-e-Azam through Radio City’s internet radio –Fun ka Antenna. Also, deferred playout would continue on Radio City….
With all this programming, the network is giving its property strong marketing support. Musical-e-Azam is a marquee property for us,… says Purohit. We have raised the bar in terms of expectation from it, and have apportioned budgets commensurate to a marquee property. We will be rolling out a 360 degree marketing plan which includes outdoor – we are using OOH in Mumbai — print and online across the country. Additionally we are rolling out an SMS plan nationally, intimating radio listeners about Musical-e-Azam so that they can sample the show and the format. We also have Zee News as a TV partner for the show. And in the south, we have SS Music as a partner….
However, on being asked about the plans to monetize such a huge property, a Purohit says, The idea behind Musical-e-Azam is offering outstanding, engaging content which increase our loyal listener base, and not really (about) monetizing it. We haven’t put this on sale as it is a brand campaign; we are treating this as a brand exercise….
The show will feature live and unplugged performances by music stars, and would feature two accomplished musicians accompanying the singing – Sarosh on the guitar, and Chandan Singh on the violin. To complement the entertainment quotient of conversations, anecdotes, trivia and performances, the show will offer listeners interactivity through two main platforms – digital and mobile. The show is evolving in terms of format,.. says Purohit, adding, This year, our theme is to promote musicians who are path breaking and have introduced new trends in the world of music….
Earlier, when Archana was hosting it solo, it was a very focused one-on-one interaction. Archana is a trained and exceptionally good singer who even sang along with and was complimented by Sonu Nigaam. Will a second host – even a seasoned presenter like Salil — dilute the offering or the depth of the exchange between the host and the guest, making it a bit superficial? Purohit disagrees. Archana and Salil are one of the most popular RJ jodis, and an extremely complementing pair. They have been the morning dose for Mumbai for the past year-and-a-half,… she says. We are sure listeners and the artists will enjoy the experience, and we do not think that the entertaining extravaganza we are offering will get diluted; in fact, it will get bigger and better….
Archana says, This is the peak season for live shows and performances for singers and music directors, and what I find extraordinary, is that in spite of being amongst the best names in the country today, each and every one of the music stars who is on Season-4 has been extremely cooperative and willing to make time for the show in this busy season. That’s a really wonderful feeling….
