MUMBAI: Fever FM’s Kolkata station is undergoing a transition phase and targets to bounce back by year end HT Media’s FM radio venture netted revenues of Rs 88.3 million in the quarter ended 30 June 2009, and the company expects to get into the black by next quarter.
Fever Kolkata station head Pralay Bakshi confirms, We plan to introduce a variety of music at our Kolkata station as there is a scope for varied music in Kolkata market. At many stations, we have time allotted for retro music but we would be initiating retro music in Kolkata station irrespective of day parts…. Bakshi further mentions that the station would be playing retro music right from 1950’s, 1960’s as well.
The music at Kolkata station comprises 80-85 per cent of Bollywood music and 10-15 per cent of regional Bengali music. Sources say the station would also be making changes in its RJ talk, content and programming.
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Fever National marketing head and Delhi station head Neeraj Chaturvedi asserts, We are carrying out some preliminary research by our in-house qualitative research team and trying to figure out reasons for dip in our listenership in Kolkata. The research is on and we would be introducing changes post Navratri…. However, Chatruvedi didn’t confirm if the station would be changing the music from current hit radio (CHR) to retro.
Among the other stations from the HT Media stable- Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, its Kolkata has been off the radar for the past few months. According to RAM stats in the 35 week, Bangalore stood at third position with listenership of 14 per cent, Delhi occupied second position with 22 per cent, the listenership dripped to sixth position in Mumbai from being the top 3 some months back.
Radio stations in Kolkata play contemporary Bollywood music with a mix of regional Bengali music. Among them, two stations- Friends FM owned by Anand Bazaar Patrika and Amar FM predominantly play regional Bengali music and occupied third and fourth position respectively according to RAM data in week 35.
However, the other radio stations are against the idea of going the regional way as the market for regional music is about 20-25 per cent and would get further fragmented into smaller percentages if they step in.
Advertising in the region has also been suffering a downturn owing to the dip in the overall advertising spend but Fever claims to occupy as much as 15-18 per cent of the advertising pie.
Chaturvedi mentions that the Kolkata station hasn’t been garnering much revenue in terms of advertising and would take some time to be profitable. It is evident that owing to its revenue model, the Kolkata station has to introduce strategic changes keeping the cost in control and making the best of the available resources.
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