MUMBAI: The Orissa headquartered Sarthak Music is gearing up to launch its first ever radio station in the state by September. The station, Sarthak FM, will air from Bhubaneswar on 5 September. Transmission issues have delayed the launch of its Rourkela station until October.
Set to provide tough competition to its fellow radio stations, Sarthak FM will be a 24 hour Odia station in the state of Orissa and will run on the frequency of 91.9.
The radio station did not apply for the Phase-I radio auctions and in Phase-II auctions the application got cancelled. Finally, with FM radio Phase III on the anvil, the company did not miss out the chance to be a part of the radio industry.
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With established players like Radio Choklate, Big FM and Red FM already doing well in the two cities, Sarthak as the new entrant will need to prove its mettle. Sarthak Music managing director Sitaram Agarwal says, “No, I don’t think the other radio stations as competition as Sarthak FM will be 100 per cent Odia in content, while other radio stations- Big FM, Red FM play entirely Bollywood and Radio Choklate has 30 per cent Odia and 70 per cent Bollywood music as their content.”
“We are an established company which has been around since 1983. We have a music library of our own, with a catalogue of over 10,000 songs which no other radio station can play. Therefore, we have an added advantage when it comes to music,” adds Agarwal.
The brand new station is also applying a brand new concept where the radio station will produce a new Odia song for FM, daily. The initial plan is to start with 15-20 songs per month. But, as the radio station consolidates its position, the song a day initiative will be implemented.
“All preparations are in full swing. We have approached big music directors and lyricists who are working for us. We have also planned a show where we will launch an Odia song on-air at around 9 in the morning. Post the launch of the song, we will be subject to public comments where the listeners will have the opportunity to share their views on the song and interact with the musicians,” explains Agarwal.
The music company has also found and hired 12 new singers. As the music label already owns a well developed set up required for recording- studios and an experienced technical team, it would not be difficult to go with the idea of self-produced music, he says. Also, there are total eight radio jockeys who have been selected out of which four are experienced and rest half are newcomers.
Talking about the scope of an Odia radio station, Agarwal says, “Orissa does not have loyalty in terms of audience due to content. People complain that they are bored of the music that is being played constantly. They want to consume Odia music and are craving for a radio station like us.”
“If we talk about our marketing, I don’t think we need much publicity because our parent brand is already well known. We will keep our programming and marketing strategies as simple as we can. Also, the advertisers will be interested as they want something new which they will get as our station as a complete Odia FM station,” he says.
Earlier, Sarthak Music was a part of Sarthak Entertainment but last year, Zee bought out the rights to Sarthak Entertainment. Soon, Sarthak Music will change its name to Sarthak FM Pvt Ltd, for which they have applied.
