North-east expansion plans for Phase III

 

RnM Team    22 Apr 13 18:23 IST

MUMBAI: FM Phase III is the much awaited chapter in the history of private radio industry of India. Like most private radio stations, Radio Misty based in North-eastern India, is waiting for it to arrive so that they could expand their hold more strongly in the region.

Growing revenue and listenership has boosted the confidence in Misty to expand. It has witnessed a growth of ten per cent compared to last year. Speaking with Radioandmusic.com, Radio Misty 94.3 FM and Radio Misty Sikkim 95 FM vice president Dilip Dugar said, “In the next auction, we are planning to have more stations in North-east India. We have done very well in the market so we don’t just want to expand more but add about 17 more stations more in Phase III. We have done well in terms of revenue as well.”

Major revenue for Radio Misty comes through the telecom, FMCG, lifestyle and many local brands. “Last year, we had 10 per cent growth in terms of revenue. In times when radio revenue’s are coming down we are hoping to achieve 25 per cent of the revenue in coming years,” said Dugar.

Radio Misty has two stations in Siliguri and Gangtok which airs programmes in five languages- Hindi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Nepali and English. “We have 82 per cent of the market share in terms of listenership. Radio is a very big medium the more innovation you have the more listenership grows. It is not like the metro stations that play bollywood, all the time we have variety. We aim to inform, innovate and interact which are the key words for our station. Every day, we plan something that is out of the box. We share ideas in the morning and we share the information from our station to our listeners,” added Dugar.

Radio Misty 94.3 FM is the first FM station of North Bengal and Radio Misty Sikkim 95 FM is the first and only 24x7 FM station of Sikkim. “Every three months we have a big change.  We ask the listeners to share their views to make changes. We had introduced a Ghazal program in our region. Earlier, we aired it for an hour now it is aired for two hours and we play a lot of retro music. We have a doctor live program that was a hour long show which has now increased to three hours,” said Dugar

Moreover, international content is a part of the programming as the station has partnered with BBC and Radio Netherlands Worldwide to provide innovative programming in the country. He said, “There is a popular program called Euro hits, a very popular program in Europe and we play it.  International music that is English music does well here. Especially in Gangtok there are people who are very inclined to it because of the band culture. Every region here has three to four bands that makes it very prominent.”

With an aim to associate with the local they hire local radio jockey’s who understand the language and culture of the region.

Established in 2007, Radio Misty is a part of the PCM Group, one of the largest groups of eastern India.The group set up Radio Misty after obtaining licenses for Siliguri and Gangtok, as a subsidy company of PCM's in North Bengal. The motto of   the station is ‘Local People - Local Voice, Local Station - Local Choice’.

MUMBAI: FM Phase III is the much awaited chapter in the history of private radio industry of India. Like most private radio stations, Radio Misty based in North-eastern India, is waiting for it to arrive so that they could expand their hold more strongly in the region.

Growing revenue and listenership has boosted the confidence in Misty to expand. It has witnessed a growth of ten per cent compared to last year. Speaking with Radioandmusic.com, Radio Misty 94.3 FM and Radio Misty Sikkim 95 FM vice president Dilip Dugar said, “In the next auction, we are planning to have more stations in North-east India. We have done very well in the market so we don’t just want to expand more but add about 17 more stations more in Phase III. We have done well in terms of revenue as well.”

Major revenue for Radio Misty comes through the telecom, FMCG, lifestyle and many local brands. “Last year, we had 10 per cent growth in terms of revenue. In times when radio revenue’s are coming down we are hoping to achieve 25 per cent of the revenue in coming years,” said Dugar.

Radio Misty has two stations in Siliguri and Gangtok which airs programmes in five languages- Hindi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Nepali and English. “We have 82 per cent of the market share in terms of listenership. Radio is a very big medium the more innovation you have the more listenership grows. It is not like the metro stations that play bollywood, all the time we have variety. We aim to inform, innovate and interact which are the key words for our station. Every day, we plan something that is out of the box. We share ideas in the morning and we share the information from our station to our listeners,” added Dugar.

Radio Misty 94.3 FM is the first FM station of North Bengal and Radio Misty Sikkim 95 FM is the first and only 24x7 FM station of Sikkim. “Every three months we have a big change.  We ask the listeners to share their views to make changes. We had introduced a Ghazal program in our region. Earlier, we aired it for an hour now it is aired for two hours and we play a lot of retro music. We have a doctor live program that was a hour long show which has now increased to three hours,” said Dugar

Moreover, international content is a part of the programming as the station has partnered with BBC and Radio Netherlands Worldwide to provide innovative programming in the country. He said, “There is a popular program called Euro hits, a very popular program in Europe and we play it.  International music that is English music does well here. Especially in Gangtok there are people who are very inclined to it because of the band culture. Every region here has three to four bands that makes it very prominent.”

With an aim to associate with the local they hire local radio jockey’s who understand the language and culture of the region.

Established in 2007, Radio Misty is a part of the PCM Group, one of the largest groups of eastern India.The group set up Radio Misty after obtaining licenses for Siliguri and Gangtok, as a subsidy company of PCM's in North Bengal. The motto of   the station is ‘Local People - Local Voice, Local Station - Local Choice’.