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Cricket, says COO Sumantro Dutta, will be the next phase of non
music programming that Radio City is looking to capitalize on before
the World Cup early next year. The channel though, will not be content
with broadcasting scores and analyses but will develop novel shows
that will pull in the cricket lovers, says Dutta. As of now, SALB,
that will shoot hourly questions at listeners every day, is targeted
at the SEC A,B,C males and females in the 15 to 44 age group.
The USP of the show is Amitabh Bachchan, who will ask the 10 questions
daily and result in one lakhpati per day. The Radio City strategy
is a calculated one. The channel aims to break the clutter of the
five private stations that clog Mumbai's airwaves, induce large
number of trials as well as increase brand content on the channel.
The strategy has an uncanny resemblance to the evolution of Star
Plus over the years. Radio City has switched to Hindi as its primary
language, is now banking on a KBC inspired show and plans
to use soaps to pull in the viewers.
"Listeners are still confused about stations and the frequencies
attached to them," admits Dutta. The appointment listening that
SALB intends to promote will also help establish an identity
link for Radio City. A massive sales force too has been deployed
in the field to enlighten retailers about radio as an advertising
medium, says Dutta, "so that radio is no longer perceived as a secondary
medium."
 The
first run of SALB will be for six weeks, depending on the
success of which, the show will be taken to other cities where Radio
City has a presence. Radio City is set to debut in Delhi at the
end of February or the first week of March along with other private
players in the fray, as all private stations will be co-located
on AIR towers in the capital.
Radio City Mumbai currently claims a listener base of 2 million.
Dutta says that an estimated 9,000 to 10,000 listeners respond to
the current phone in shows on the station and expects the figure
to shoot up by 20 times that number once SALB starts. The
station has gone progressively Hindi in the last couple of months
and currently has an average of 70 brands advertising on the channel.
Radio City also will be employing NFO-MBL to track the success of
SALB along with its in house team.
Click here to know how Radio
City 91 FM Suno Aurr Lakhpati Bano works
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The
private radio station from the Star Network stable has decided to
go non-music with a vengeance. While the first step in this direction
is Radio City 91 FM Suno Aurr Lakhpati Bano, an aural version
of KBC that kicks off on the station on 7 October, radio versions
of Star's hit soaps like Kyunki' and Kahaani.' are likely
the next step towards inducing the fickle listener into more trials
of Radio City as well as giving the advertiser quality content to
advertise on. 
