Where Radio Mirchi scores big is in Delhi. It came out on top with a spontaneous awareness level of 87 per cent. For Mumbai it was 64 per cent. Radio City has done better in Mumbai at 68 per cent but in Delhi it is 71 per cent. Red is way behind in third spot at 34 per cent for Delhi and 24 per cent for Mumbai. The share of the likes of BBC and Air is not much. Mirchi again scores in the top of the mind (Tom) awareness category at 53 per cent for Delhi. Radio City, however, does better in Mumbai with a Tom awareness of 41 per cent as opposed to Mirchi's 26 per cent. Radio City has also fared the best in Mumbai in terms of reach among all the SEC's, while Mirchi has boasted the same for Delhi.

As far as reach of the best 20 slots is concerned, Radio Mirchi is ahead at 19 per cent while City is at 15 per cent. Once again Red has been left in the lurch at with just three per cent.

Interestingly SEC C, D and E account for 50 per cent of all radio listenership. At the same time there is some good news for the public broadcaster Vividh Bharati. It managed 81 per cent awareness in Mumbai. In fact while 39 per cent said that they listened to radio out of that 34 per cent said that they listened to FM. The five per cent gap means that Mumbaikars are also tuning in to Vividh Bharati. That is not the case in Delhi where listening to radio basically means FM.

In addition, subscribers to ILT will also be able to map listening habits with other activities like watching films, holidaying, consumer durables owned and internet access.

While all this data is well and good it remains to be seen as to how advertisers and media planners react. As a representative of Radio City, who was present at this evenings MRUC meeting, pointed out the next challenge is to convince the ad fraternity of the veracity of the data just as they are convinced of Tam for television.