The new Dhoom in Ranchi from Prabhat Khabar

Ranchi, the capital city of Jharkhand, has another FM radio station, Radio Dhoom (104.8 Mhz) from Neutral Publishing House (NPH), the publishers of the Hindi daily Prabhat Khabar, .

According to KK Goenka, group vice-president, NPH, Radio Dhoom targets the youth in the age group of 14-35.

The other FM stations in the city are Radio Mantra (from the Jagran Group), Big FM (Adlabs) and Radio Dhamaal (BAG Films). Speaking to afaqs!, Goenka says that the USP of the station will be “local content” .

He adds that the advantage of Radio Dhoom is that the station can source content from Prabhat Khabar. Giving an example, he says, “A morning programme called Salaam Ranchi highlights the achievements of people from Ranchi, such as a rickshaw puller's son making it through to IIT. Kya Cool Hain Hum focuses on the unfulfilled promises of the government. Yeh Hai Ranchi Meri Jaan is about the new developments in the city such as a new mall, fashion trends or the latest gadgets being used by the youth.”

Also, information on topics such as hotel tariffs, flight and train schedules and updates of available parking space will be used as fillers.

The station's tagline, Tension Nahi Lene Ka, was extensively used for the pre-launch campaigns on billboards, SMS and print (Prabhat Khabar). Snippets such as 'Naukri ka lafda? Bole toh tension nahin lene ka, Radio Dhoom sunne ka'; and 'Girl friend ka lafda, Saas ki khit-khit' were well accepted. “These one-liners have gone down well with the youth,” says Goenka.

Radio Dhoom will be launched soon in Jamshedpur. The two stations will be about 130 km apart. The audience profile for Jamshedpur will be different. Goenka adds, “Jamshedpur is more cosmopolitan, like Pune. It has discos and other happening places. Our strategy will be different there.”

However, Goenka refused to divulge further details. He says, “We still have about 30 days to go for the Jamshedpur launch, and we are doing a study about the programming content to be developed for the city.” Radio Dhoom will compete with Big FM and South Asia FM in Jamshedpur.

As for the advertisers' profile, Radio Dhoom will target the local retailers. According to Goenka, a 10 second ad-spot will cost Rs 350 on Radio Dhoom. “With just two stations, we can look at local advertisers. Meanwhile, Mantra and Big FM have a pan-India presence, hence they can get national advertisers. However, we can obviously have joint offers with Prabhat Khabar,” he said.