Living Media's Red FM on air today, finally

"Red is in your Head", screams the advertisement of Red FM, the 24-hour FM radio channel from the Living Media stable. The much-awaited Red FM on 93.5 MHz is set for launch today. It hits the airwaves in Mumbai first (June 26, 2002) followed by Delhi and Kolkata. The Delhi and Kolkata radio stations should be operational by August 29, 2002. Apparently, Radio Today has spent close to Rs 17.87 crore as licence fee for the three centres of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata for the first year. An additional Rs 20 crore has been invested on infrastructure etc in these three cities. And in the second phase, Radio Today will be entering Delhi and Kolkata, where it would transmit from the Prasar Bharti towers in conjunction with the other players in the market.

Red FM will broadcast out of a 6 Bay antenna on a 135 metre tower situated in the heart of Mumbai. Special reflectors have been added to optimise the signal based on the geographical contours of Mumbai and its surrounding districts. In Delhi and Kolkata, the transmission facilities will be located on the AIR towers.

The launch of Red FM was delayed by nearly a month. The deadline for all private players for the launch in Mumbai was fixed for April 29, while in the metro cities of Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata, the private players had to start operations by August 29, 2002. However, the company states the subsequent launches in Delhi and Kolkata would happen as scheduled. Spelling out the reasons for the delay in the Mumbai launch, Nishchint Chawla, COO, Radio Today, said, "Taking clearances from the Government took time. And once that happened we started putting the infrastructure in place. That sort of took time."

But does the fact that Red enters the Mumbai market last, put it in some sort of a disadvantage? "Not at all," pat comes the reply, "…the process of evolution in the FM radio space is on. Moreover, this also gave us the opportunity to listen to what others are saying," he adds amusingly.

Described as a bright, energetic and passionate, Red FM is a radio station with attitude. The majority of its listeners will be in the age group of 18 to 35 depending on the type of programmes in the SEC A and B categories. Chawla promises Red FM is tuned to every need of its listeners. "The programming structure is focused and we would stay close to the listeners through the day." The programming mix would have non-stop music interspersed with Red FM's ‘crisp' and ‘entertaining' updates on traffic, weather, city-specific events and the latest buzz on everything current.

"Red FM may not be modest but it is certainly witty, reliable, friendly, warm, uncomplicated and honest. The ‘take aways' are plenty - everything that the station says and does is of relevance to its listeners," claims Chawla. © 2002 agencyfaqs!