Go 92.5 FM: Delivering Mumbai, as usual

When it comes to delivering Mumbai, Mid Day is clearly ahead in the race. It is difficult to look around in the city without seeing one or the other of the group's products - the tabloid Mid Day in the hands of one of the 10.5 million commuters in the city, an outdoor unit owned by the group, or the Mumbai policeman, with his pot belly, immortalised by countless Bollywood movies, peering down from a billboard advertising the group's portal www.chalomumbai.com. And all this when you could be standing under one of the group's 2,000 or more bus shelters. And the guy standing just next to you might be a Mid Day reporter.

In the increasingly sharpening battle for the airwaves in the city, it is this leverage that Radio Mid Day Ltd, that owns the group's foray into FM, Go 92.5 FM, is counting on. The station is planning to target the English-speaking, upscale audience in the city, with a mixture of unique and localised content. "One big area of leverage is content. The Mid Day content team is working with us, and we have synergy with them," says Rajesh Tahil, Go 92.5 FM's Mumbai station director and head of content.

That is heavy leverage, say observers. Over the 20 years of its existence, Mid Day's reporters have fanned across the city to report on anything from a local football match, to the latest accident in the metro. Right now, the station is focussing on sports, entertainment and business, with a heavy local flavour, to get an edge.

The main challenge, when it comes to local networks and local news, would be Radio Mirchi, from the heavyweight The Times of India group. However, Mid Day, with three editions in the day, has one copy read by 5.9 people as against 2.1 for The Times of India (according to an indiainfoline.com survey). It also has a very city-specific thrust, and the station hopes that its coverage of local matches, entertainment and sports will give it the edge. For example, in a recent promotion, listeners of Go 92.5 FM were informed about six different concerts that took place in different parts of the city. The greater reach and frequency of Mid Day challenges the TOI, despite its various supplements. The Times of India has been talking about launching an afternoon paper, but that has not seen the light of the day.

But Radio Mirchi is banking on its deep pockets, and ability to promote advertisers nationwide, having licenses for all the four metros. Radio Mirchi believes that when it comes to the clinch, the deep pockets of The Times Group and the brand name will smother the other stations. However, it is an advantage that Tahil is sceptical about. "It is an extremely insecure player that depends on others dying, so that they can win," he says.

Go 92.5 FM is localising its content in a big way. The station will have reviews of local plays and movies, breakfast shows that feature Bollywood stars, comments on the share prices, all passions that mirror this diverse and cosmopolitan city. "There is a difference between saying you are local and being local," says Tahil.

Certainly advertisers have been interested. About 40 per cent of the top 200 advertising spenders are located in Mumbai - Mid Day's main market. The paper has the second highest readership in Mumbai after The Times of India and its readership grew by 87 per cent between 1999 and 2000 (as indicated by IRS reports).

"However, at the end of the day, there is a limit to the coverage that you can give to any event. After all, not many may want to read the review in Mid Day and hear it on radio," says a senior media planner. It is a challenge that the station is confronting head on with different programming, according to the station brass. The station will differentiate content, with programmes on the radio, contributing a different angle rather than just repeating what is in the paper - for example, an interview of Isha Koppikar (who stars in the song Khallas in Ramgopal Varma-directed Bollywood movie Company), while she is featured in the paper.

The programming is also looking at a small and tight Mumbai focus. In this, the biggest challenge will be from small rival Win 94.6, from Millennium Broadcasting, backed by the Goa-based Salgoacar group, which is banking on local tastes and has gone in for a mixture of 50 per cent Hindi and 50 per cent western pop. Surprisingly, Go 92.5 FM has banked on a greater mix of English music, and a focus on a niche segment - English speaking, older car drivers - an audience that Win 94.6, with its different programming, is also targeting. The DJs are also older and more mature than the bratty pack that dominates Radio Mirchi. Tahil calls the programming of the other stations "a mish-mash, Bhelpuri kind of thing." To top it all, Mid Day also has considerable experience with the radio as a medium.

But in the end, the station is hanging on to the motto of the Mid Day Group - We Deliver Mumbai. The question is: Will that deliver victory in the battle for the city's airwaves? © 2002 agencyfaqs!