Meow walks the talk shows

With advertisers like Maruti, LG, Samsung and Hindustan Unilever, India's first radio station for "women only" expects to break even soon.

Anil Srivatsa, 40, can lay claim to an unusual distinction. Every Wednesday and Thursday, between 10 in the night and one in the morning, he has the largest number of women saying that they have fallen in love with his voice.

That is when his programme, Between the Sheets, is on air at Meow FM, owned by Radio Today of the India Today group.

The women call in to discuss issues ranging from what they stare at and when they stare at a man to what is the right age to tell a child the difference between the good touch and the bad touch. Men call in, too, and listen in as well. Meow, which calls itself the country's first just-for-women radio station, says 40 per cent of its listeners are male.

When the talk-show host's headphones are off, Srivatsa wears another hat, that of Meow's chief operating officer. And that is perhaps the bigger challenge.

Radio stations all over the world are music-led, but in mature markets like the US, talk-shows on marriage, divorce and health have devout following.

Such shows are catching on in India; there are at least 10 of them on air. However, they are one of the many shows that come on air "" the parent station remains steadfast within the general entertainment genre, mostly music-based.

Meow, on the other hand, is etching out a different identity. Only 30 per cent of its programming is music-based and the rest talk. In a way, that helps, since broadcasting music costs money in the form of royalty payments.

So, how has Srivatsa done so far? "Among the three metros (Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, where Meow is on air), we get over 1,500 callers each day," he says. "We stand out because we have a talk-based format. It is early days, but the Meow movement, as I call it, is catching on."

Srivatsa has worked in both radio and television overseas. Last year, in India, he presented the Meow idea to Aroon Purie, the promoter of the India Today group, who liked it.

The next step is to take the station to Amritsar, Shimla, Patiala and Jodhpur. Will the name Meow strike a chord outside the metros? "We are yet to take a call on that. The content of Meow stations in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata is for mature listeners. We may develop a different brand name for the other four stations," says Srivatsa.

But geography and listenership is one thing, advertising quite another. And most of it seems to gravitate towards music-based shows.

"Our content is only about 30 per cent music. So our costs are low. We may have a ninth of the Delhi market (there are nine private FM stations in Delhi), but we have 100 per cent of the women market."

Are advertisers responding? "We have Maruti, LG, Samsung, Hindustan Unilever, among others, advertising on us. Breaking the media planner's mindset is also high on our agenda. It is tough, but I take it up personally with media agencies to understand what more we can deliver within our format."

So, when is the break-even expected? "We should reach operational break-even within the next two years, or even before, I hope."

Understandably, Srivatsa does not fret much over the one issue that ails other FM radio operators: the government's refusal to let them broadcast news and current affairs. "If it is allowed, great! If not, I have no problems. For me, the most important issue facing the FM radio industry is the dearth of quality radio professionals. I can challenge the best radio jockeys in the industry to come on Meow and speak for one hour. I bet most will fail."