Yakkity-yak radio

A new station that promises to talk more and play less music. But will the concept work?

At a time when most players are finding it difficult to find their feet in an already cluttered radio industry, Radio Today has gone ahead and ventured into this unknown territory.

Backed by the India Today Group, the group will soon be launching a radio station that promises to have more talk and less music. This would be the group's second coming in the market after it had sold off its stake to NDTV Media and Sun Group for its earlier channel, 93.5 Red FM.

The station, which will run on the frequency 104.8, has already started test runs in New Delhi. Says Anil Srivats, chief operating officer, Radio Today, "It is a relatively new concept and a bit risky at that. But we are confident that we would make inroads soon."

Srivats says that the target audience would be people who aren't cued too much into radio and have had enough of similar sounding stations.

The format has already proved successful in the West, where most stations have interactive talk shows with listeners coming in and talking about anything and everything under the sun.

Although 104.8 would have specific topic-related shows during the day, it promises to not restrict itself to limited topics. "Be it parenting, sports, movies or music, we would be holding interactive talk shows all day long." The music played on the station would be at least 50 per cent less than those of competing channels.

During the first test run, Srivats claims that he had 88 callers during the first four hours and the station played less than six songs.

But won't advertisers stay away as ad spots would be far and few during the talk sessions? Srivats disagrees. "In fact, we could have product placements during talk shows which no other radio station offers."

Radio Today would be spending a considerable amount of money on promoting the show and plans to get into Kolkata and Mumbai on the same format pretty soon. It would enter tier-II cities as well but is unlikely to stick to the more-talk-less-music format there.

As a media planner puts it, "It is a risky strategy that they are adopting. But it's a new concept and you never know how the listeners might react."

Srivats says that they are not looking for short term gains. "We are in the business for a long haul and know that results will follow soon." But to find out whether the concept will work, we'll just have to wait "" and listen!