In July 2006 I was fortunate enough to spend some time in Mumbai, speaking about S&P at the first ever India Radio Forum. My companions for this 4-day trip were James Cridland and GCap’s Nick Piggott, both of whom are famously excellent speakers on all things digital… I recall sharing a Mumbai mini-cab with them where they were both getting exceptionally excited about some new-fangled transistor-sybase-enterprise-server-database-metastructure, and all I could think of saying was “Look, there’s an elephant”.
This was a pivotal time for radio in India. An unprecedented number of new broadcast licences were about to be distributed across the country, taking the number of radio stations from 42 to its current level of over 400 practically overnight (with many more still to come). What knocked me for six was the excitement in the eyes of everyone I met: UK conferences are often things that people just turn up to, or are sent to, but this was different… instead, here were delegates who had a thirst for information and were hungry to learn and share ideas.
Incidentally, we landed on the day of the Mumbai bombings. This was clearly a devastating event, yet the following day saw an immediate return to ‘business as usual’. The role for radio at this crucial time was interesting… there is (almost incredibly!) no news allowed on Indian radio, but what stations could do was provide a valuable public service: keeping listeners up to date with the impact of what had happened, bringing communities together, and calling on people to help each other by giving blood, food and shelter to those most affected. In a city with widespread poverty, radio’s ability to quickly reach its audiences was unquestionable.
Radio Mirchi has 32 stations across India, and has roughly 5 or 6 competitors in each region. During our stay James, Nick and I met with TIML’s Sharath Chandra who gave us a memorable tour of Mirchi and a steer on the business. Unsurprisingly, music is a hugely important part of radio in India, and is deep-rooted in the country’s culture and history. Unlike the UK though, where there are all manner of genres (rock, pop, jazz, classical, etc.), the choice in India is far narrower, making differentiation much more of a challenge. With 5 other competitors in each region, one might expect their audience share to be around 15-20%; yet Mirchi enjoys over 40% share wherever it has a presence.
Why might that be?
Don’t think of India as a country… think of it as a continent, a collection of different peoples, cultures and dialects. One of the most important decisions TIML made was to have an individual station strategy that served the needs of each region. Western funding and ownership of competing stations has seen an undue Western influence on radio station brands… Radio City, Red FM, Big FM, Radio One, and Fever are perfect examples. Only Mirchi (Hindi for ‘Chilli’) has a brand that stays true to the Indian people. Broadcasting to audiences in their own dialects has also been crucial. Whilst musical tastes are widely shared, the language is not – so, if people speak Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi or Kannada then they’ll probably want to hear their DJs (called RJ’s in India) broadcasting in Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi and Kannada too!
Our 2-hour visit to Radio Mirchi was fascinating, and I took a few photos. One of them was of an engraved plaque on the wall which publicly stated the business focus; our meeting with Sharath and his colleagues confirmed that this vision was a living breathing thing. There are numerous differences between the UK and Indian businesses, but I think there’s a lot that we share: a passion for radio, a love of working in entertainment, experience of working with powerful brands, and a belief that engaging listeners on a personal level is what brings in the money.
By the way, the beer was pretty good too. So, at 20p a bottle, I’d like to publicly pitch right now for an imminent return visit so I can have some high-level strategic ideas-sharing brainstorms with my S&P colleagues in Mumbai!
Chris Goldson
