MUMBAI: Big FM appears to be in for a major overhaul. After changing its positioning in Mumbai and Delhi to �Chillax hits', the station has gone and revamped its website www.big927fm.com and plans to actively use it as a promotional tool.

The radio station spent over Rs 1.5 million in the first phase for creating the website. Says Big FM Senior Vice President – Marketing Anand Chakravarthy, We spent around Rs 3.5 million in developing the website, right from redesigning and further promoting it. We have been adding innovative elements to the website with a focus being on music related properties. The website is in sync with our strategy of music positioning and it would focus on music elements like music reviews, music ratings, lyrics of songs, music related news etc....

Adding elements to the website, Big FM plans to host special contests on air and get the listeners on to the web space. We want to build in as much music as we can over the website and are probing opportunities of top 100 songs a week and attracting listeners with ratings and lyrics. We would also be talking to music labels for playing music over the web and the idea eventually is to have live radio when the legalities permit....

Big FM believes that a lot of its target audience does spend time on the internet, hence making sense for the station to push their message online.

Chakravarthy is elated that Big FM would soon be completing three years of existence. It has been a tiring and fruitful journey with creating a brand and establishing 45 stations in India and one station abroad as the plan was to create the largest network in the country....

Radio is a scale game and attracts more advertisers on board with larger footprints, opines Chakravarthy. Any advertiser will choose a media network with larger number of stations. In the phase 1, advertisers didn't consider radio as a key medium because of its limited reach. With larger networks like us, advertisers see an opportunity to touch many markets in the country and are looking at it as a key medium of advertising....

Sounding optimistic about the improving advertising spends on radio post global slowdown he says, The sentiment in the industry has become positive and it would translate into money in a couple of weeks. We are seeing signs of market returning to normalcy and volumes coming back to the industry. Today telecom operators, FMCG, financial brands, retail brands- national and local independent retailers are the key spenders and as metro stations grow bigger, the industry would see more advertisers pumping money in the medium....

Occupying an undisputed position in Banglore according to RAM ratings, Big FM would be refining its music positioning in Bangalore and Kolkata station shortly. The Kolkata station has been emerging as a winner in SEC AB for few weeks and is focusing on strengthening that position.

Chakravarthy is thrilled about the big properties lined up in the coming months. Big FM has a Bollywood game show to hit the airwaves shortly and an exciting activity planned for Diwali. Post Diwali, a huge property called â€?TV week' will be launched as November 24 is World TV week. Explains Chakravarthy, Television is a huge medium  and it is a best opportunity to get the TV viewers on air. During the â€?TV week', we would get artists from teleserials on air who would host shows, play music, interact with listeners, travel to different cities to meet listeners etc. We haven't closed on any television channel as it would be interesting to get as many channels as it is â€?Television week'....

Television channel promotions as a medium are one of the main advertisers on radio, so converging radio with television gives ample revenue opportunities. Also having TV stars on air provides a glamour quotient to the station

In December, Big FM would be celebrating the best music of the last decade as it is the tenth year of the millennium.

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