MUMBAI: Fever's strategy of hiring fresh talent and sprucing up its programming appears to have paid off.

The station that lagged behind its competitors for over a year, has inched its way past them in Mumbai and Delhi for two weeks consecutively, ending 28 March.

Fever claims to have notched up a listenership share lead of three per cent over the No.2 station, Red FM in the prime advertising audience of 20 to 34 years, SEC A and B, in Mumbai 

Fever Delhi and Mumbai station head Neeraj Chaturvedi says, At both our stations, it is noticed that our programming is sticky and listeners are hooked on to our station for a longer time. Now that we have reached the top position, we would be focusing on good programming, music, and specific slots like mid morning show and midnight show.... Research among the listeners, fine tuning of its music product and  playing listeners preferences have helped the station discard its sluggish image and give it a leg up, says Chaturvedi.

Our inventory is full in Delhi, testimony to the fact that we are the number two station in Delhi. We have been number two for a long time but now we are occupying the position with a marginal gap and occupy about 16-17 per cent market share in Delhi,... he says.

While the station recently hired experienced RJs Anurag Pandey and Karan, the station will not be using them as the faces of the station.We ensure that our RJs deliver good content and have a distinct personality but will not promote them as face of the channel. We would promote the shows the RJs host rather than promoting the RJs,... says Chaturvedi. Fever has already started print campaigns for promoting the shows of two new RJs- Anuraag and RJ Karan Singh's show 'Rubaroo'.

Fever has introduced some new programming like Somnath Tiwari and Party, Bollywood Baba who gives his own unique take on new movie releases. We have worked on building great local connect via programming elements such as Aaj Ka Taaza Fever and Babu Kebab,... says Chaturvedi.

In the last six months, the station has also shifted from playing English music to playing popular Hindi music. We took the risk of changing the content and our channel went through a transition in a span of six months. We even play path breaking non-film popular music,... he says.

The station is currently airing a promotion, �Jawaani Zindabad' which is an effort to encourage young listeners to join the electoral process and encourage them to participate in the nation-building process. We are essentially a youth oriented station and want to create awareness among them to participate in the electoral process. Our initiative �Jawani Zindabad' has discussions from different corners of the city about the issues in the city and the solutions for the same....