MUMBAI: Radio Mirchi's Mumbai station, that completes seven years today, has a slew of plans up its sleeve for the year ahead.

Currently, it is conducting a unique �Book Deke Dekho' campaign where listeners are being encouraged to contribute books for underprivileged children.

In conjunction with Crossword and an NGO- Doorstep, Radio Mirchi is appealing to Mumbaikars to donate story books which would be handed over to the children residing in slums. The RJs of Radio Mirchi will initiate the book donation drive, wherein they will go to various book collection centers to encourage listeners to donate books.

Says Mirchi's RJ Jeeturaaj says, The response has been phenomenal, we have listeners coming to the studio and donating books. It is our social responsibility as a radio station and we are creating awareness among Mumbaikars to work for the underprivileged.... The RJ has also been spreading the word through his blog on Radio Mirchi's website and social networking site Facebook.

Radio Mirchi Mumbai station director Sriram Kilambi adds, �Book Deke Dekho' campaign is our way of giving back to the community. The basic need for any individual is to be educated and we are promoting this thought process among the Mumbaikars to help the underprivileged....

Talking about the seven year journey, Kilambi, who has just taken over as station head, says, Mumbai is the most challenging of metropolises and there was a pressure on us when the listenership methodology changed from ILT (Indian Listenership Track) to RAM (Radio Audience Measurement).... RAM was launched in Mumbai on September 2007.

According to RAM data, Mirchi occupied the number one position for the week- 29 March to 4 April  Kilambi attributes this achievement to the huge amount of music research carried out by the Mumbai station. We changed the programming and sound of the station after three months of research. Before adapting a model, we tested small modules and then rolled it out in phases....

Last year, the station flagged off a huge promotion activity with hoardings all across the city featuring their morning jock- Jeeturaaj. Explains Kilambi, The campaign helped us build brand recall among the listeners. It was a high decibel campaign and it helped us retain the existing listeners and tap virgin ones as well.... Following the success last year, the station might plan similar campaigns this year as well.

Radio Mirchi had this year launched �Dheemi Local', an afternoon show hosted by RJs Sana and Neha and it has garnered loyal listeners to the station. Dheemi local, Purani Jeans hosted by RJ Anmol playing selected hits from the Golden Era and the morning show gains our highest TSL and we would be pushing these shows further by tweaking the programming and music....

Radio Mirchi had many innovative campaigns last year but Kilambi insists that �Mirchi Faltu League' and the latest �Mirchi Music Awards' were the best of the lot. Initiatives like these help us build a stature and represent what radio stands for. Mirchi Music Awards was an attempt to recognise the contributions of the music fraternity....

Radio Mirchi has strengthened its presence over the web by its interactive website, www.radiomirchi.com by live chats and blogs by the RJs. Internet has become an integral part of today's life and its impossible to ignore it. Using this fact to our advantage, we introduced some features on our website and it worked positively for us. The next step being a radio station would be adding music elements to our website....

RJ Jeeturaaj, the face of the station has been using this space aggressively to campaign about the forthcoming elections by scribbling blogs and diverting the listeners to respond online. Creating awareness and appealing the listeners to vote in the forthcoming general election, Mirchi launched �Dot hai to Hot hai' campaign. The station also partnered with I-vote, a Rotract initiative, to set up a registration desk at the studio for listeners to register.

Information on various aspects of voting has been uploaded on Mirchi's website. These include different constituencies in every area, Election Registrar Office addresses, what documents to carry, information of various NGOs which are carrying details on the election campaigning and much more.

The focus of the coming year would be introducing more contests and fun elements during the drive time shows which get good listenership, and upgrade the content based research.