MUMBAI: Six of 12 new stations from the Big 92.7 FM stable due to make their launch in the coming one month will be in the south.Its stations at Hyderabad and Chennai completed a year of operations on 25 September and 27 September respectively and the Bangalore station will turn one next week. Hyderabad Station celebrating its first anniversary

Big`s Mysore station launch tops the priority list in the south for the company. Due to launch on 21 October, Big plans to start with a live broadcast from the Mysore castle, coinciding with Dussehra, a prominent festival in Karnataka.

Says Big`s regional director, south, Sabitha Kath, "We have plans to launch the upcoming stations in the south with a bang. After Mysore, we will be launching in Mangalore, Pondicherry and three other locations in the south."

The battle in the metros - Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad, continues for the numeo uno position. "Research has proved that out of Chennai`s population of six million out of which 3.7 million listen to radio. That accounts for 70 per cent of the total population. Our research proves that out of these, 8,50,000 are Big FM listeners," says Chennai station head PB Ramaswamy.

PB Ramaswamy

"Hyderabad was not aware of the power of FM radio. Conventionally, radio was just restricted to jocks being in the studios and conversing with listeners over phone-ins. But we have now sent jocks on the street so that we can mirror the image of the city. Listeners can talk about the plight of the city, discuss issues and voice their opinions. We at Big 92.7 FM want to mirror the city on air," says Hyderabad station head Ashwin Padmanabhan.

Big has been the first of the league of radio stations to have a brand ambassador and has introduced the transparent `Aqua` rate card. Ramaswamy adds, "This has really been appreciated by all our clients as radio is slowly becoming a cluttered market and there are too many negotiations for spot sales on radio. The introduction of `Aqua` has made life easy for us as well as clients."

On air talent is an issue that all stations across the country have been grappling with, and Big has solved the problem partially by roping in big names like RJ Dheena.

Says Kath, "We are surely welcoming new talent. We need RJs with good connect quotient with the listeners."

The stress throughout the stations in the south has also been on local content. "Chennai is a very local city. Our station survives on hundred per cent Tamil music. A station is defined by the kind of music the channel plays. Bangalore on the other hand, can afford to play different music. Metros have an audience for western and Bollywood music, but we are restricted to regional," comments Ramaswamy.