With the festive season in full swing, it’s time for both brands and media organisations to step on the gas, all in the effort to reach out to the consumer who is looking to loosen his purse-strings in this season. In conversation with Anam Khan, Rahul Namjoshi , Business Head, MY FM (part of the DainikBhaskar Group) tells us about the Radio Network’s plans for this festive season. He also discussed about MYFM’s journey over the years and the overall growth since the launch of 13 stations post the Phase III auctions. Excerpts MYFM launched 13 stations one and a half year ago across Maharashtra. How has this addition helped growth? Let’s talk about this in two stages. The Maharashtra launch what we did one and a half years ago was very different way and we had to put in a lot more effort than any normal launch. Though we launched approximately 18 months back, we were active there in that market six months prior to the launch. The idea was to understand the market and find a niche. Though the existing Radio stations were doing fine, our aim was to get to know what the listener expects from a FM station and then serve our offering as per their needs.  For that we did lot of on-ground activities and reached more than 10,000 households in each city. Our on-ground team conducted a survey and went around speaking to the consumer with a questionnaire. The questions we asked included, ‘What actually does listeners wants to listen from the radio?  What are their expectations from radio in terms of various parameters- Music and Language?.’ This helped us gain insights. We followed the footprints of our parent company DainikBhaskar and it’s tagline ‘AapkiMarziKaAkhbar’, retaining the essence our tagline for MY FMwas ‘AapkiMarziKa Radio Station’.  We also carried forward the learning wehad from our previous 17 stations. The idea behind our radio station was to design the radio station according to the city andthe choices made by the listener. If we talk about revenue, we have garnered more than 50% of the market share in those markets from day 1. How have targeting particular markets in specific benefitted the general revenue of MYFM? Also, do you plan to expand the station to likewise areas in near future? Targeting specific markets are contributing approximately 10%-12% to our overall revenue which is growing and now it is around 15%. We have been following Bhaskar’s footsteps, so we will be expanding our network and will concentrate on adding new stations in the States where our parent company is present. We are in seven States. With the upcoming Phase III auction (Batch 3), round the corner, we will be looking to acquire more stations in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. What are your preparations for this festival season? We are getting lot of business but we are trying to make it different this time. Let’s start with the limitation of radio industry which is ‘Inventory Crunch’. We have limited minutes which is 60 minutes and we can’t stretch that to 80 minutes. So we have to operate within that limited space. So getting a right advertiser with a right planning is a key and that’s what we are looking at this festival season. We are proposing new ideas to the retail players, many of whom don’t have planners. Partnering with them, we work as a planner and educate them on how radio can amplify their business. We are not selling MYFM, but we are selling radio as a medium.  We also suggest to them what kind of audio strategy they should have which will help create an impact on their business. Festival season is the time when everybody wants footfall in their shop, so the creativity is very different and we are suggesting what kind of frequency, time band they should use for advertising. Our creative production unit helps clients with their creative solutions andwe have linked all our 30 stations with each other. We are also doing lot of ground activities for our clients. We are not just giving the right radio solution but also the right on-ground solution to our clients. Al of this is also weaved into the RJ content very smartly, so we have tried to give a 360-degree solution.