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Faceless
Heroes
From AIR to
Radio Mirchi to
RED FM and now,
Fever FM - the
many faces
of Khurafati Nitin
Radio jockeys reign supreme as the ‘face’ of
the station. Does it also mean that they can
make or break the brand they present?
By Anushree Bhattacharyya and Devina Joshi
sushil kumar
Radio
have changed from the ’70s and ’80s when Ameen
Sayani was a superstar RJ (All India Radio called
them announcers) in his own right. “Today’s RJ
talks, shares and emotes. In the old days, announcers would talk or address a large number of people
- now it is more of one-to-one communication,”
says Sen of Mirchi. So, despite the fact that a team
is made up of the content writer, sales and marketing manager, the programming head, the station
head and the RJ, it is the last named who, stations
realised, has kept the audience interested.
Ten years ago, radio stations had a simple criterion for hiring RJs. They looked for people who
had mellifluous voices. The idea was to introduce
a voice on air that people would prefer listening
to - much like AIR went about its business.
A popular RJ of a Delhi-based radio station,
who has been in the business since 2001, recalls,
“Initially, everyone was looking for an ‘AIR-ish’
kind of voice - people who could talk in a soft,
sing-song manner without boring their listeners.”
Interviews went on for days, in some cases. Now,
however, the stations also look at whether the RJ’s
image matches the brand’s positioning.
Nitin recalls how his interview went on for
almost two-and-a-half days. “Back then, it was
not about getting a face to create an association
between listeners and stations. Rather, it was
about people who had the flair for the trade,”
he says. Today, a station like RED FM hires
someone like a Malishka to promote its
image of a Bindaas (without a care in the
world) outfit.
The larger footprint
hase II of the opening up of radio - in
2005 - allowed private FM players to
P
Malishka recalls that she was hired only after it
was ascertained that she matched RED FM’s values of not taking things at face value and to stand
up for what one believes in. “I had a run in with
a politician once (I was between jobs after leaving
94.6 FM), who had organised a rally outside my
home. RED FM hired me because of the way I had
handled that crisis and not given in,” she muses.
Fever FM has a popular RJ, Anuraag Pandey, in
Mumbai who hosts the show Picture Pandey. The
presenter is known for his ‘filmy-ness’ and that
USP is integrated with the station’s premise of ‘It’s
all about the music’.
Red FM is currently promoting RJs Swati and
Peeyuush in Delhi. Mirchi has the duo Anant and
Saurabh in the morning and Naved and Sayema in
the evening and late night respectively, in Delhi.
Big 92.7 FM has Aparshakti as its popular radio
jockey in Delhi. Radio City has Simran in the
morning and Aadi and Khurki in the evening.
The listener connects to a radio jockey first
and then the station. Elaborates Riya Mukherjee,
senior vice president, creative services and CSR,
Radio Mirchi, “RJs drive the station.” Nitin is
of the opinion that an RJ lends character to the
station’s brand recall, since almost 80 per cent
of the content is music - something that is com-
When an RJ moves
station, there is a chance
that the listener too
might – at least during
that particular time band.
Anant and Saurabh of Radio Mirchi say that
RJs are not irreplaceable. “In fact, there have been
cases when a successful RJ went on a break of four
months and her replacement turned out to be more
successful. In such scenario, either the old jockey is
given a new time band or a partnership is created,”
they say. Satyajit Sen, CEO, ZenithOptimedia,
feels that since content is pretty much dominated
by music, RJs play an important role in bringing
that X-factor to the station. “But the RJ’s job is to
bring the positioning alive and not work towards
creating his own identity,” he says.
Kartik Kalla, national programming director,
Radio City, too seems unperturbed. “Yes, it is true
that the listenership witnesses a drop. But that is
temporary and after a couple of days the station
gets back its loyal listeners for that time band.
However, in all this, one cannot ignore the fact
that moving from one radio station to another is a
loss for the RJ as well - he or she loses loyal listeners who were created at the old place.”
The flip side - for the RJ - is that while a station
succeeds in replacing its old RJ with a new voice
and personality, the old RJ may fail to recreate the
same magic he or she did at the old place. After all,
this is not TV. When Arnab Goswami moved from
NDTV to Times Now, ratings for the latter shot
up. “He is now the face of that channel. He is
known to have strong views, and that is what his
loyal viewers look for,” says Anita Nayyar, CEO,
MPG (India and South Asia).
Rajdeep Sardesai, who moved from NDTV
to CNN-IBN, is another example. “The point
is,’ explains Nayyar, “that when content is parity - such as on news channels or in radio, where
it is essentially the same kind of music - the host
makes a huge difference in how she or he presushil kumar
Old radio industry saying: good RJs should be
heard, not seen.
New radio industry saying: show off your RJs in
all their glory.
T
he men and women behind the microphone at radio stations are no longer
just bringing the station closer to its
listeners, but are flirting with fame just
like any celebrity. The stations too, having understood the influence that their radio jockeys (RJs)
have on those who tune in, are increasingly promoting their RJs in the communication process.
Today’s RJ knows his worth and carries his on-air
persona around even after switching channels.
When former All India Radio (AIR)
announcer, Jonathan Philemon Nitin
Brady - famously known as Nitin
- switched to RED FM after four-and-ahalf years at Radio Mirchi, he was known
as Ulta-Pulta Nitin. At RED FM, he styled
himself as Khurafati (mischievous) Nitin.
Interestingly, the channel took his flamboyant character and coupled it with its own
positioning. About four months ago, Nitin
joined Fever 104 FM. But he continues to
call himself Khurafati Nitin, a characterisation that
seems to be working, although it was built at his
old station.
The RJ is the newest celebrity in town. And
is paid like a celeb too. The top RJs could rake in
salaries as high as `1 crore per annum. Those who
io Mirchi
Anant and Saurabh, Rad
Malishka,
The listener connects
to the RJ and then the
station. But there is a lot
of hard work involved in
the making of an RJ.
are a rung or two below get paid in the region
of `70-80 lakh per annum. Regular RJs draw anything between `5 and `12 lakh per annum. “In
some cases,” says Tapas Sen, chief programming
officer, Radio Mirchi, “extremely popular radio
jockeys are paid more than the chief executive
officer of the station.” So does that make the radio
RED FM
04 FM
dey, Fever 1
Anuraag Pan
jockey an asset a station cannot do without?
Tough talk
t is not all sweet talk that makes an RJ. There is
a lot of hard work involved to get there. An RJ
usually comes in to work two to three hours prior
to the show in order to prepare for it. Normally,
RJs are in charge of bands that go on for three or
four hours. Even after the show, she stays back for
couple of hours once again preparing for the next
day, organising interviews and chats. “For example, if there is a movie promotion, we might play
all the popular songs of the movie stars coming in
and work on a script that is built around the film,”
says one.
The role of the RJ has evolved over time. Things
I
Aadi and Khurki, Ra
dio City
expand their footprint across the country. They
also worked towards creating brands with a distinct positioning. So while a RED FM went for
a line that said, Bajaate Raho, the Anil Ambanipromoted Big 92.7 FM adopted Suno sunao life
banao and Mirchi called itself a ‘Sunshine’ channel.
With the positioning in place, the next task was
promoting itself with a marketing blitzkrieg. And
who else is a better choice than the RJ?
In 2006, in what was a rare case then, RED
FM launched a campaign - featuring RJ Malishka
- by installing a giant hoarding featuring a sultry
fisherwoman with a line that said, ‘Akhaa Mumbai
ko nachaaoongi’, around the Bajaate Raho premise.
RED FM had just switched from taglines such as
Asli Masti and ‘Red in your head’.
Aparshakti, Big 92.7 FM
Swati, RED FM
mon across all stations. When all the stations play
music, it is the RJ who is the differentiator. So
when a RJ moves station, there is a chance that the
listener too might – at least during that particular
time band.
According to industry observers, the listener is
loyal to the brand and the RJ is just one part of the
brand. A station can successfully replace an old RJ
with a new and yet maintain its listenership base.
Says Ashish Pherwani, associate director, media
and entertainment, Ernst and Young, “When a
radio station promotes an RJ, it is actually promoting its brand. The station keeps a tap on the
performance of the RJ through various research
and studies and makes sure that the RJ does not
take over the brand.”
Peeyuush, RED FM
sents it. The same probably wouldn’t hold true
in the case of music reality shows on television,
as there is a significant differentiation brought in
the content of each show. An anchor moving from
one music show to another probably wouldn’t
result in a huge difference in viewers on the basis
of his move alone.”
Out of the box
oday, radio is not just an audio medium.
Digital platforms, print media and outdoor
media figure extensively in a radio station’s marketing plan. Social media has become a huge
platform for radio stations to give a face to the
name and for a station to decide how to market
itself.
T
Twitter feeds, Facebook pages and
contests and YouTube videos of RJs
are leveraged to make a station - and
its loved voices - even more popular. But the danger here is viewer
fatigue. So stations tend to avoid
repetition. On-ground media that
are used by radio stations, with
RJs at the helm, include stage
shows, college festivals or
musical shows where the
RJ is assigned to entertain,
bearing in mind the radio
station’s positioning and
branding.
A key example of
digital media being leveraged by a radio brand
is that of Radio Mirchi,
which launched Mirchi
Mobile in partnership with
Bharti Airtel in 2010. It now
includes Vodafone, Idea,
Reliance, Docomo, BSNL
and MTS now. The station
went regional with Mirchi Bhojpuri,
created for the Bhojpuri-speaking
audiences in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar
and migrants from these states.
Through Mirchi Mobile (a
VAS initiative), people could
stay in touch with their cities even as they migrate to
other cities by dialling a
particular number. They
can listen to entertainment in their
mother
tongue, or
even get a
flavour
of
bigger cities that
they aspire for.
The final word
s in television, it is difficult
to pry viewers away from a
channel altogether on the back on
one property. Says media planner Punitha Arumugam, Group
CEO, Madison Media, “RJs are
an expression of the station’s personality.” Comparing radio to TV
in that sense, Arumugam feels
that perhaps Kaun Banega Crorepati
(KBC) is the only exception to
the rule. “RJs, in isolation, can’t
make or break stations,” she says.
It may be difficult to track listener migration but media planners
have yet to spot advertisers who
moved because an RJ has.
An RJ is the differentiating fac-
A
Twitter feeds, Facebook pages,
contests and YouTube videos
make RJs even more popular.
tor that helps make a station stand
out from a listener’s perspective.
“But when RJs become bigger than
the radio brand it is detrimental for that station,” muses Rajni
Menon, associate vice-president,
Carat Media.
In most cases, only a handful of
listeners will be able to tell which
station a particular RJ belongs to.
Nayyar of MPG feels that if an
RJ is strong, listeners will follow.
“When Nitin moved to Fever FM,”
she says, “the latter launched a
campaign on the lines of ‘Where
is Nitin?’ which generated curiosity about his whereabouts,” she
declares.
Radio stations are quite happy
about making a song and dance
about their RJs. As of now, it is the
person with the microphone who is
calling the shots. n
anushree.bhattacharyya@afaqs.com
afaqs! Reporter, January 1-15, 2 0 1 2
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