There should be no gaps between what the radio industry wants and what the government decides, says Rahul Namjoshi, CEO of MYFM. He spoke to e4m on investing heavily in manpower training and hiring.

Excerpts:

MY FM has stations in more than six states of north and west India. Do you have any plans to expand the market in the south? 

We want to stay focused on our core strength which is North & West. We are not well versed with the markets across South India in terms of demography and languages, so we are reluctant to invest in the South. However, we will keep expanding our markets across north and west India depending upon what kind of base price the government decides. 

How is the financial year looking for you, any early trends?

The beauty of our business is that we don’t wait for business to come and we rather work on creating a business and that creation is almost 25% to 30% of our revenue. Our primary markets are tier II & III markets, which is where the growth lies for India. Today almost all categories are focusing on these markets. Moreover, we are not in the race of getting the highest volume but look for the value. We are quite confident that this will be the best year for us.

The central government is planning for FM broadcast auctions. What are your expectations? 

We are yet to receive any notification on this from the government. However, there must be no gaps between what the radio industry wants and what the government decides. We recently had a good meeting with the government and shared our expectations with them to boost the growth of private FM in the country. The radio industry will be in Tango Congo for phase three, the batch three auctions are subject to the right benchmark pricing. Last year phase three batches did not catch much traction just because the base pricing was very high. Moreover, the radio business is a shoestring business so we monitor our expenses to remain a profitable business. 

We have seen a few stations rationalising cost, how are you looking at it? 

We are an eternal optimist brand and very bullish about this financial year, we have major plans for the upcoming year. We can divulge details right now but soon you’ll witness a series of launches and announcements of new shows. In terms of investments besides investing in human resources, we will invest in technology to perform efficiently and effectively. 

As per TAM reports, radio ad volume went up during covid and post covid. How’s the advertising business going and which brands are investing in MYFM in the following year?

Besides FMCG, education, Real Estate, and Healthcare category, jewellery brands are performing extremely well in the regional markets. Moreover, national brands are gradually shifting towards the regional market as the expected ROI is higher and to give higher competition to local brands the national brands are investing heavily in hyper local mediums like radio.

What challenges is radio as a medium facing currently?

Radio broadcasters should be allowed to broadcast news, most of the private FM channels are owned by reputed news media groups and we should be allowed to pick up news and deliver it in our style rather than picking it up from Prasar Bharati. News on the radio will be a game changer. 

There is a recent advisory by the GOI on inbuilt FM Radio receiver features in mobile phones. How do you look at it?

This is a great development and will give a huge boost to radio listenership. We are thankful to the government to give this advisory and we are hopeful all mobile manufacturers will build FM tuners in all mobile handsets in benefit to end customers.