I was never enthralled with Radio after the advent of Television. It never interested me and after a point of time I thought the Radio industry is in its perils and new technologies such as Internet and 3-D Audio/Video devices have acted as Inflection points which will erase the memories of Radio in our mind. Even analysts believed that Radio had lost its sheen and it is impossible for it to emerge as an entertainment platform; according to them Radio could be used only in emergencies when no other communication platform was available. If this scenario would have continued we would have remembered Radio with Dinosaurs and would have experienced the technology only in Museums.
But boy, when you thought everything is over, marketers step in and say that “Picture toh abhi baaki hai mere dost J”. They analyzed the situation and found that Radio as a medium is still very attractive and entertaining. It is just under-served and its capabilities being under-estimated. They dug Radio out of the graves and proved to the world that if you could MARKET a product well then nothing can stop it from being popular. Suddenly people started demanding music systems with an in-built radio. Even cell manufacturers cashed on this by providing an add-on radio with the device. Out of the blue Radio stations emerged and Radio makes a comeback in the lifestyles of Indians.
Radio always had the reputation of being the oldest and the cheapest medium of entertainment in India. The radio industry has been completely reshaped by the various private players that entered the sector after the sale of radio spectrum by government to these private entities. And then we saw the emergence of different format of Radios - Satellite radio, HD radio, Internet radio… etc. Amplitude modulations (AM), Frequency modulation (FM) were present from a long time. This exactly shows that technology cannot lead to death of an Industry/Business; but the inability to use the medium can surely be disastrous. The theory goes like this: “If your Industry has greater number of un-served and under-served customers than your served population; then your Industry is in real danger.”
And “Whatte” comeback it has been. Suddenly the advertising revenues in Radio increased many folds; the listenership has gone in the northward direction. Many companies jumped into this category and are vouching to leverage the maximum out of it. Marketers proved again that MARKETING forms a very important element in any Industry/Organization and has the capability to make a turn-around vice versa.
Read through to get an Idea on Radio and Indian Radio Industry as whole:
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