ARRIVES IN CHENNAI: Ms Lakshmi Sharath, Regional Head, South, BIG 92.7 FM, and Mr Tarun Katial, Chief Operating Officer, at the launch of the radio channel in Chennai on Wednesday. — Bijoy Ghosh
BIG 92.7 FM began its nation-wide roll out from here on Monday. Speaking to newspersons after the launch, the Chief Operating Officer, Mr Tarun Katial, said the station would be spending close to $1 million to promote the new channel in Delhi alone. "The programming will be different in each and every city where we are present. We will have a presence in all the six metros by the middle of October," Mr Katial added.
BIG 92.7 FM, the FM radio venture of Adlabs Films Ltd, backed by an investment of Rs 400 crore, will roll out 45 radio stations by March 2007, according to Mr Tarun Katial, its Chief Operating Officer.Speaking at the launch of BIG 92.7 FM in Chennai, Mr Katial said that the investment would go into transmission equipment, infrastructure and licensing. The company has launched the FM stations in Delhi and Hyderabad.
Next month, BIG 92.7 FM will be launched in Bangalore, Mumbai and Kolkata as well as in virgin markets such as Jammu, Srinagar and Aligarh. He said that 1,000 towns and 50,000 villages would be covered by the end of the financial year.
In the south, stations will be set up in Pondicherry, Tirupati, Thiruvananthapuram, Visakhapatnam, Mangalore and Mysore.
The company plans to take FM radio as a medium of entertainment to rural areas, which had not yet experienced it.
The company has undertaken a research of each of the markets and the programmes are tailored to region-specific tastes.
In Chennai, for instance, there would be a slot for Carnatic music as well as tie-ups with some concerts, Ms Lakshmi N. Sharath, Vice-President, South Operations, BIG 92.7 FM, said.
Key shows will be hosted by personalities such as Mona `Jassi' Singh and Gaurav `Nandu' Ghera in Delhi, Kaushik and Sheilajit in Kolkata, Uma Riaz Khan in Chennai and Jhansi in Hyderabad. Besides popular music and talk shows there will be weather and traffic updates.
BIG 92.7 FM has signed on film actor Asin as a brand ambassador for Tamil Nadu.
