Bob Cohen, President, International Radio, Clear Channel

I think, sooner or later, there will be a push to have more than one frequency available to you in a single market just to diversify the choice. The idea of foreign ownership may evolve someday into higher percentage. The idea of news and current affairs and public information being available on commercial FM radio may pave some sort of evolution as you go along.

Bob Cohen is President of International Radio for Clear Channel, a division with more than 240 radio stations or sales operations in Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico. He has been serving in this role since September 2001. Prior to that, he was the Market Manager for Clear Channel's seven stations in San Antonio, Texas. Cohen has been with Clear Channel since 1986, when he served as an account executive for the original Clear Channel station KAJA-FM or KJ-97.

Cohen's broadcasting career began in the late 1970s in Dallas and was combined with other sports marketing responsibilities, including stints in the National Basketball Association with the Kansas City Kings and the Dallas Mavericks in the early 80s. That led to his return to full time radio with WBAP-AM in Dallas/Fort Worth followed by a two-year project in the magazine publishing world before joining Clear Channel in San Antonio.

In a freewheeling conversation with exchange4media's Asit Ranjan Mishra, Cohen speaks in detail about his impressions about the radio industry in India, the challenges and his interactions with the various radio players here.

Q. So, what's the idea you got after meeting so many people here?

Indian radio has an interesting and bright future ahead. There have been a lot of changes from Phase I to Phase II, there is a Phase III somewhere in the future, we all know that. I have been very impressed by the passion of the broadcasters here. I am impressed by the attitude of the government and regulatory bodies about how things are going on here. They seem to be open to new ideas and taking the industry forward. It is difficult to find anywhere else in the world in history when so many products have come up on air at one time. I think it is safe to say that it will bring its own challenges. The industry in a sense is in its birth period. There will be a chance to see how things go. I think people will learn along the way as to what works and what does not work. That has to happen, there has to be learning as you go along.

No, I cannot name them. But it will suffice to say that I feel much more informed about the state of this industry and everyone's vision of the future.

We have not sold them. But we intend to do so. We have announced a strategic merger with two companies in the US to essentially to take the company to a different direction, essentially to go private. We have also announced selling our 48 television stations in the US. But beyond that, I cannot comment on it as I am not in charge of that responsibility.

It's too early to talk about that. Are we interested in this market? Yes, we have a keen interest what is going on here. This visit of mine is a first step towards familiarising myself and the company with the emerging radio market here.

I am not familiar with how WorldSpace is doing in the Indian scenario. You might be knowing that there are two satellite radio stations in the US, which together have a listenership of 12 million subscribers.

That's right. Each of them has about 160 channels or so. To me, satellite radio is like the Internet, mobile phones and many channels on television. You can hold back technology, but people will invent ways to deliver information and entertainment. Everyday, new technology is being introduced. We only have 24 hours a day and you must be able to be among the listener's choices, that's the idea. We have at our end embraced the Internet as a way to extend the brands of our radio stations. Our Internet sites are among the most popular in the world. We have millions of unique listeners of our radio station websites. It's the brand that drives them to our website. Do we see it as a competition with ourselves? No. We see it as a brand extension of ourselves because we can't ignore the fact that there are other ways of receiving information. The completion is for people's time.

That's really an important question. I think at the end of the day what distinguishes radio stations is relevant. You have to serve the local community in a unique way. You have to entertain and inform your listening audience. You have to move your customer business services. And I think innovation, creativity and what I call 'stationality' is what distinguishes one station from another. But it will be difficult to establish that identity and that will be the biggest challenge and only the best players will survive. It's not only about how much you market yourself to the outside world or how many advertisements you do on local television station or on newspaper, it's also about establishing an identity and really pushing that brand.

One of the things that the foreign broadcasters have done in the markets where they have been allowed is to bring some best practices that they have learnt from around the world in order to help establish those differences. There are many ideas from different parts of the world that can be fitted into local markets or can be embellished which are effective.

I think they should be commended for moving to Phase II, which was a very progressive move. Rightly so, they are cautious about the future because they have taken a bold step and they want to see how it goes. My impression was that everyone was very progressive about what things could be like in the future.

It's certainly a hurdle that one must overcome. As I said earlier, perhaps some day they will look at opening it up. Perhaps it does not make sense to have this restriction if you don't allow news and current affairs on FM and one is playing only entertainment content. I think this is the policy on television and magazines in India.

Yes, perhaps there will be a move to that model. Maybe in future they will only control FM radio stations carrying news and current affairs with the 20 per cent foreign investment limit. But again that should be an evolution. But certainly the present limit is a hurdle.

However, one also needs to look at other things. I see a consumer economy growing here. There are small, medium and large size businesses here that will benefit from a healthy broadcasting environment where they can market their business services, and that will happen.

I hope so. It is a fascinating country to visit for anybody who knows it, who has read about it. I hope this is my first of several trips to India. I think it is an amazing story that is developing.

Well, I could not say from my brief knowledge that it is inevitable. But my impression is that as time goes by, the government will figure out how to monitor radio stations in different parts of the country. They (the government) may slowly remove some restrictions once they see that it could also serve their purpose of informing and communicating with local listening audience. It is difficult for me as an outsider to figure out how it will go, but my impression is that they will work with the industry, listen to them and work together to take it forward.

Time pressures never force any business decision for anybody in the world. Our criteria for partnership is that there has to be a compelling opportunity out there. We don't want time to pressurise us into taking a decision. It's all about business opportunity, right partnership and the potential to be a successful player. It's a collaborative effort. But we don't come in and drop a formula and say ‘this is the way to do it and see you in six months'. We work together and add value. We have been very successful in creating new ways of doing business. We come in with a mixture.

We look for passion, we look for willingness to embrace change, willingness to be patient with the foreign partner. Even in foreign markets where we are allowed to own 100 per cent of a radio station, we have chosen not to. I think that is an important point because it is our belief that for us to work effectively better in a foreign market, we need somebody who understands local culture, local business culture, government and their regulatory environment, and hopefully have a good working knowledge of the media industry. And when we mix our formula together, at the end of the day, if the chemistry is right, the relationship is good, the idea is good, the execution is good, then you have a winning formula.

We were present in several counties outside the US. But we have divested our operations in many European countries. Now, we have around 250 FM radio stations in countries like New Zealand, Australia and Mexico. We do spend considerable amount of our time in looking at markets that are emerging, that have commercial radio operations. Sometimes, we buy additional radio stations in the country where we operate in and we look for compelling and interesting opportunities in different parts of the world as they appear.

I can't be specific about that, but we keep abreast of the current regulatory environment, the ownership groups, style of operation in many markets by talking to people in the industry around the world. Several websites are bookmarked on my computer through which I get to know about what's going on in different markets. Before I came to India for this trip, I had spent some time at National Association of Broadcasters Annual European Convention which happens every Autumn. That's a great opportunity to network and interact with my colleagues from all parts of the world.

As you know, we have an outdoors business in India and through our international outdoors offices we keep an eye on what's going on in different parts of the world. We have been watching with keen interest the evolving, emerging and developing radio market in India. We observed its transition from Phase I to Phase II. We tried to understand what happened in Phase I and the nature of commercial private FM radio in India. And over the years, we have tried to familiarise ourselves with what is going on here, which was quite exciting. So, I was keen to come down to India and see first hand, familiarise myself and meet a cross-section of people from the industry, the regulatory body, government officials and try to understand better what's going on here.

There will be a tendency to gather around one or two distinct formats. There will be the tendency for many stations to have too many similarities in terms of sound, that's natural. When a player has only one station in a city available to him to operate, that tends to be the pattern. You can look at situations across the world and see that happening. But that has to evolve. Everyone has to understand that all cannot be in the same format and be successful.

I think, sooner or later, there will be a push to have more than one frequency available to you in a single market just to diversify the choice. The idea of foreign ownership may evolve someday into higher percentage. The idea of news and current affairs and public information being available on commercial FM radio may pave some sort of evolution as you go along. For example, does it make sense for foreign ownership to be a certain percentage when you are not allowed to do news and current affairs on FM radio or not. Issues like this will come up as the industry evolves. I believe that if we come back and look at it two years from now, it will look quite different than what it is today. But it will be an evolution and everybody has to work together to reach there.

We have not selected them as a targeted plan. We keep an eye on certain parts of the world where we spend considerable amount of time trying to educate ourselves about radio in other parts of the world, which we perceive to be growing or emerging.

Yes, this is my first trip. Short, but informative.

I don't think any business with international aspiration can afford to ignore India. It is my responsibility to explore markets around the world, to be familiar and aware of a market such as India, which is why I am here.