Radio One Bangalore rolls out the drums as it turns six

Radio One Bangalore recently completed six years. The FM station kicked off its celebrations with the Drumjam team led by Roberto Narain, in keeping with its proposition of “maximum music, maximum choice”.

Commenting on the market situation when Radio One was launched, Shyju Varkey, Station Head - Bangalore and National Marketing Head, Radio One, said, “The year was 2007. There were seven radio stations in Bangalore as compared to just one station in the previous year. The reach of the vernacular format had just been smelt and everyone was rushing in for a share in the Sandalwood music pie. Every station that launched was going Kannada. Earlier, established players were switching formats to Kannada. Considering that we were the first ones to start playing Kannada in mid-2006, we watched first with smugness that our stand was vindicated, and then with mortification as we realised that there were far too many players for this to make financial sense to everyone.”

The station undertook various initiatives to create noise, including getting Amitabh Bachchan to speak in Kannada endorsing Radio One. Radio One Bangalore then moved into the vacant Bollywood space. Varkey added, “It wasn’t as obvious or as easy as it sounds in retrospect, but there was some bloodshed along the way. Change isn’t easy to digest, but I’m glad we bit the bullet when we did.”

Launched in July 2006, Radio One is targeted at the urban youth and currently has its stations in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Pune. Radio One has also won the IRA Promax Best Show of the Year Award for its breakfast show ‘Bangalore Fataafat’ as well as RJ of the Year Award for RJ Prithvi.