New Year has brought a baggage full of surprises for the radio and music industry. 94.3 Radio One, a joint venture between Next Mediaworks Ltd and BBC worldwide has taken a giant leap to go international in the two metros; Delhi and Mumbai.

Radio One MD Vineet Singh Hukmani in conversation with Radioandmusic.com, reveals the business strategy behind the huge change in the two metros, stresses on the fact that there is a huge market for an English radio station and claims that the station will offer better ROI to advertisers.

Excerpts:

Radio One is going English in Delhi and Mumbai…

We researched clients and listeners about what they thought were the problems in radio and we got a clear answer; all radio stations sound the same. We had begun to correct this problem across our markets but now the change we make will be highly audible in Mumbai and Delhi. We want Radio One to be different, intelligent, international and involving to �English speaking' Indians who have a global outlook.

Do you think there is a market for an English FM station in the highly dominated Bollywood music culture?

There is a huge misconception about English per say in radio circles. Famous speeches like �freedom at midnight' or �tryst with destiny' by Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru were made in English on radio. Indians today �thrive' globally because of their comfort with English as against the Chinese or many other �non English adopting' countries. So if English or an international feel can do well in infotainment in Print, TV, Internet, Cinema, Outdoor then WHY NOT IN RADIO?. The audience is ready. The radio medium is lagging behind on this front and we aim to correct it. English / International beckons with open arms! The listener and advertiser have already embraced it in other media and they will do so in Radio too.

What is the greatest disadvantage of radio currently that is not faced by other media?

Our research showed, radio reaches all but does not engage a certain profile of audience. It is therefore impossible to â€?target and engage' a SEC AB 25-40 on radio without a huge spillover into irrelevant audiences.  People who prefer their infotainment in English have lapsed or are lapsing fast from radio. Radio today tries to reach SEC A B C D E all 12+ and this means it cannot offer a profiled audience to a brand. Radio aims for the lowest common denominator and therefore automatically cannot engage an educated audience. Every other medium allows fabulous profiling of audiences. English -  newspapers, news channels, sports, movies, lifestyle have shown us the way.

How would you define your audience?

There is a clear and well profiled audience, the kind of person who reads an English newspaper every day. There is a huge amount of content there and this is a 4.5 million universe in two cities Mumbai and Delhi. There are 1.8 million people in these two cities who consumer �English/ international' television be it news, movies, sports. It is these seven million people who have fuelled the growth of facebook and twitter in this country in the last three years. It is these people who have allowed news television in English to grow into a formidable force. It is these people who love to listen to even Amitabh Bachchan and Sachin Tendulkar speaking in English and mind you every Indian celebrity has a strong English side. To many, sports in English is more desirable than any other language. This audience loves a two-way dialogue and radio is inherently designed for that large community feeling.

What type of programming content will be on-air?

The most critical change is the 'host'. We will not call them RJs anymore. Our new hosts reflect our values of Different, Intelligent, International and Involving. They bring a maturity to the dialogue with a listener who has a global outlook as defined above. The programming will engage this listener repeatedly across different time bands and make our special listener feel totally at home on Radio One. It is because of the talent of the host, information and entertainment will be shared much more easily…because the host is a �perfect reflection' of the listener.

The second change will be three Prime shows in the day that are well segmented in their offering and offer a very strong �engagement product' to the �show presenter (advertiser)'. Non-music content will be of the highest quality and will stand on its own as will International and friendly music. Music that you have heard and loved, nothing too edgy or obscure. Music that will keep you in a happy breezy mood.

The third change is Weekends will not be treated as �secondary'. We have made considerable investment in talent and programming on weekends and even weeknights to ensure the profile of audience we are engaging is satisfied right across the week with the highest quality.

Tell us about other cities?

Each city will have a unique formula for its success. In every market we will be istanced from the herd and will allow the �highest associative value' to client brands. This makes us India's most differentiated network and the only one that allows profiling of audiences.

Will business not get affected because of the change?

We are more confident than ever that business will go up from our current levels for three reasons. We have already experienced this in Bangalore, Pune and Ahmedabad.

1.Every client we have spoken to wants a differentiated product in radio so that they can target better and engage better. They already do this in print, TV , internet but not in radio.

2.Every client in local retail too wants to shun the competitive herd in his local market and wants to cater to a higher value audience. We are already showing them how not to commoditize their local retail brands and move up.

3.The economic environment is demanding a much better ROI and a highly targeted on-air and on-ground engagement. We are poised much more superiorly on this than any other radio station.

When is the radio station turning International?

Come February and let all witness and sample the change.

What is the larger business strategy and how are you readying yourself for Phase III?

We have seeded new revenue streams in the live concert space and in digital and these will dovetail with the international radio product to cater to the same audience. For Phase III we will target more metros that have a sizeable population that has a global outlook. We want to reach a total of 10 cities from the current seven and we don't want to be big on reach but continue to be high on profit as a result of being high on engagement and superior targeting. It is time to shun the herd and be the only radio station company that is really different in every city. It is time to offer better ROI to the advertiser. It is time to play the game with our own rules!