MUMBAI: 93.5 RED FM has added six more awards to its kitty at the Afaqs! Mi Awards for innovation in Programming and Marketing. The award ceremony took place on Wednesday 27th, March 2019 at Le Meridien, Gurugram. The Media Innovation Awards seeks to recognize path-breaking innovative practices or initiatives which helps publishers and broadcasters take the business into the future. At the ceremony, RED FM won 2 Gold, 1 Silver and 2 Bronze awards.

For Programming Innovation, RED FM won Gold for the show- #AskRashmi. The show was hosted by RED FM’s Morning No.1 RJ Raunac and Robot Rashmi, the world’s first-ever Hindi speaking humanoid robot. The robot interacted with the callers and responded to their questions on topics like politics, environment, road safety etc. RED FM’s Maha Thappa activity received a Silver. The activity is a people’s choice award where the listeners from the cities vote for their favourite places and services; the most voted in the city is honoured with RED FM’s approval stamp, Thappa. 21 Days was awarded with a Bronze which was led by RED FM’s RJ Mandee and RJ Kabir from Pune. The initiative was on water waste. The two RJs enquired about the leakage which was happening in their city for the past 16 years. Mandee and Kabir decided to act like an alarm clock for a good 21 days for the staff in charge and had fixed the leak.

For Marketing Innovation, RED FM won a Gold for Mumbai Ki plastic surgery which was led by RED FM’s RJ Malishka popularly known as Mumbai Ki Rani to make Mumbai a plastic free city. The activity aimed to get plastic into RED FM’s truck which went around the city collecting all the plastic waste and finally reached Pune for recycling the plastic collected.

Riders Music Festival and Yellow Taxi Music Festival which are RED FM’s annual intellectual properties received 2 Bronze awards. Riders Music Festival was a celebration of the spirit of Bikes, Music, and Brotherhood. Popular artists such as Mame Khan, Burudu, Raja Kumari, Divine, Bhuvan Bam, Shirley Sethia, Lucky Ali, Nucleya had performed making it the one stop destination for both the biking and the non-biking community. With Yellow Taxi Music Project- RED FM brought back folk artists together on one stage, to redefine live contemporary folk music scenario in Kolkata. Artists like Tirtha Bhattacharya, Kartik Das Baul, Fiddler’s Green, Nizami Bandhu and The Manganiyer Seduction. The festival left an imprint on Kolkata’s cultural landscape.

Speaking about the awards won, RED FM COO Nisha Narayanan said, “We at RED FM are honoured to have won these awards at the Afaqs! Media Innovation awards for Publishers and Broadcasters. At RED FM, creativity and innovation in content formats and providing newer experiences for our listeners is always deeply embedded in our heart. RED FM is humbled to have received such tremendous support from the community. It is a great achievement and I am very proud of all the efforts that got us these wins. The strength of RED FM lies in innovative ideas and aggressive thinking that we believe in. Our team at RED looks forward to a greater volume of awards in the coming years too Bajaate Raho!” 

The jury for the Afaqs! Media Innovation awards 2019 were Deepali Naair Director, Marketing - India and South Asia IBM, Divya Karani, CEO, Dentsu X, Raghuvesh Sarup, CMO India, Microsoft, Rahul Pansare Head Marketing Communications and PR DCA India Automobiles, Rathi Gangappa, CEO, Starcom India, Sapna Chadha, Marketing Director, Southeast Asia and India, Sidharth Rao, CEO and Co-founder, Webchutney Google, Tushar Vyas, President Growth and Transformation, South Asia, Group M.