Red FM recently hosted South Side Story, one of its 120 planned events during the year. 

In a chat with Manifest, Nisha Narayanan, chief operating officer and director, Red FM and Magic FM, explained how the second half of the year is when the organisation carries out the maximum number of events and IPs.

There's also an ongoing plan in Maharashtra for Ganpati, which will be followed by Red Raas in Gujarat for Navrati, Dugga Dugga in Bengal. 

Narayanan said, "This pattern will continue till 31 March. The festive season is part of our 360-degree approach which will get us 35% of our non-traditional revenue. Most of this comes from H2."

These events help with the overall growth for Red FM, which is pegged to be at 10% next year.

However, Narayanan doesn't think that growth is not enough.

"Radio is slated to grow next year by 10%. We are in line with that growth. But that 10% is not enough because Covid caused a massive slump, where we went down by 60% as an industry. Post-Covid there has been around 15% growth every year, but that’s not enough to catch up to the pre-Covid levels.I do see a good year if you’re not concentrating only on radio but on non-traditional business. Rates were compromised and slashed by 50% during Covid. Bringing it back to the original rate has been difficult," said Narayanan.

She urged the industry to take action as a whole to help with these rates.

"Unfortunately, the entire radio industry is playing the volume game and that includes Red FM. That means our inventory goes up to 25-30 minutes (per hour) during the festive season which reduces listening pleasure. We can’t play the volume game now and have to play the value game. We have to see different sources of business in the area of content creation." 

Read the full chat in the September issue of Manifest. Get your copy here. For subscription options click here.