Radio Stations and Contests

Revolution of FM Radio has come a long way since its inception in mid 2001. Bangalore city started with only a couple of channels by then and now count is more than 10 stations. All these Radio channels are trying to woo the audience by various means. Some of these include contests over SMS. I love fever 104, Radio Mirchi’s Double Dharode, Radio City’s Haadu heli lakshaantara gelli etc., are some of the contests. Modus of operandi of all these channels is the same. Propel the audience to participate in these contests by showing big bucks.

If you were in Bangalore a couple of weeks back, you would have noticed huge hoardings promoting these contests. Looks like these contests started as a chain reaction among these channels. Sure there were a handful of listeners making some easy money a the cost of a huge number of audience who registered for these events by sending SMS’s which are charged at premium rates. Both the radio channels and the Mobile service providers made good profits at the cost of small amount contributions! It would be a good case study subject for management students to learn the radio contests business model.