Radio is singing recession tunes

Chennai: The financial meltdown has taken a toll, its toll on all sectors-but now it's the radio industry in Chennai that's singing the recession blues.

Gautham Kumar started off as an RJ with the FM radio station Radio One in 2006. But 2 months ago, his employers decided that he and many like him would have to go, if the station has to stay afloat. GAutham offered to work for half his salary, but station bosses were unrelenting.

“In my company, they decided that even if the Jocks are good, the shows running well, bringing in good revenues, doesn't matter, we are at cost cutting process--they have to be sent out," says Former RJ, Gautham Kumar.

It was Vidhya's (another RJ) voice that 1000s of Chennaities tuned into over the weekend when she hosted Petta Rap on a leading FM channel. But this month she too was given the pink slip.

“We thought they'd do cost cutting, salary cuts and all that-that's what we thought that would happen, but they were retrenching people and it was very shocking and the point is that it happened very suddenly,” says Former RJ and Producer, A Vidhya.

The radio industry is clearly singing the recession tune, Insiders say over 23 people have been asked to leave across the 9 stations that operate in Chennai- 8 of them being RJ's. And for those who've been retained it has meant extra work and longer hours

“They've stressed on multi-tasking, they're not recruiting anyone anymore-it was a one to one job-now I'll have to do three works not just one-you don't have to just do a show, you'll have to go out collect information, do interviews come back,” says an RJ.

Station heads though continue to maintain that its business as usual.

"Radio is a growing medium when compared to all other established medium, growing medium .the market downturn or otherwise is not going to affect them badly like the way it can affect the other medium," says Cluster Director, BIG FM, P B Ramaswamy.

"We have had some hard negotiations. We have kept our expenses under check, be it on music royalty costs, manpower costs, administrative costs, infrastructure costs. We have been that way and we are very much in control," says Chief Executive Officer, Hello FM, Rajeev Nambiar.

With the retail sector seeing a slump and high gold prices plaguing jewelry stores- many local advertisers have given radio stations the slip. Radio houses have since cut down the ad rates to keep revenues flowing in.

"It's huge--depending upon who you're talking to and the volume of business, it could be anywhere between 30-70 per cent," says General Manager, Star Com worldwide, Narendra Kumar Alambara.

Even a radio station like Hello FM, which is backed by a strong media group like the Dina Thanthi has redesigned its format and programming to beat the slowdown.

“Before we only had Tamil programming, now English on weekends for a few hours as well. Reaching to new market will get new advertisers as well," says Chief Executive Officer, Hello FM, Rajeev Nambiar.

With many odds to fight, the radio industry may take a while to touch its projected 14.2 per cent growth rate for the current year. It may also take a while to provide employment to many of the youngsters who were looking to ride the radio boom.

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