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Within a month of acquiring licences,
several players in the FM Radio business are out scouting for talent to
man their radio operations. Given the dearth of manpower with adequate
exposure to radio business, most players are queuing up before advertising
and media fraternity including government behemoths like the All India
Radio.
Industry analysts estimate that the demand will be for 3,000-odd assorted
professionals - managerial, programming and marketing - over the next
one year, to man 100-plus radio stations.
First off the block to enjoy the early mover advantage is Zee-backed New
Media Broadcasting. New Media has appointed Sunil Kumar as vice-president
(radio operations). Kumar was earlier heading the radio operations of
Radio Mid-day. He was also involved with Radio One on the FM channel of
AIR.
Confirming Kumar’s appointment, Zee Network chief executive officer
Deepak Shourie said New Media was in the process of making some more senior
level recruitments. The Zee-outfit has bagged licences for running FM
services in 27 cities, the largest for any company.
Radio Mid-Day is reportedly grooming in-house talent to take charge of
radio operations. The group has bagged license to operate in three cities.
Not to be left behind, others too are close to sign on several top notch
professionals to kick-off operations.
Most are in the process of putting in place infrastructure from the scratch.
Living Media India, the publishers of India Today, which has three stations
in its kitty, is setting up a separate division to look after its radio
interests. TV Today executive director G. Krishnan said that the corporate
structure is expected to be in place in the course of the next three weeks.
He did not rule out hiving off the group’s radio business at a later
date.
Krishnan admitted that the group is hunting for top level managerial and
programming talent, including professionals to head the radio business.
Another player, Reliance-backed Observer Network with the mandate to operate
in nine stations, is working on a duel-strategy of kick-starting its service
simultaneously on air and the Net.
According to Observer Network director BS Raman, each station would typically
need around 30 professionals to man the show. He said the group would
put in place a national grid to be backed by a regional talent pool. The
group is close to appointing a senior executive in the position of vice-president
operations to oversee the radio business.
According to an industry analyst, media planners with advertising agencies
are a natural choice given their cross-media exposure. State-run All India
Radio is other attractive catchment area for programming and technical
staff. One industry player admitted to have sounded several members of
programming staff in All India Radio.
AIR’s engineer-in-chief HM Joshi said he is yet to come across any
instance of staff leaving AIR for greener pastures in the private sector.
However he did not not rule out the possibility in the future. With AIR’s
thru-st on expanding the FM network throughout the country, the government
body may sooner than later need to device ways to keep its flock together,
industry analysts said.
Having not paid attention to staffing aspect of the business, most players
concede to a dearth of experienced talent and many are open to the idea
of grooming in-house talent pool to fit the bill. According to Raman of
Observer Network quite a few of the group’s print media talent have
shown interest in moving to radio.
TV Today’s Krishnan also does not rule out some sort of re-orientation
for existing print and television talent to run the radio operations.
Given the high stakes in the radio business, this is just beginning of
the action for this sunrise sector, industry analysts predict.
Sudipto Dey