Friday, August 25, 2006

Digital Broadcasters | AIR FM Kolkata To Increase ERP

Digital Broadcasters Vendor News notes from the expressindia.com web site that Kolkata's FM Gold network radio station, operated by All India Radio on 100.2 FM is soon to increase its effective radiated power from from 5 kw mono to 20 kw stereo.

Animesh Chakrabarty, superintending engineer of AIR Kolkata, is quoted as saying said the entire station will be 'digital' (converting from analog broadcast).

Asim Kumar Rej, station director of AIR Kolkata, said the popularity of radio continues to grow because it is the only source of infotainment for those who are illiterate or too poor to afford TV sets or denied access to steady electricity supply. AIR officials quoted a survey conducted by the AIR in-house audience research unit to claim that the entry of private FM broadcasters has not affected the popularity of AIR’s FM channels.

In Kolkata, All India Radio operates Radio 1 (Rainbow FM)mainly in Hindi and Radio 2 (Gold FM) in Bengali and other dialects.

From AIR's own survey results, listenership to AIR FM in Kolkata has gone up by 30% and Akashvani (All India Radio name in Hindi) is most popular among Kolkatans with a 59% marketshare, according to the survey. On the other hand, the survey results of IRS and IMRB says that Radio Mirchi is the most popular FM radio broadcaster in Kolkata.

The AIR in-house results show that some 67% of respondents say they listen to AIR FM stations at home, while some 66% of respondents say they listen while driving in their cars. That clearly is a middle class overlap between house and car listening.

Kolkata is the Hindi name for Calcutta.

Some of the article sourced from: <http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=198305>

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