Listening to radio in Bangalore (the new town I belong to now) is interesting. You switch from Kannada music and talk to complete English and then some Hindi too.
Fever 104 is the latest station to change gears and move into the Hindi space now, after having tried a complete Kannada format. They started off in the city as a Hindi-English station and have changed formats quite a bit in the last few years of their existence. Radio One is the only station here that catered to the Hindi speaking audience here. Now they have competition. They are being hesitant to leave this space here, though in Mumbai and Delhi they have converted into a complete English channel now. (Back to where they began as Go 92.5) And are they sounding great or what! Many say it is their last attempt to shine before wrapping up because they had completely sunk as a Hindi channel in metro markets overall.
However, coming back to Fever @ Bangalore. They are also not sicking to one positioning in all markets now. In Delhi, Mumbai, Kol - they are "All About the Music" - but here, they are trying to own the Bollywood space with "Baap of Bollywood"! Oye fm mind you, is "Sabse Filmy" in other markets. They are not a part of the Bangalore circuit, so Fever has sneaked in this idea for the upcoming Hindi speaking audience here.
The clarity that they will stick to Bollywood and taking a stand with a positioning is great. I just wish they had been a little less noisy and less cliche. But then that's what BOllywood is all about, isn't it? Noise and cliches.
The music by the way is great at 104. That itself could make it for them. Provided the Amitabh and Shahrukh dialogues don't interfere too much.
