Adlabs Films? radio venture BIG 92.7 FM is set to launch its 45th station in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, next month.
The network, present in 44 cities across India, began operations in September 2006 and has licence to operate 45 stations under the phase II of FM radio expansion.
?The Shimla station is expected to reach out to almost 10 lakh people in Himachal Pradesh,? Siddharth Bhardwaj, regional director, north, BIG 92.7 FM, told FE.
? BIG 92.7 FM completed two years in Chandigarh, which was its first station in the Punjab cluster. The radio channel has three more stations in Amritsar, Jalandhar and Patiala in Punjab. Bhardwaj added, ?We are reaching out to about 1.3 crore people in Punjab and Chandigarh. In Haryana and our reach extends to about 55% of the total population of the state,? he added.
With wider reach, the radio channel has attracted a whole new generation of advertisers willing to tap the largely unexplored rural base.
?A lot of new sectors that were missing from the advertising scene have started using radio,? said Bhardwaj.
?In the northern region, automobile companies, the hand tools industry, agricultural implements, pesticides, tractor manufacturers, health and wellness companies are coming forward to advertise. With the election round the corner, political parties are aggressively campaigning via radio,? said Bhardwaj.
For the record, BIG 92.7 FM has expanded its presence to 1,000 towns and 50,000 villages reaching out to 200 million people across India. In north, BIG 92.7 FM covers 20 cities, seven in the east, nine in the west and another nine in the south.