As newer forms of entertainment crop up, older forms need to reinvent themselves or face the proverbial Darwinian threat of extinction. And sometimes, delving through history takes one forward. Take mythological programmes, which are now being aired on radio to provide content that sustains and entertains audiences and keeps them coming back for more.

Fever Radio Ramayan went on-air during Navaratri in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, and will be launched in Bengaluru on December 20. The launch of the Ramayan on 94.3 MY FM was planned during Navaratri as well and was aired first on October 11 this year in the early morning time band. Red FM is about to follow the mythological path in a slightly different way with an innovative campaign, Red FM ki Mahabharat.

In-house research showed a 93% awareness of MY FM?s Ramayan and an 88% of listeners tuning in daily. A large number of these listeners are youth. Fever Radio Ramayan has over 6,000 people on their Facebook page, over 4,000 views on YouTube and studio lines are jammed with calls from people across all age groups.

Like Bollywood, mythological content always sells. The days of Ramayan and Mahabharat on television will not be forgotten. ?Cashing in on the same phenomenon, albeit after a gap of many years, radio is experimenting with the same concept,? explains Ashesh Jani, partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells, India. ?A well-devised concept, with voices of well-known personalities and film stars, can help in the success of the mythological show on radio. Further, these stories have many sub-stories to choose from, so there is no dearth of concepts to dramatise for radio,? he adds.

?Most of us have grown up on mythological tales. An immediate sense of ownership comes with any form of mythological series,? believes Nisha Narayanan, senior VP, projects and programming, RED FM.

Sunil Sahjwani, national programming director, 92.7 BIG FM, explains that mythology works in India as religion has a stronghold in our country. However, he thinks that this would work better in the Tier-II towns, with an appeal to older audiences. ?Having said that, it is innovative and changes the way radio is done. Audio plays are a huge hit in parts of the country. Kolkata has a tradition of audio plays called Sruti Natya in Bengali, which is highly consumed by the local populace. So BIG FM hosts the Sunday Drama, a special show every weekend, which are normal plays with the peg of detective stories, fantasy, suspense and human interest stories.?

The audience of radio can be more or less divided into well-defined buckets?the teens are those below 20, the youth in the 20-35 years’ bracket, the experienced in the 35-50 years’ bracket and the seniors, who can be considered as those above 50 years of age. Radio dramatisation of mythological tales appeal differently to various audiences. However, on an overall basis, they will be heard by all. Even hearing them in parts, say on a car system, will have recall value for an audience on the move. The beauty of an epic such as the Ramayan is that it has something for everybody. So how does one get this something out to everyone? On radio, one looks for localised city updates, contests, weather, traffic updates, happenings in and around the city and more. Since radio is a local medium, it works to locally connect, deems Sahjwani.

?The truth of today?s society is that we don?t have enough time to invest in our culture and heritage and we have used that insight to plan our content,? elucidates S Keerthivasan of Fever Radio, adding, ?We have deliberately kept our content short and yet power-packed. We have added a lot of touch points around the Ramayan for the youth via Facebook, Twitter, podcasts, etc. Since they lead fast lives and are always on the go, this is the best medium to help them connect to their roots.?

According to the IRS, in India, the time spent on radio is three times more as compared to print and only marginally less than television. Clearly, the average time spent on radio as compared to other mediums is quite high and hence expectations of listeners goes beyond music and entertainment.

Deloitte?s Jani points out that airing only music will not help. ?Many things, like advertisements, repeats, audience phone calls, etc, can plague the audience attention and make them switch stations. Competitions linked to music, limiting audience calls and controlling long spells of advertising will help retain audiences. In short, listeners want constant innovation, change and interaction while listening to the radio.?

Bhatia explains that this is where MY FM works differently. ?It understands the taste of its listeners and offers them a complete package of infotainment. Ramayan is another innovative extension to our differentiated approach in providing our listeners the best radio experience.?

Narayanan, on the other hand, believes that since radio is a listeners? medium, music will always be of utmost importance to RED FM. ?Having said that, today?s listeners are definitely open to a lot more. Competition in our space and audience exposure to creative radio content is increasing. To cater to demanding audiences, it has become almost inevitable to innovate and differentiate,? he adds.

?Our experiments with contests such as Tick Tock Bingo and the Fever Radio Ramayan have proved that listeners are open to more avenues of entertainment/ infotainment, be it winning cash, or getting back in touch with their roots. Our flagship show in Mumbai is Picture Pandey (Mumbai ki baatein with Bollywood ka Tadka hosted by RJ Anuraag Pandey). In Delhi we?ve created the first Indian sports magazine show on Radio called Fever Sports Station with RJ Paran, and we have Rubaru with RJ Karan Singh. Each is highly differentiated and attracts a well-defined audience,? adds Keerthivasan

Innovations, sparklers, humour-based capsules, breaking Bollywood news, content that is edgy, trendy, local, real and friendly, being consistent enough to create a strong brand identity in the listener?s mind, along with strong RJ personalities who bring localised content to the listener, is what makes things tick today, reckons Sahjwani. ?At BIG FM, we have shows around the pegs of humour, spirituality (the devotional hour hosts aartis from Vaishno Devi and Siddhivinayak) and Bollywood. These appeal to most Indians.?

Content comes in many forms?music in the form of devotional, films, ghazals etc; drama?just beginning to take shape; comedy talk shows, personality interviews and many more. ?The differentiation and, in turn, the success of a radio station, will depend on the method and style used to blend all of these in a manner that the listener?s ears are glued to his radio. This is critical, as the listener loves to use the tuning knob and the search/programme key the moment he loses interest in the matter emanating from the speakers,? concludes Jani.

Fever Radio Ramayan

S Keerthivasan, Business head, Fever 104 FM and Fever Entertainment

The launch plan for Fever Radio Ramayan was robust and a combination of above and below-the-line advertising. With a path-and clutter-breaking illustration style that Lowe created for us, we have gone all out to promote this property. We ran an interesting on-ground activation around temples during the period of Navaratri, where we tied up with temple authorities to play some of our episodes on their PA systems and also distributed small pooja kits. Led by Gaurav Sharma, national programming head, creative resources from across our station have voiced various characters. Naseeruddin Shah emotes the character of Raavan, Om Puri is the pivotal Kaal, Anupam Kher is Dasharath, Jayati Bhatia plays Kaikeyi and Ratna Pathak Shah plays Manthara. We have invested approximately Rs 5 crore behind this project and we are delighted with the response we?ve got so far.

94.3 MY FM Ramayan

Harrish M Bhatia, CEO, 94.3 MY FM

We have empirical evidence that a clear listener need for such content exists. We have always pioneered in offering listeners the best listening experience and the introduction of the Ramayana is one such initiative. The Ramayana is our heritage and one of the most important components of our culture. In the quest for making our devotional music band even more divine and further strengthening the listener connect, we decided to introduce the Ramayan. With the launch of this show, we intend to provide a focused pathway for our youth to rejoice and reconnect with their roots. It is a beautifully crafted audio drama recreated with realistic background sounds and some of the best professional theatre artists playing the sonic roles of epic characters, making it more realistic and original.

Red FM ki Mahabharat

Nisha Narayanan, Senior VP, projects & programming, RED FM

It is our continuous endeavour to develop interesting content that is entertaining and that also connects with the listeners. Extending this philosophy, we have recently used messages/key learnings from The Mahabharata and have come up with a novel campaign ?Red FM ki Mahabharat?, which provides a modern take on its ideologies.

Supported by a two-week long teaser campaign, Red FM ki Mahabharat was introduced as a battle of ideologies between two strong personalities and two equally strong adversaries. The teaser campaign is an interesting way to ensure that the listeners make the effort to try and know what this change is all about. Being a radio station, it is important that we have encouraging participation from listeners and we are, therefore, training them to use the lingo of the Mahabharat too. We have also embedded interactive contests to promote this campaign.