Cochin : Malayala Manorama’s FM radio station Radio Mango has expanded its operations beyond Kerala by launching a station in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
A seperate programming team has been set up in Dubai to provide localised content to listeners and attract local advertisers. Although the format of content will be similar to the station in India, a major differentiation will be news and specials provided exclusively by Kerala’s news giant, Malayala Manorama’s newspaper, TV and online divisions. In India, news is not allowed on private FM radio stations.
With no restrictions of broadcasting news on private FM stations internationally, the group will use its various news divisions to air news bulletins of Kerala for 30 minutes every day. The station will operate on the frequency of 96.2 FM and will be available to listeners across the UAE. Catering specifically to the Malayalees in the country, the programming will resemble the format in Kerala of music and content followed by the network.
“Radio Mango’s” director of programs Ravi Nair said, “Our main strength will be our deep understanding of the Malayalee audience coupled with our strong presence in their homeland. We are offering a vastly differentiated content from what is currently available here, and have an extremely competent team to deliver it. We are very excited to be in a vibrant country like the UAE and are confident that the Malayalees here will welcome us with open arms.”
The international station will be Mango’s fifth station. It presently operates four stations in Kerala in Kochi, Trissur, Kozhikode and Kannur. Radio Mango is the first FM radio network from Kerala and the second in India to launch a station internationally. ENIL’s Radio Mirchi is the first Indian player to be present in UAE, making Radio Mango the second Indian player in the space.
Currently, there are four local Malayalam FM stations in the UAE, namely Hit FM (Arabian radio network), Gold FM (Channel 4 network of Ajman), Super FM (Radio Asia group) and Radio Me. These are not stations based out of India and gone overseas.
The UAE radio stations may soon have yet another competitor from Kerala as the news giant Matrubhumi is also launching its Club FM radio station in the UAE shortly.
