RED FM Network wins Best Radio Network of the Year at Excellence in Radio Awards

Mumbai: Excellence in Radio Awards (ERA) at the India Radio Forum 2018 recognised the efforts of the Radio industry and celebrated their wins showcasing the best works of the year in India. Held at The Leela Ambience, Gurugram, the show was opened by B. Surendar, COO of RED FM Network.

An interesting discussion by Abraham Thomas of Radio City, who shared his vision along with powerful speakers like Divya Karani, CEO – Dentsu India and Rohit Upadhyay, MD & CEO, iBroad 7 Communication in their session titled, the ‘Power of Radio’, offering some relevant pointers, discussing its reach, impact, depth and application.

This was followed by an engaging session moderated by Naresh Gupta from Bang in the Middle who used his experience of over 2 decades to shed light on the role of Radio, as a medium, in building brands which included speakers like Mausumi Kar, MD, GroupM India and Priti Murthy, CEO, OMD India.

The session which class apart and kept the audiences captivated was the most engaging session of the day – a conversation between Radio expert, Elliot Stechman of the AVC Group and Tapas Sen, Chief Programming Officer of Radio Mirchi. The enthralling conversation, led to their opinions and strategic insights shedding light on the need for a robust infrastructure to further build up the Indian Radio industry along with investments on the right talent at the right time.

A refreshing last session was moderated by Rajat Uppal, National Marketing Head of RED FM Network, titled ‘Creating Brands and Sub-Brands in a Cluttered Space’, the conversation revolved around how good products need and variety in offerings to consumers help build a brand. Joining him on stage was the popular RJ Malishka, Swaroop Banerjee of Tribe Asia, Joy Chouhan of JWT Delhi and Saahil Kumar of Sennheiser

The ERA Awards opened with great gusto awarding the newly introduced People Choice Awards – a Facebook voting poll managed by The Small Big Idea, a social media agency. The Award went to the Popular RJ of the Year 2018 – RJ Chaitu of 93.5 RED FM, Hyderabad winning by a vast number of votes.

The Jury Gold award for the RJ of the Year (Hindi) was awarded to Annu Kapoor of 92.7 BIG FM and Radio City 91.1 FM won the Gold award for the Best Breakfast Programme (Hindi). Ishq 104.8FM won the Gold for Most Creative campaign for ‘Calling Karan’ while Best Interactive Idea went to RED FM Network for ‘Bajao for a Cause’.

Speaking about the Radio industry and the platform, Nisha Narayanan, COO of Red FM Network said, “The industry is coming together under one umbrella to conduct a research which has been long over-due for the industry like ours. It’s fair that we need to have data to support where we stand and the impact of the medium considering Radio is the 2nd largest growing industry in the media & entertainment sector. There is excellent work, which is happening in the regional markets like MP, UP, South amongst others. Most importantly, India Radio Forum, as a platform, has recognized that talent and the creative thoughts behind carefully constructed/tailor-made campaigns. It is a great platform and I am glad to be associated with it for yet another successful edition.”

Speaking about Radio as a medium, Tapas Sen, Chief Programming Officer of Radio Mirchi, said, “Radio Programmers now need to view themselves not just as Radio Jocks or Producers, but as “Content-Creators”. And therefore, become platform agnostic. The way to take Radio to the next level is to transgress its boundaries and view all other media as a seamless continuity for Content proliferation and distribution.”

Speaking about the platform, Rajika Mittra, Special Projects Director said, “The show ended on a high note where the industry came together to discuss issues and offer solutions. It’s always a wonderful experience to put together the India Radio Forum and Excellence in Radio Awards every year especially when the community comes together. With each successive year, our aim is to highlight and bring recognition to the professionals who have put their best foot forward and contributed to the growth and development of the radio industry in the country.  Every year we come across some well-thought performances with interesting content and innovative marketing campaigns and we are honoured to felicitate these creative minds who add value to the industry.”

The most coveted award being the Best FM Network was won by 93.5 RED FM for the X executive year.