Spirit W | "Hard work is my mantra to success" says RED FM's Nisha Narayanan

For Nisha Narayanan, a prominent name in the radio industry, who is currently the COO at 93.5 RED FM it all started with All India Radio, which she joined as an RJ.  Prior to this appointment, she was heading the FM Projects at South Asia FM for five years. During her tenure, she has been instrumental in setting up radio stations across various cities in the country such as Bhubaneshwar, Jabalpur, Nasik, Shillong, Varanasi, Jaipur and many more.

During her rich 15 years experience she has dabbled with both radio and television and has also  been a part of private as well as public service channels. Her realm of knowledge encompasses areas such as programme planning, presenting, production and management. Her broadcast career coincided with the growth of cable and satellite television. She has produced various documentaries and has been a newscaster primarily on Doordarshan. In her early days, she has not only covered live events and national issues but also hosted chat shows and debates.

Her journey has been an exciting one so far and she considers herself to have been very fortunate in this voyage. Apparently getting into radio was not something she had originally planned. Narayanan has been a part of the core team of one of India’s biggest brand re-launch exercise i.e. S FM into Red FM. She managed this transition across the country to build the brand Red FM while keeping the core elements of the RED FM brand intact.

Adgully caught up with Nisha Narayanan COO, 93.5 RED FM to gain insights about her interesting journey as a RJ and her views on radio - the interesting age-old  medium.

Narayanan says, "Like in most corporate careers, the early days were important in teaching me about the corporate world and the learnings from the initial years help me now as well."

She has a long, 19 year old, relationship with both TV and Radio. Sharing some key highlights of the same she said, "I am lucky enough to have worked with both television and radio. Television was great! I was trained as a journalist and was a Chevening Scholar. I presented news & current affairs on TV quite early in my career. 

But as far as personal choice is concerned, radio is my first love."

It’s the magic of radio. Setting up radio stations and launching them all over India has been perhaps one of the most challenging but fulfilling chapters of her life.
"I remember when I went to Bhubaneshwar to set up our station there and was scouting for talent. We had put an ad in a local newspaper inviting prospective RJs for RED FM and some 50 people turned up!  they came with swords and fake moustaches and enacted a Mahabharata skit in front of me! Not one person knew what ‘Radio Jockey’ meant. From that shaky start to build up a team of great RJs and to launch Bhubaneshwar successfully was a great experience. So each market has its own story to tell. I could write a radio travelogue with those experiences," she reminisces.

Outside the metros, there is so much talent that it can put anyone in big cities to shame. In this regard Narayanan said, "The reason I say my work was challenging is that in these markets, due to the lack of trained talent, we had to hire people from wildly different sectors. We had persons – very gifted people, really – who were working with Barista in the service department, aeronautical engineers, writers, theatre artists, musicians, sportsmen and teachers, to mention just a few professions from which we recruited potential broadcasters. And training them to be some of India’s best radio professionals was extremely satisfying."

She often quotes her favourite dialogue from Spiderman which is actually a Voltaire quote, viz “with great power comes great responsibility” and feels that radio is a medium with huge responsibility. Adding further to her point she explained, "I assume that’s why the government won’t let us broadcast news. Unfortunately, it gets step-motherly treatment from policy makers despite the huge impact and response the medium can generate."

Without any doubt Radio is a highly responsive and interactive medium with a massive reach, whose potential has not been fully realized yet.

Being a part of the radio industry for close to two decades in various roles, she has seen it grow from the days of All India Radio’s monopoly to today’s dizzying range of private FM channels. In all these years, she has worked on many ambitious projects and the single most important thing she learned is the necessity of localization. When asked with the latest role and privatization of radio that came her way, did things change for her on a personal and professional front? Answering that she said, "I have learnt that any grand concept you can conceive of in this industry needs to be in sync with local expectations. You can see that at RED FM we try to mould our content to the expectations of our listeners in the city we are airing in. While the overall brand ethos remains the same, the way ‘Bajaate Raho’ plays out in different cities is in keeping with the zeitgeist of those cities."

It is by sheer accident that she is in this industry. So what prompted her? She said, "I don’t come from a broadcasting family; I come from a service background and if I had my way, I would have either joined the Indian Navy or become a chartered accountant or a financial consultant.  On a random rainy day after hours of brooding over my Economics exam for which I was preparing, I wrote to All India Radio to apply for an audition as a RJ. I didn’t have time for hobbies then and I thought being an RJ might, just might, be a good hobby to get out of home and college. As destiny would have it, I cleared the audition and there has been no looking back since then. The journey of converting my hobby into a profession has been the best time of my life."

According to her, in India, the radio industry still has a long way to go. The biggest problem she sees is on the policy front. "In our country, we are still working with old policies and colonial laws which are regressive and desperately need to be reviewed to account for changing times. Then there are issues of the license fee, the license period and music royalty, which are holding back the growth of the radio industry.  We are talking about Phase-3 of FM expansion, but there is still no clarity as to where we are headed, what happens once the present license period gets over, and what kind of migration fee we would have to pay. But we do hope that the ministry addresses these issues and comes up with progressive policies soon. All we can say is we are ready and completely equipped for the growth of radio in Phase-3," she added.

When asked about a mantra to success in this industry, she said, "I don’t think I know of any mantra to success besides hard work. If career is what you mean, then I sometimes feel a bit concerned about the young blood that is entering this industry. There is no substitute for hard work. A lot of people who come into radio want to start their careers in key markets like Mumbai and Delhi, make quick money and become famous overnight."

Her advice to them is not to make such mistakes in the beginning of their career. A lot of hard work goes into being the best RJs in the country. Some of the best creative heads in the industry started their careers from small cities and worked their way up. Big markets like Delhi and Mumbai have zero tolerance to mistakes. They don’t have the time to groom and condition fresh young talent, as they work under tremendous pressure and heavy workloads. So learn, try and experiment in smaller markets, hone and sharpen your skills there, and then invest in long term jobs and  slowly work your way up to bigger markets advises Narayanan.
RED FM is a 10 year old brand and she has played a vital role in building a brand that stands tall among all. So explaining what strategies worked for her, she said,  "We have recently been conferred the award for India’s most attractive radio brand."

There are three strategies they swear by. They are: Brand focus – Building the brand and increasing top of mind recall is a very critical step. RED FM believes in reaching out to listeners and advertisers alike, in increasing familiarity and ensuring the brand stands tall and far from all the clutter. Another strategy the brand believes in is, Investing in People. She believes that Red FM has the best radio professionals working in the industry. This is a creative, aggressive and a performance-led team that believes in the brand and the brand philosophy. No company can achieve its goals without a great team behind it, and therefore investing in people at all levels level is a must and last but not the least is Consistency. As a medium which is personal in nature, consistency is the key. Familiarity is the basis of brand recognition and RED FM has one mantra: consistency, consistency and consistency.

In terms of trends Narayanan feels that competition will be on the rise with the foray of new players in the industry. New formats, use of social media, innovation in programming, and the inevitable shift to digital broadcasting are things that we all are already grappling with.

Saturation in big markets will be offset by regional markets that will emerge with vast potential. "For RED FM too, small cities will be important and we will focus on expanding our operations in these areas. In 2013, we explored new ways of doing programming, and innovations which strengthened the brand and also gave us opportunities for generating additional revenues. In 2014, our strategies will be consistent" Narayanan said.

Well, with digitization the question arises, where do we see radio standing among that curve in terms of both acceptance and usage in terms of advertising? She opined that digital media will definitely grow with time, but right now it cannot be compared with a traditional medium like radio. Narayanan says, "I am sure that credibility of private FM channels will rise with news & current affairs being allowed on private radio, along with new programmes and consumer engagement activities. The growth of radio has really been in small town India, and radio has emerged as a strong advertising medium for retail businesses as well."

"In fact, radio is embracing the digital wave to propel its consumption forward. I am hopeful that advertising revenue for FM channels will go up as advertisers gain confidence in the medium after experiencing its effectiveness," she concluded.