Interview with Prem Kumar, Station Head, Chennai Live, 104.8 FM

Chennaionline's H Ramakrishnan interacted with Premkumar, The Station Head of Muthoot Group's Chennai Live 104.8 FM. Excerpts:

H Ramakrishnan: What is the focus of this Radio station?

Prem Kumar: You see, we call ChennaiLive, 104.8FM a talk station. It is a locally-involved radio station aimed at the enlightened and informed people of Chennai. The focus is on events, information and issues relevant to the life in today's Chennai. We want to bring together the wide range of opinions and viewpoints existing in Chennai�a city with a profound history, a proud present and a bright future. Chennai is changing. There are a lot of new ideas and new concepts from different walks of life. The core idea of the station is to facilitate the convergence of all these ideas at one point.

It is of course about the city. In fact it is much more that; it is also Chennai's viewpoint of what is happening - it could be in the city or across the world as well. Our output will be an amalgamation of different view points existing in the city about the city or even beyond the city, anywhere in the world.

Rama: What is your priority - information or culture?

Prem Kumar: As I said, we are not compartmentalizing into information, entertainment or culture. It could be anything. We talk about civic issues, information, knowledge, technology, sports. It is any issue or topic in which the people of the city are interested. We bring to the table different viewpoints. For example, Abhinav Bindra winning the Gold Medal in Olympics. It generated a lot of debate. Firstly, he was not trained in India. The Government of India had no part in training him; he trained himself and views like that. The other angle is that if he could make it, why is it that the Government is not supporting others and providing the required infrastructure. Thus, there are different view points.

I mentioned this as an example. This is not confined to one particular area. It could be on any subject.



Rama: You said this is a talk station. The programmes are exclusively talks or�.

Prem Kumar: No, of course not. When we call it a talk station, it is interspersed with good Tamil and international music. The predominant content is talk.

Rama: You have also quite a substantial component of OBs, I mean Outside Broadcasts�

Prem Kumar: The station has a team of presenters who are professional, challenging and provocative as well as fun and entertaining. They have the ability to engage and empathise with the city's audience. The team is highly active and visible in the community with outside broadcasts (OBs). The idea of OBs is to reach out to people at different places in the city.

Rama: Any live coverage of events?

Prem Kumar: Eventually that is the idea. It is just a month and a half since we launched the Station. We do propose to have live broadcasts of events.

Rama: Your motto is to make the listeners feel that this is their station for their city. How far have you traveled in making this a reality?

Prem Kumar: Though it has just been a month and a half since the Station was launched, the number and types of calls that we have been receiving goes to show that already many listeners feel so. We are receiving calls from listeners belonging to almost all age groups and from various walks of life. This means that our format has succeeded. It is a question of time before we reach out to a large majority of Chennaiites, if not to all. Even today, we have already created considerable awareness throughout the city. Very soon we will be going in full swing in terms of marketing and visibility. And we will reach out to every Chennaiite.

Rama: In terms of listenership, do you think you have that mush of space in the city?

Prem Kumar: Yes, of course. We believe that the type of content that we would generate, a sizable population would want to associate themselves with the discussions.

Rama: Are you bilingual, or�

Prem Kumar: Well, first of all, we play a mix of Tamil and English songs and our presenters talk in a mix of Tamil and English. We speak the language that Chennai speaks. Obviously, we reflect Chennai's contemporary society.

Rama:You are a mechanical engineer with a Management Degree in Marketing Management. How do you look at the transformation from being a marketing expert to heading a broadcasting station?

Prem Kumar: First of all, marketing as a function is much more that just selling or branding. In a real sense, it involves managing businesses and resources. You have to deal with people. In one sense, a marketing expert will have to put it all together, I mean, resourcing, HR and finance. In that sense, this is not a different role. May be, this is a larger role, having a bigger scope.

Rama: What is your dream?

Prem Kumar: Well, I have worked in different industries, right from consumer durables to a dotcom company involved in e-commerce. Of course working in the media is a challenge. In spite of so many channels, I would say that excepting the print medium - the newspaper, all other media in the country including electronic media and internet are in an infant stage. There is so much more to do to day. We have a long way to go. For example, as for radio itself, here, people say, we have two hundred or three hundred channels in the whole country. You know that in London itself, which is smaller than Chennai, there are a hundred stations, catering to different, but exclusive sectors like sports, western music, weather and the like. That is the degree to which we can and we should grow.

Rama: I am sure Muthoots group will also join in this task in a big way �..

Prem Kumar: Yes, absolutely. Even this foray into media is only the beginning. Muthoot's have large plans of getting into other media space as well. Radio is only a start. We may enter Television and internet, too.

Rama: Thank You, Prem Kumar for your time.

Prem Kumar: Thank you.

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