History of Radio Mirchi
The original avatar of Radio Mirchi was Times FM. Radio Mirchi began operations in 1993 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Until 1993, All India Radio or AIR, a government undertaking, was the only radio broadcaster in India. The government then took the initiative to privatize the radio broadcasting sector. It sold airtime blocks on its FM channels in Indore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Varanasi, Visakhapatnam and Goa to private operators, who developed their own program content. The Times Group operated its brand, Times FM, till June 1998. After that, the government decided not to renew contracts given to private operators.
First round of licenses
In 2000, the government announced the auction of 108 FM frequencies across India. ENIL won the largest number of frequencies, and thus started its operations under the brand name Radio Mirchi.
Second round of licences
In January 2006, Radio Mirchi purchased 25 frequencies in the second wave of licences that were issued by the Government of India. This pushes the Radio Mirchi presence in 32 centres. In the first wave of launches, Indore was the first city in India having grade of first private radio channel. Times decided to start radio channel to address the mass audience as advertisers can be attracted by showing a low cost per thousand.
Third round of licenses
Radio Mirchi invested above Rs.339 crore during phase III auctions and purchased 17 new channels in new cities such as Chandigarh, Kochi, Kozhikode, Jammu, Srinagar, Guwahati and Shillong, as well as in existing cities such as Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Kanpur, Lucknow, Jaipur, Nagpur and Surat. This pushes Radio Mirchi presence in 49 centres.[5]
GCC countries expansion
Radio Mirchi started operations across UAE, streaming across three frequencies : 97.3FM in Abu Dhabi, 88.8FM in Dubai and the Northern Emirates and 95.6FM in Al Ain & Bahrain 104.2 and Qatar 89.6 Mirchi One In partnership with ONE FM Qatar ki dhadkan All the RJs have been recruited from various Radio Mirchi stations in India including Anup Chugh, with a total seven who will take to the air. [6] Radio Mirchi UAE is now KADAK FM but later, Radio Mirchi made a comeback to the UAE in 2021 with 102.4 FM Mirchi.
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Mirchi#:~:text=Radio%20Mirchi%20(%22Mirchi%22%20in,FM%20radio%20stations%20in%20India.
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