Following the acquisition of a new radio frequency, Kalanithi Maran-owned Red FM is looking to attract a whole new bunch of listeners and advertisers.

The Sun Group company plans to cater to the ’90s retro music segment through its new Redtro station.

The company said it may also look at original content for its radio station. Digital Radio Broadcasting, which runs Red FM, had acquired the frequency in November 2015 via bidding for ₹123 crore.

“Our research indicated that there is a need for retro music. There is a whole generation that had grown up listening to tracks of the ’90s, which as segment is highly under-served. We will be focusing on that segment,” Nisha Narayanan, COO, Red FM, told BusinessLine .

Advertiser response to the new radio station is highly encouraging, said Narayanan.

“We have players like real estate companies, automobile manufacturers and e-commerce firms as our key advertisers,” she added. The target audience for Redtro are 30-45-year olds, said Narayanan.

Redtro 106.4 has come out with a 360 degree campaign to expand the reach.

Leading players Broadcasters have been experimenting with retro music. Reliance Broadcast Network’s 92.7 Big FM, an early player, leads the segment. Recently, HT Media-owned Radio Nasha also launched a retro station.

According to a FICCI-KPMG report on Media and Entertainment, “Radio continued its strong run with a 15.3 per cent growth in 2015. Following the new stations licensed in Phase 3 and consolidation in the industry, radio is transforming from a ‘coverage’ media to a ‘reach’ platform.

“Major radio stations have been operating at high ad inventory utilisation levels and this, coupled with the growing advertiser interest, has enabled increase in ad rates.”

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