FM Radios in India have brought about an easy and portable way of entertainment across the country. With the passage of time, FM radio channels have become an intimate mode of entertainment and recreation. Almost every household of India is well acquainted with the idea of FM assures its coverage in almost all the corners of the nation.
The first FM broadcasting in India was in the year 1977 at Madras. In the mid 90`s, when India first experimented with private FM broadcasts, the small tourist destination of Goa was the fifth place in this country of one billion where private players got FM slots. The other four centres were the big metro cities: Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai. These were followed by stations in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Lucknow.
Times FM
Times FM began its operations in 1993 in Ahmedabad. Until 1993, All India Radio 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, Vizag and Goa to private operators, who developed their own program content.
Radio City Bangalore
Radio City Bangalore is India`s first private FM radio station and was started on July 3, 2001. It launched with presenters such as Rohit Barker, Darius Sunawala, Jonzie Kurian and Suresh Venkat.
Air FM Rainbow
Air FM Rainbow is a national radio station run by All India Radio is a national radio station, heard all across India. This government owned enterprise, features Hindi and regional language songs and occasional English songs along with hourly news bulletins in English, regional language and also in Hindi. The channel plays various genres of music and its preferred list contains variety of songs from all regions of the nation. AIR FM Rainbow plays ghazals, soundtracks as well as English songs, which is a rare occurrence in Indian radio channels. Rainbow is one of very few Indian radio channels which play the Western Music and the western music slots are highly popular with listeners. It has many western music programmes like Take off, Time Out, Live wire Plus, Wicked Hour, Matchless music hours, Footloose, You asked for it, Radio pet house, just for you and many other classical music shows. Almost all the radio jockeys on private FM channels once started with FM Rainbow.
106.4 FM Radio Gold
106.4 FM Radio Gold is a radio channel of All India Radio and is heard in the metropolitan cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. 106.4 FM Radio Gold can also be heard on DTH platform. 106.4 FM Radio Gold is recently broadcasted in Trichy as Hello 106.4FM, since 14th January 2008.
Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM
Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM is a nationwide network of private FM Radio Station in India. The Radio Station is owned by Entertainment Network India Ltd (ENIL), which is one of the subsidiaries of The Times Group. Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM, derived its name from the Hindi word "Mirchi" which literally means Chilli. The tagline of the popular FM station Radio Mirchi is It`s Hot. Radio Mirchi was established under Times FM, which is probably the most famous Indian Radio Channel that began operating in 1993. In February, 2012, Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM was launched in United Arab Emirates in collaboration with Abu Dhabi Media. Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM also presents the Mirchi Music Awards which is given to honour the artistic and technical brilliance of various professionals in Hindi film music.
Big FM
Big FM 92.7, owned by Indian businessman Anil Ambani, is a nationwide private FM radio station in India. Big FM is broadcasted at 92.7 megahertz and its listenership covers around 45 cities. Big FM is the sole private FM radio station, which is broadcast from Srinagar and Jammu in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Big FM lately announced to invest a huge sum of money for arranging the transmission equipment, infrastructure and licensing; which would make the proposed network the largest ever. From July 1 2008, Big FM started its transmission outside India as well and the first city to enjoy Big FM was Singapore. The main tagline of Big FM is Suno Sunao, Life Banao.
Fever 104 FM
Fever 104 FM is a private radio station, broadcasting in India at 104.0 Megahertz in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata. The format of Fever 104 FM is a mix of Hindi Bollywood hits, Indi-pop and English music. The Fever 104 FM started broadcasting in Delhi on October 30, 2006. Their theme of Fever 104 FM is "It`s All About The Music".
Red FM
Red FM, India`s fastest growing radio station is broadcasted at 93.5 megahertz. A consortium of Arjun Rao and Sun TV Group owns Red FM with marginal interest by Astro, Malaysia and NDTV. Launched in 2002, Red FM first started round the clock operations in the major metropolitan cities of India, firstly in Mumbai, and then followed by Delhi and Kolkata in 2003.