Now hum with 6 more FM Stations in Bangalore

Good news for all you radio listeners in Bangalore! Bangalore will soon have six new FM stations, in addition to the existing three - AIR's FM Rainbow, Radio City and Gyanvani. On 6th Jan 2006, in the second phase of FM broadcasting expansion in the country, six new companies won the bidding for issue of license by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and are qualified to run their FM stations in Bangalore.

A maximum of seven new slots were up for grabs. One slot remains unallocated after successful bidding by the six companies. In the coming weeks, the Ministry will award many more licenses to run FM stations in a number of other cities across the country. About 336 frequencies are available for bids in the next phase and are classified according to the population of the cities.

Four FM stations each are up for grabs in Mysore, Mangalore and Gulbarga. Radio Mid-Day West India Private Ltd, in which BBC Worldwide is a joint venture partner, is one of the successful bidders for providing FM radio service in Bangalore. It has won the bid for Rs 15.42 crore. It has also picked up licenses to run FM stations in Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune and Ahmedabad.

The second successful bidder is the HT Music and Entertainment Company Private Ltd which is making its maiden entry in the field. The company won the license for Bangalore for Rs 6 crore. It has also won bids for Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Ad labs Films India Limited owned by Anil Ambani also won its bid for Bangalore at Rs 12.96 crore. The other cities where it won the bidding are Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai.

Also entering the Bangalore FM sector, are Kal Radio of Sun TV group (Rs 20 crore) and Indigo of the BPL Group (Rs 9.2 crore). The sixth slot in the city was cornered by Entertainment India Network (EINL), which operates Radio Mirchi stations in Delhi and Mumbai. It bagged the license for Rs 21.6 crore.

The Union government is expected to rake over Rs 500 crore from the financial bidding for 54 frequencies across 13 cities. This means that you could very soon have your own favourite local-local station to tune into like every other major city in the world! So you hum thara ram param........