Why Radio? What makes radio to stand apart???

There are clear cut advantages which make radio popular, amongst them:

1.       Radio is a non-intrusive medium: Simply put it doesn’t come between you and your work. You can drive, cook, work or mostly do anything with the radio playing at the background, and it won’t hamper your output. But the same doesn’t hold true for Television or magazines, where you need to concentrate on the medium to get the sense out of it.

2.       Radio is extremely portable: A point which needs little explanation, it can go anywhere you go, but whether you’ll be able to use it or not depends on service; but still it can stay with you anywhere.

3.       Radio is local: One of the biggest advantage, radio is restricted to a particular region and this gives immense potential to radio. Both the users and advertisers gain a lot from it. A local advertiser is able to market his/her product to the potential clients. Pick any spot (commercial) e.g. There is a sale at a jewelry store in Lucknow, now wont it make sense for it to advertise its upcoming sale to the potential customers within Lucknow. Will it gain any advantage by putting the ad on a national television (local channels have very limited viewership) and incur huge cost when maximum number of viewers will never be able to take advantage of the sale.

The same spot on radio will not only deliver the message to the correct customers but will also make more sense as both the store and the potential customers are located in the same city, plus it will be much more cost effective, and will have high value for money.

Apart from this, local news/updates or local connect can only be achieved through a local medium. You can connect with the people by talking about things which makes sense to them e.g. Weather, traffic conditions, train timings or local issues.

People can connect with the on-air staff or the station, and can give their feedbacks or suggestions, they also have the opportunity to connect with their favorite RJs. Connecting the same way with a TV station is virtually impossible even for the local residents of the city where the TV channel is based.

4.       Radio is Live: Together will local connect this really boosts radio as the true and one of the most effective public communication medium. Live updates are possible on radio which is impossible for print and very difficult for television to manage. A jam at a crossing in a particular city is of relevance to the residents of that city only or those visiting it, a radio station can give out exact details, same goes for other local and

5.       Radio is Inexpensive: A locally manufactured non-branded Radio can be bought for a few rupees, whereas a TV will still cost couple of thousand. Plus you don’t need to pay for the service, but TV/newspaper/magazines carry their cost.