MUMBAI: The Jagran Group will be launching its FM station – Jagran Radio in December 2006. The group, which runs the Hindi daily newspaper Dainik Jagran, had won the first bid for eight cities in UP, Bihar and Punjab for the cities of Hissar, Kamal, Gorakhpur, Agra, Banara, Bareilly, Ranchi and Jallandhar.

Jagran Radio director and project head Rahul Gupta says, “The Gorakhpur and Kamal radio stations will be launched in December, possibly 31 December, which will be followed by Hissar and Agra stations in January next year. Likewise Bareilly, Benaras and Jalandhar stations will be launched in February and Ranchi in March.”

What’s more, when the second bid for licensing comes up in March 2007, the Jagran Group is hopeful of winning the license for Dehradun, Patna, Jamshedpur and Delhi. “We have planned to cash in on the strong foothold of our newspaper. We have stiff competitors like Radio Mirchi, Reliance Adlabs’ Big FM and B.A.G. Films’ Radio Dhamaal. However, we have conducted a market research with IMRB and our agency Brand Curry, which is looking after the creative aspect, which comprises press and market activation. Going by the research findings, we will be bringing a differentiation in music and programming. The content will be city centric and we will be targeting people in the age group of 18 to 34.”