Radio City's Saurabh Kanwar: Hiring aggressively for a bulk of off-air jobs in sales

Help, Tarun!

Culture Pays

Radio towers are changing the skylines across Indian cities and towns. Whether you are in Jaipur or Jalandhar, Surat or Salem, you can't miss seeing them-either up, ready and beaming sound waves across their local areas, or under construction and getting ready to increase the crackle in the air. The obvious spin-off: the fm radio segment is creating thousands-most estimates peg it at 10,000-plus-of jobs. And that's just for starters.

"I see direct employment potential of 15,000-20,000 in the ongoing second phase of the fm radio revolution," says Prasad Swaminathan, Senior Vice President, People Innovation, Entertainment Network (India) Ltd (ENIL), which operates Radio Mirchi, the largest fm radio operation in the country. ENIL has bagged 25 new fm radio licences over and above the seven it already has. It has already recruited about 130 new people in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Jaipur, and is now looking for 700 more people for the remaining 22 new radio stations it plans to set up in the months ahead.

"Currently, the bulk of the hiring (across channels) is happening in sales. Each radio station needs a minimum of 25 people, regardless of its size. In metro cities, this rises to 40-45 people. The break-up: 25 sales personnel, 3-4 producers, 3-4 copywriters, 3-4 ad schedulers, 8-10 RJs, and 4-5 station engineers," says E. Balaji, Chief Operating Officer, Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd.

According to Anil Mehra, Director, Radio Today Broadcasting Ltd (owned, incidentally, by the Living Media Group, which publishes Business Today), the job market will really hot up in the next three months. Radio Today, which recently sold its popular Red fm radio stations in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, will restart operations in these same cities and four others (it has bagged seven licences).

"We'll soon start recruiting personnel for our operations-from a new CEO down to the entry-level positions. We'll go to college campuses for the latter," says Mehra.

Dainik Bhaskar Group's Sohrab Bhramar: It's an extremely volatile job market

Broadly, there's demand for two sets of people-the on-air talent (RJs or presenters) and the off-air personnel (management, sales, advertising and engineering professionals). "The off-air people can be recruited from the print media, television companies and advertising agencies, but on-air talent is a different kettle of fish. You need radio-ready people," says Roshan Abbas, one of India's leading RJs, who has recently launched Encompass EMDI Institute of Radio Management, which trains wannabe RJs and other personnel for the radio industry.

There is, however, an acute shortage of radio-ready professionals in India. It's a new medium and even talented programming professionals poached from television industry will need time to adapt to the new environment. ENIL's Swaminathan and Radio Today's Mehra say they are putting in place robust training programmes to "culturally align" their recruits to the radio industry and develop their competencies.

"Radio stations are mostly looking for young people with high energy levels, especially for the RJ-ing jobs. The RJ is the guy who connects directly with the audience and, so, is the main driver behind a channel's popularity," says Sunil Kumar, a Delhi-based radio industry consultant. Agrees Ma Foi's Balaji: "Wannabe RJs must have the ability to make listeners feel as if they are listening to someone face to face. Their auditions are highly competitive. For example, All India Radio auditions normally have around 300 candidates, of which only six are chosen." Adds Sohrab Bhramar, National Programming Head (Radio), Dainik Bhaskar Group, which has bagged 17 new fm radio licences: "Since there aren't enough trained professionals to fill up all the positions being created, we are placing at least one experienced person in each new station we are setting up. But the next 2-3 years will be extremely volatile and companies will have to deal with poaching at all levels." The main demand is for RJs who speak Hindi or other regional languages. "There are few takers for English-speaking RJs," says Tarana Raja Kapoor, RJ, Go 92.5 fm, a former English language channel that has switched over to Hindi.

The skewed demand-supply position naturally translates into high salaries. In metro cities, the RJs who regale you on your drive to and from work every day make Rs 15-30 lakh per annum; those yapping away and playing music at other times earn Rs 8-12 lakh. The salary levels in other cities (all slots) are Rs 4-8 lakh per annum. At higher levels, programming heads get Rs 15-20 lakh in metros and Rs 8-10 lakh in non-metros, while a national programming head can expect Rs 25-50 lakh.

But such salaries don't come on a platter. "An RJ should be able to research and script his own programmes and be technically competent," says Devjyoti Haldar, better known as RJ Dev to listeners of Radio Mirchi in Delhi.

ENIL's Prasad Swaminathan: Job boom in second phase of FM radio revolution

"The bulk of the off-air jobs are in sales-both corporate and retail. Here, MBAs are preferred, though non-MBAs with experience in selling space for the print media may also get a look in," says Saurabh Kanwar, Marketing Head, Radio City (Music Broadcast Pvt Ltd), which has been hiring aggressively for its new stations in Hyderabad, Chennai and Jaipur.

"Given the current shortage of manpower, radio companies are open to hiring MBAs from Tier-II institutes. At senior levels, however, they want MBAs from premier institutes with relevant experience," says Ma Foi's Balaji. "For a top-level position, we look for someone with 10-12 years of relevant experience and qualification such as an MBA," says Harpreet Singh, Manager (Radio Team), HT Media, which has fm licences for Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore. "We're currently recruiting only for senior positions," he says, adding that junior-level recruitments will take place later. HT Media will launch its first radio station in Delhi around Diwali.

Apart from programming and sales personnel, there is also demand for technical, production, administrative and legal professionals. Electronics, electrical and communications engineers are needed to maintain the radio stations and equipment, while legal professionals draw up contracts with music companies and handle copyright-related issues.

Industry observers say both demand for personnel and salaries will go up further once big players such as Anil Ambani's Adlabs, which grabbed 44 licences, start hiring.

Reason enough for you to ride the airwaves?

COUNSELLING
Help, Tarun!

Q: I am pursuing MBA (Finance) from Kurukshetra University. My ambition is to work for consultancy firms such as Ernst and Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). However, I feel, that this will be difficult as I am not doing my management studies from one of the premier institutes.

You are right in that your MBA from a non-premier school may come in the way of your ambition. One option is to do another MBA from a premier institute in India or go for management studies abroad.

Q: I am a 25-year-old commerce graduate working in a BPO in Mumbai for the past three years. I have just completed a part-time course in MBA. I would like to shift to Gurgaon. Please advise.

If you are dissatisfied with your job content, chances are, you will be dissatisfied with it in any geographical location. If the company is the issue, you can always change within Mumbai. Moving to Gurgaon is definitely an option as it is a growing BPO hub. But you will have to factor in the cost of living. If you are living with your parents right now and plan to live on your own in Gurgaon, then your cost of living will definitely go up.

Answers to your career concerns are contributed by Tarun Sheth (Senior Consultant) and Shilpa Sheth (Managing Partner, US practice) of HR firm, Shilputsi Consultants. Write to Help,Tarun! c/o Business Today, Videocon Tower, Fifth Floor, E-1, Jhandewalan Extn., New Delhi-110055..

Culture Pays
Ever thought of running a museum?

Culture, or at least that part of it that can be packaged and marketed, is now a career option. Museulogy, for the uninitiated, is the art and science of running a museum. And several universities offer both bachelor's and master's degrees in it. And there are good, though niche, opportunities for museology grads. There are, of course, the government-run museums. Besides, the various Birla factions, the Tatas, ONGC and MRF, among other corporate groups, have also set up museums for which they need trained hands. "All big and small museums require curators and there is a shortage of trained meseulogists," says Jhumur Sarkar, MD of Astro Links, which specialises in restoration and conservation work for museums.

-Pallavi Srivastava