Radio Dhol 94.0FM, the country’s one and only “rock station” began their journey on December 10, 2015. In a country where there has already been an influx of new FM radio stations, what could be the vision behind launching yet another radio station? With that query, Showtime engaged in a chat with Zahidul Haque Apu, the head of programmes.
“From the investor’s point of view, it is more convenient to invest in a radio station compared to other forms of media. And if you see from the programme’s point of view it is an international trend to spring up specialised radio channels. The first FM radio channel of the country got their license eight years ago. The FM trend had been there ever since. But now we want to bring more specialised channels and Radio Dhol is a start,” says Apu, a popular name in the field of radio jockeys.
How is Radio Dhol different from other stations?
Radio Dhol is a radio station that is solely dedicated to rock music. Our primary focus is the Bangla rock genre, followed by its English counterpart. We have not incorporated the Hindi songs yet. Although the FM trend has been present in the country for around nine years now, such specialisations in the field are fairy new. For the last four or five years we have seen two kinds of shows. One is talk-based and another one is music-based. Now the fragmentation is more subtle. All of our shows are rock-based but all of them have unique characters. Here, one show focuses on one youth-related topic only. It can be comics, movies, TV series, or gadgets. We try to bring up the current trends and different topics that are popular among today’s youth.
Who is your target audience? What kind of programs do you air?
We have targeted people who belong to the age group of 15 to 35. Pop culture is our central focus. The common trend had been magazine programs where a plethora of components are presented. But we have made our products very specific, catering and focusing on individual topics.
Several new radio stations have been launched in the recent past, how is Radio Dhol dealing with the competition?
It is a very tough competition. Moreover, we just started our journey. Regardless, I still think that we are in a good position. Our focus is to reflect the current, prevalent trends. In the nine years the FM culture has boomed, we have learned a lot. We want to take those lessons and move forward with our station, to be able to treat our listeners to the best of Radio. For example, Gaan Bangla has succeeded to make its mark as a music channel. We want to create a name like that for us. We want to shape ourselves as the country’s only radio station that is dedicated to rock music.
