Radio City: Record Christmas

The radio station has erected a 40 feet Christmas tree in one of malls of the Delhi-NCR region and aims to make it to the Limca Book of Records.

The Ambience Mall in Gurgaon, New Delhi will witness a larger than life Christmas celebration this season, between December 21-31, thanks to an activation carried out by Radio City 91.1 FM. The radio station will erect a fully lit Christmas tree, to be unveiled on Christmas Eve.

The tree is an attempt by Radio City to get into the Limca Book of Records once again. The station is also collecting thousands of gifts from listeners across the country for under privileged children. The gifts, to be kept under the tree, will be distributed later in the week through 'Save the Children' NGO,.

Live programmes will also be conducted at the mall from December 25-31 for audience engagement.

Kartik Kalla, national programming head, Radio City 91.1 FM, says, "We wanted to do a CSR activity around Christmas as this is the season of giving. So, once we started collecting gifts and received a good response from our listeners, we thought of transforming our effort into a larger than life activity. Also, the mammoth size of the tree enables us to display the gifts we have received."

Though the station chose Delhi to erect the tree, it has collected the gifts across the country since December 17.

Ambience Mall was chosen for the activation as it is on the border of Delhi and Haryana, and will thus attract footfalls from both states. Another reason was that the mall had all the prerequisites to erect the huge structure.

The radio station has undertaken a massive on-air campaign as well as on ground activities to promote the initiative. The radio jockeys of Radio City will visit different malls and connect with the listeners to promote the activity.

Kalla says, "Our RJs are personally going to the listeners and collecting the gifts from them. We are also using our social media platforms to connect with the listeners online."

The tree was designed by the in house team of the station and the estimated spends on the entire campaign is in the range of Rs 7-8 lakh, including the designing and collection of gifts.

Radio City plans to tap major festivals and events in the future through similar activities.

Earlier, too, Radio City has taken up endeavours to enter the Limca Book of Records. In October, the Chennai station of Radio City undertook the 'Namma City Golu' campaign, which erected the tallest Golu (36 feet and four inches tall). Golu is the sacred doll that is made during the nine days of the Navratri festival in the South. The campaign marked a social initiative where Radio City collected 'Golus' and distributed them amongst orphaned kids on Dussehra.

For the 'Singathon' record on World Peace Day, the station roped in 700 students of Ahmedabad, who sang and played simultaneously on air. Kids dressed in colourful attire lined up for the 'Hum Honge Kamyaab' song. A large number of listeners later tuned in to support the campaign.

Radio City started its operations in July, 2001 in Bengaluru and is promoted by Music Broadcast Private Limited (MBPL). It runs its operations in 20 different cities.