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MUMBAI, Oct. 1

NOW, a game show on radio with the daily prize money running up to Rs 1 lakh. There's a catch however — the game show is exclusively for Mumbai's radio listeners.

Radio City 91 FM, part of the Star TV Group, today announced the launch of a game show titled Suno aurr lakhpati bano, somewhat on the lines of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC). Additionally, the game show will be partially conducted by actor, Amitabh Bachchan.

KBC, anchored by Bachchan, used to be telecast on Star Plus, the flagship channel of the Star TV Group.

The format of the radio game show runs like this: Starting October 7, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the start of each hour, Bachchan will pose a question with four options for answer.

Listeners will have to call in the answer on telephone or through SMS. The phone and SMS lines will be kept open from the fifth minute to the 25th minute of each hour. Winners of the 10 questions will be selected for top of the hour questions based on a random computerised selection and will get an opportunity to participate in the 9 p.m. Super Bumper Draw that will be held live on Radio City's Mumbai station. One out of the 10 will be selected for the three-question session, which will win the contestant Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000 and Rs 1,00,000.

According to Mr Sumantra Dutta, Chief Operating Officer, (Radio Division) Star India Pvt Ltd, Radio City's promoter Music Broadcast Private Ltd (MBPL), will be using a mix of media to promote the game show — TV, print, Internet, radio and hoardings.

Initially slated for a 6-week run on Radio City's Mumbai station, the game show could be taken to other Radio City stations depending on its success, Mr Dutta said.

He did not reveal the names of the sponsors, but added that the marketing of the show was already under way. Currently, the station has advertisements of 70 brands.

According to Mr Dutta, the need for introducing a show is to draw listeners towards a particular radio station. "Currently, listeners are confused because of the presence of five stations. There have been cases where listeners have been unable to link frequency stations to the radio's name,'' he said.

The market, according to him, has not got used to buying radio.

"The fallacy that radio is a support medium should go. There is a need to break the clutter in the minds of the radio listener, aggressively promote tune in and increase brand count,'' Mr Dutta said.

Radio City's Delhi station was slated to commence in late February or early March next year, Mr Dutta said.

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