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28 March 2024

UAE radio stations race to offer free foreign holidays to listeners

Published
By VM Sathish

As the summer heat goes up, competition among the UAE’s radio stations is getting hotter, and radio jockeys are literally taking the audience for a ride.

A number of the UAE’s Indian radio stations – Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil – are currently running marathon campaigns to select lucky listeners for availing free summer packages to countries in Africa, Europe or even to Saudi Arabia.

Listeners keen to visit much-sought-after holiday destinations are busy texting the radio stations or liking and commenting on their Facebook pages.

The trend of taking a plane load of listeners to all-expenses-paid vacations was kicked off a few years ago, with more radio stations jumping on the bandwagon with each passing year. The Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi channels have their own summer holiday packages, arranged with sponsors and advertisers to keep their listeners engaged. There are also other anniversary celebration campaigns offering freebies and hard cash to lucky listeners.

Says Jayalaxmi, Head of Programmes, Super FM 94.7, part of the Radio Asia Network, one of the oldest Malayalam radio stations in the UAE: “We will be taking 50 listeners to Kenya for a summer trip as part of Super Safari to Kenya Season One. The lucky winners are selected on the basis of SMS/Facebook competition. Winners get three nights, four days Safari Package to Kenya. They have to just send an SMS to a specific number and winners are randomly selected, followed by interviews to ascertain their trip.”

She added that the network’s Hindi channel, Suno, earlier took a large group of listeners to Switzerland. “With seven Malayalam Radio Stations including three AM stations and 4 FM stations, competition is tough and such campaigns help increase our audience, especially the young listeners who like entertainment,” she added.

Herman Lewis, Chief Executive Officer of Spice Radio, said the Hindi radio station, popular among the Hindi speaking Asians and even some Emirati listeners, will be taking 52 listeners selected through an SMS competition to Amsterdam, Netherlands for summer vacation.

Says Herman: “We will take 52 listeners to Amsterdam for three nights and four days. We regularly take our listeners to watch sports events and to meet celebrities like Shahrukh Khan. People going for the Amsterdam trips are expatriate listeners from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Some Emirati listeners of our music programmes too will join the trip.”

He said there are seven Hindi Radio Stations in the UAE and each one is sure to be undertaking special promotions to keep their listeners engaged. There are advertisers and sponsors who have special interest in joining such listener loyalty programmes, Herman added.

There are other radio stations which do not want to be part of the game. “It is good for the lucky winners who are getting a free vacation and visit foreign destinations. However, radio stations are charging money for the SMS and we received 150 SMSs from a single listener, who was desperate to join a trip to Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

“I believe there are other desperate listeners who spend a lot of money to get on the plane. Some radio stations charge Dh3 for a single SMS. The losers are many and winners are limited,” said the director of an Indian radio station.

“Part of the SMS money is shared between the service provider and the radio stations. Revenue from sponsorship and advertisers is a bonus. No wonder many radio stations are joining the trend,” he added.

And the trend is indeed catching up fast. “As part of Radio Asia’s 20th anniversary celebrations, we recently took 70 listeners to visit the Taj Mahal and other tourist destinations in India. In addition, listeners are offered cash prizes sponsored by a money exchange,” said Vettoor G Sreedharan, Programme Director, Radio Asia.

Radio Asia from Ras al Khaimah is an established AM Malayalam station, popular not only in the UAE, but also in neighbouring Gulf countries. Sreedharan says some people send more than a handful text messages as their competition entries, to brighten their chances.

“While there are people who sent 20 to 100 SMSs for our India trip competition, we requested them to not do so. TV channels in India and elsewhere mint money through SMSs, but no one is doing so in the Gulf radio scene. There was a time Radio Asia used to get sack-full of letters through postal mail. Now it is the SMS culture that makes such competitions easier,” he says.

Asianet Radio, another  leading Malayalam AM station from Dubai, selected 57 people (32 students, 15 teachers and 10 listeners) from various Indian schools to visit the Taj Mahal in Agra and New Delhi during the Indian Republic Day celebrations in January. Winners were selected from more than 1,200 school students through a written test.

“We are preparing to take the next batch of ‘Proud to be an Indian’ to another historical destination in India. Students here do not know much about India and the students who went to New Delhi got a chance to participate in the Republic Day programmes, interact with Indian Defence Minister AK Antony and other dignitaries like Shashi Tharoor. In future, we will take listeners to other Indian cities that are historically important,” said E Satheesh, from Asianet Radio and Television.

Radio Hello, (89.5 FM) the first Tamil radio station catering to nearly 450,000 Tamil speaking expatriates from India and Sri Lanka has joined hands with Radio Me, the Malayalam FM station (100.3 FM) to take 100 listeners (50 each) to two different destinations.

“We are taking 50 listeners to Prague, Czech Republic for a fully-paid trip. Twenty-five listeners of Radio Hallo and 25 listeners of Radio Me will go to Prague this summer and, later, we plan to take another 50 listeners from both the stations to a European destination.

“It is for the first time that Radio Hello is taking its listeners for a vacation, and we plan to continue the same,” said James Joseph, Assistant Manager, Sales and Marketing, Radio Hello.

Hit 96.7 from the Arabian Radio Network has taken listeners to many international holiday destinations. Similarly, Gold FM part of Radio 4 Network is planning to send 10 listeners to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah.

“Ten listeners will be shortlisted and only those who cannot afford to go for Umrah will get the benefit of the scheme,” said a source from Gold FM.

(Home page image courtesy Shutterstock)

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