A new Hungarian radio station, 90.9 “Jazzy Rádió,” was launched on Monday, reports fn.hu. The station is devoted solely to jazz, and is aimed at educated listeners with high incomes. Imre Suri, managing director of Magyar Jazz Rádió Kft and one of the station’s owners, said that the 24-hour station will mainly air popular jazz. On its first day, it grabbed a four to five percent share of listeners, and the long-term goal is to double those numbers. Launching the radio required a Ft 100 million (roughly €400,000) investment, and the owners expect to break even after one year of operation.
Suri added that the station’s marketing strategy is based on studies indicating that four-fifths of Hungarian jazz fans are college-educated, and the same fraction consists of top or middle managers or entrepreneurs. Until now, there was no Hungarian radio station that targeted this segment of the market, who like to and can afford to buy luxury products.
The 90.9 Jazzy Rádió will operate as a “public programme service,” which means it can air six minutes of advertisements every hour, half as much as commercial stations. Its owners believe that audience quality rather than the quantity of ad spots will work in the station’s favour. Suri, who is a former promotional director for one of Hungary’s leading radio stations, Juventus Rádió, thinks that this will be enough to break even after one year of operation.
Ad spots will be marketed by the recently-formed Target Média. Tamás Nagy, a former commercial director of Juventus Rádió, said that they had an advertiser already on the first day, which is rare among radio stations. Zoltán Antal, another owner of the station and owner of Pannon Plakát, provided 200 outdoor display ads to push the station’s launch highlighting the character of its expected audience. The owners do not plan any other marketing campaigns.
(Source: caboodle.hu/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)