WHEN Dr. Obiageli Pat Ndu mounts the rostrum on May 30 to welcome guests to the Sheraton Lagos media launch for Enugu-based Solid FM 100.9FM, she would be making a definitive pitch for a slice of advertising spend meant for the South East radio market.

Guests of the General Manager of Solid FM would be advertisers, media planners, publicists and other professionals in the broad marketing communication industry. The Lagos media launch event of Solid FM 100.9 FM comes against the backdrop of increased competition and vibrancy of the Frequency Modulated radio spectrum in the region.

Many entrances and exits have marked the South East radio market in the last 24 months but particularly so in the last 12 months.  FRCN led the push by opening about five FM radio stations to serve the region in addition to the Coal City FM that had existed for years. It established nine FM stations to service South East and South South with the following five in the South East: Coal City 98.2 FM, Enugu, Purity 102.5 FM, Awka, Unity 101.5 FM, Abakaliki, Heartland 100.5 FM, Owerri and Pacesetter 103.5 FM, Umuahia. Others are in Port Harcourt, Yenagoa, Uyo and Calabar.

Private players soon joined the fray. Enugu currently witnessed a three-horse race in a competition that hitherto featured five players from the private sector. In the race were Solid FM, Dream 92.5 FM and the aforesaid Coal City FM.

Currently out in the cold are Raypower FM and Cosmos FM, the latter shut by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission as it chased funds allegedly looted by its promoter former Governor Chimaraoke Nnamani. Before them all was Minaj Radio from out of Obosi, near Onitsha, which held sway for a long while and then went under. Surprisingly, Cosmo still features in some monitoring reports!

Hot FM, which made its mark in Abuja, has established a foothold in Owerri, the Imo State capital. Specialty broadcaster Brila FM established a beachhead in Onitsha.

The latest entrant is Magic 102.9 FM, the first station to establish in the commercial city of Aba, Abia State.  That market had long yearned for a medium such as this as advertising and listenership from Aba featured prominently in the success of the Radio Rivers 2 FM in the 80s and 90s as the premier hip station of the South South and South East. Magic hopes to perform the magic of contributing to the revival of Aba as both a city of commerce, culture and living space.

Magic FM’s vision for its target audience encapsulates the philosophical approach of the new FM stations running on digital technology and streaming on the Internet: “We are targeting the new Nigerian, eager to be informed, entertained, educated and ready to move up the ladder. The increasing population of workers, businessmen and traders, the educated and not-so-educated but ambitious, upwardly mobile adults hungry for information and entertainment are catered for. We also heavily cater for youths and children who easily constitute a huge percentage of population in our coverage area. More importantly, our support for private sector growth targets corporate bodies intent on increasing their market share. We have a wide range of programmes to cater for every group in relation to our focus of broadcasting in English, Pidgin and Igbo.”

The South East market for FM is particularly attractive because of the youth demographic. There are about 20 major towns and over 30 institutions of higher learning from Nsukka to Nsugbe through Awka to Oko and Umunze, to Uturu, Ihiala, Owerri, Abakaliki, Afikpo all the way to Umuahia and Aba.   FM with its breezy presentation composed mainly of music and chat appeals to the lifestyle and aspirations of the young.

Veteran broadcaster and former Director General of Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria Kevin Ejiofor says FM radio is “a good medium for promoting the new hip culture. It appeals to young people.”  Ejiofor notes that radio is comparatively cheaper than television both for the promoters and the audience and lends itself well to give expression to popular culture.

Politics features prominently in the calculus as well. Three serving legislators and a former minister own four of the FM stations. Politics 2015 and beyond is clearly in the frame. Radio also lends itself well to political communication.

There is also the economics and even the politics of broadcasting. Regulator National Broadcasting Commission no longer has spectrum to grant anybody to open in Lagos, no matter the amount on offer. Investors interested in playing in the broadcast market for radio have to look outside Lagos or take community broadcast licenses for rural Lagos.

While some speculate whether the economy of the South East can bear the burden of sustaining the stations, indications are that the new Enugu stations are becoming self-sustaining within the first year.

The real challenge ahead seems to lie in content and presentation. The stations suffer from so much similarity that unless their call signal comes on it is difficult to tell one from the other –breezy presentations, audience phone-in programmes, not much depth and plenty of music. Then the occasional Pidgin programme and plenty of foreign sports –UEFA, English Premiership etc- but nary a mention of the local league or the sporting activities around their immediate vicinities.

They have all borrowed the public radio’s post-commercialisation template of charging corporate bodies for news coverage. With not so many corporate organisations in view, it would be interesting to see how the LTP (Let Them Pay) approach to news coverage would play out. News as paid-for broadcast is strange to the rest of the world but is an anomaly that has become the norm only in Nigeria.

Distinctive programming and presentation that breaks the current parity would make the difference in the emerging competitive terrain. They would need the buy-in of various groups, as institutions, communities or other groupings, to say, “This is our own station”. Meanwhile, the young of the South East are enjoying the Free Music from the FM stations.