MAM
Radio one’s renaissance man gets bigger brief
MUMBAI: Some people struggle to manage a single job. Hrishikesh Kannan is doing four—and has just been handed a fifth.
The radio veteran, better known as Hrishi K to his listeners, has spent September expanding his writ across HT Media’s entire radio portfolio. Already national brand head at Radio One, where he dreams up 360-degree branded solutions and chases revenue whilst hosting a daily morning show, Kannan now oversees brand strategy for Fever FM and Radio Nasha as well. It is an empire-building exercise that would exhaust most mortals.
The 30-year broadcasting stalwart has mastered the art of role accretion. He started as a radio host in 1994 at Times FM Delhi and never really stopped. Even as he climbed the ranks—national programming head, brand solutions architect, revenue rainmaker—he refused to abandon the microphone. Every weekday morning, without fail, he presents a show that beams across Radio One’s India network. It is a peculiar form of professional gluttony, and it appears to be working.
Kannan’s latest promotion, effective September 2025, makes him chief brand solutions officer and head of intellectual properties for HT Media’s radio business. Translation: he now devises money-spinning ideas for three radio brands instead of one, coordinates sponsorships and branded content across platforms (radio, YouTube, Instagram, live events), and still finds time to supervise national programming at Radio One. Oh, and host that morning show.
The portfolio is impressive. Radio One targets the English-speaking urban elite. Fever FM chases the Hindi heartland. Radio Nasha trafficks in retro Hindi cinema nostalgia. Each brand has its own audience, its own quirks, its own revenue streams. Kannan’s job is to extract maximum value from all three without letting any ball drop.
His track record suggests he might just pull it off. At Radio One, his branded solutions work has won awards and pulled in sponsorships for bespoke client campaigns. Revenue generation, he notes with characteristic immodesty, became “daily fodder” for him to “work on and succeed.” The man is not troubled by false humility.
Kannan also runs Radiohead, a maverick audio production outfit he founded in 2004 that churns out podcasts, audio plays, radio promos and book narrations. Because apparently running three radio brands whilst hosting a daily show was not quite enough to fill the diary.
His career spans the entire arc of Indian private radio, from Times FM’s pioneering days in the 1990s through the satellite radio experiment at WorldSpace to the current digital-plus-terrestrial era. He has worked for Radio Mirchi, All India Radio, Win 94.6 FM and just about every other frequency on the dial. If Indian radio has a living memory, Kannan is it.
Whether one man can sustain this level of professional plate-spinning indefinitely is an open question. For now, though, HT Media is betting that its busiest executive can handle an even busier brief. If anyone can turn three radio brands into a unified revenue juggernaut whilst still turning up for the breakfast shift, it is probably him.
MAM
Time brings TIME100 Next franchise to India with Reliance
List to spotlight 100 emerging leaders, gala set for December 2026 in Mumbai.
MUMBAI: It’s about time India’s next wave got a global spotlight and now, it’s on the list. New York-headquartered Time is expanding its TIME100 Next franchise to India, partnering with Reliance Industries Limited to launch TIME100 Next India, its first international extension of the rising leaders platform. The announcement was made at the Time100 Gala in New York by Jessica Sibley and Nita Mukesh Ambani, signalling a strategic push to tap into India’s growing influence across sectors.
The India edition will recognise 100 emerging leaders from the country and the global Indian diaspora, spanning business, science, sports, arts and social impact. The list will be curated by Time’s editorial team and published online, continuing the franchise’s focus on identifying individuals shaping the future.
The initiative will culminate in a gala event scheduled for December 2026 at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, anchoring the platform within India’s cultural and business ecosystem.
TIME’s broader Time100 franchise has steadily expanded its global footprint since 2021 through events and impact-led initiatives. Executives noted that India’s growing pool of influential voices and innovators made it a natural next step for the platform’s international ambitions.
For Reliance, the partnership aligns with its broader push to support emerging talent and ideas on a global stage. For Time, it marks a timely bet on India not just as a market, but as a talent engine shaping the next chapter of global leadership.
