News Broadcasting
Radio City pips rivals to the post in Warne news coverage
MUMBAI: Radio City, the Star-fed FM radio channel managed to get around the forbidden terrain of live cricket coverage by being the first FM station in the country to report the Shane Warne drug test failure episode in its live hourly update on Tuesday morning.
The station claims to have been the first among rivals in reporting the incident, scoring brownie points in programming efficiency and speed. Programming around the World Cup on the FM radio stations has been a mixture of the trivial and the pedantic, ranging from celebrity wishes for the team to dredging of cricket archives over the last half century.
Radio City says it has live hourly updates with Joy Bhattacharya in South Africa, who broke the news of Warne’s indictment soon after the media got wind of it. RED FM too has India Today sports editor Sharda Ugra too in South Africa, offering live glimpses into the matches and regular updates.
While the private radio stations have been restricted in their scope of airing live news coverage from South Africa, the
race is now on among the five private stations to beat each other in regular updates. Public broadcaster All India Radio, on the other hand, has hardly tom tommed the fact that live commentary of all the India matches is available on all the local AIR stations.
According to Radio City, Bhattacharya first reported Warne’s drug test results on Tuesday morning and repeated the link in the afternoon. “We were committed from the beginning to ensure that the listeners get to hear the World Cup updates first on Radio City”, says Radio City COO Sumantra Dutta.
Earlier this month, Radio City rolled out a comprehensive package on-air for its listeners for the World Cup cricket season. It started off with launch of the official World Cup Cricket album on the station featuring the current favorite song Khel Na re by Vasundhara Das and Sudesh Bhosle. Listeners across Radio City stations in Mumbai, Bangalore and Lucknow have the opportunity of winning exclusive official World Cup cricket merchandise.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to host Fury in the Gulf conclave on West Asia crisis
Three-hour summit to unpack geopolitical fallout and impact on India
MUMBAI: CNN-News18 is set to host a special three-hour broadcast, Fury in the Gulf – War Conclave, on April 7, aiming to decode the escalating West Asia crisis and its far-reaching implications for India.
Scheduled from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM, the conclave comes at a time when tensions between Iran and the United States are reshaping global geopolitics and triggering economic uncertainty. With India’s deep energy ties, trade links and large diaspora in the Gulf, the developments carry significant domestic relevance.
Built around the theme ‘Conflict, Consequences, and The Future,’ the programme will feature six curated sessions combining one-on-one interviews and panel discussions. The focus is to cut through the clutter and offer viewers a clearer understanding of the fast-evolving situation.
Key sessions include ‘Diplomacy in Times of War’ featuring Shashi Tharoor, and ‘World After the Iran Conflict’ with voices such as Ram Madhav, Reuven Azar, representatives from the European Union and the Iranian Deputy Envoy. Another session titled ‘Another Dunkirk?’ will bring together K. J. S. Dhillon and Jitin Prasada among others.
CNN-News18 editorial affairs director Rahul Shivshankar said, “In times of war, clarity becomes the most powerful tool. Fury in the Gulf – War Conclave brings together credible voices to address the questions and confusion that arise amid an overwhelming influx of information.”
He added that the initiative is aimed at delivering “facts, perspective, and insight” at a time when misinformation can easily cloud public understanding.
Echoing the sentiment, CNN-News18 CEO– English and business news Smriti Mehra said the conflict marks a defining global moment, with consequences that extend well beyond the region. She noted that the conclave seeks to present the crisis with “depth, nuance and responsibility” so audiences can better grasp its real-world impact.
As geopolitical tensions continue to dominate headlines, the conclave positions itself as an attempt to bring order to the noise, offering viewers a structured, insight-led look at a complex and rapidly shifting global situation.
