Thaindian News

Kolkata, Feb 6 (IANS) Lovers of Tagore songs and other traditional Bengali music are in for a treat as the country’s first online digital radio station airing Bengali music is to be launched this month.For those living away from their roots, the upcoming Tara Radio promises to be a boon, as they can access the music of their choice by using any internet enabled device.

“One can surf the net or access it from i-enabled hand held devices like mobile phones and listen on the go 24×7. This will be India’s first online digital radio station airing Bengali music,” said Sandip Khosla, chief operating officer of promoters Broadcast Worldwide.

Broadcast worldwide, owned by television veteran Rathikant Basu, has in the past come out with various regional language television channels in Bengali, Punjabi, Gujrati and Marathi, among other languages.

The radio station would draw heavily from the resources of the group’s existing television channel Tara Muzik, which has a collection of over 5,000 tracks of traditional and popular Bengali music including those composed by Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam and Atul Prasad Sen, besides a rich content of folk.

“We plan to have a mega launch later this month. For now, people can visit our website. If everything goes on well, then we plan to unveil phase 2 of our project in about six months time. We plan to have talk shows then,” Khosla told IANS.

“Subscribers will be given a 30-day trial. After that, we will levy a fee per month. Subscription will be one of our main sources of revenue. Besides, we will also look for sponsorship and ad support.

“With our cost being minimal, we will break-even if we get 500 subscribers immediately. We would also draw on our 5,000 Tara Club members, who, we hope, will be our captive audience. We are actively promoting the new offering among them,” said Khosla.

He said the tariff packages were being finalised.