Tuesday 24 September 2013

An Indigo Birthday

It was either July or August of 2006. I was working with Reliance Communications (RCOM) in Mumbai. I was part of the team that took care of commercial/legal negotiations with organizations, desirous of opening their mobile short code on the RCOM network.

I don’t know if Jagadeesh M R, from Indigo Mass Communications Private Limited is reading this post and if he is, whether he will be able to recall those few mail exchanges we had to formalize the Agreement between RCOM and Indigo Mass Communications Pvt. Ltd. for its mobile short code 2919*. For me it was just another short code Agreement amongst many others. I did not know then, that seven years later, in 2013, I will recount my 2006 encounter with Jagadeesh and will be writing about Radio Indigo 91.9 FM (Indigo Mass Communications Pvt. Ltd.). Things sure pan out in unimaginable ways!

Why a walk down the memory lane? I tuned to Radio Indigo 91.9 FM during the week of September 16, 2013 to September 20, 2013, while their seventh birthday celebrations were on. I realized that the short code 2919 has been rested and is now replaced by the long code 9900 100 919.

I also came across the segment ‘Prize Vault’, which was all about sharing the birthday happiness with the listeners. The listener had to be the ninth caller to the number 255 02 919 on the morning show with RJ Michelle and RJ Nathan. The RJ gives them an option to open one of the three vaults by pressing the corresponding number on their phone, i.e. 1 for opening vault one. This is followed by cling and clang of a heavy shiny steel door opening up and the sound of a grand reveal. The RJ tells the listener what’s inside the vault and the listener has the option of claiming or passing the riches of the selected vault in favor of the next vault (greed is good sometimes!). The only condition being that the listener foregoes the goodies of the previous vault in favor of the next vault, even if the next vault turns out to be of a lesser value than the previous vault (greed is not good sometimes!).

The prizes were valued pretty decent. The prize value ranged between INR 1,000 – INR 10,000, that’s what I gathered when I was tuned to Indigo.

The modus to participate in the evening drive show with RJ Sriram was a bit different than the morning show. The listeners had to text their name on 99 00 100 919 and a lucky one got to open the Prize Vault.

For Indigo it was their seventh birthday celebration and for me it was a trip down the memory lane. Here’s wishing Radio Indigo 91.9 FM many more such Happy Birthdays.

*As per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) order of 2007, all 4 digit short codes had to be prefixed with number 5 and consequently be five digit short codes. I believe that 2919 would have changed to 52919 in 2007. I am a Vodafone customer and did a quick test to check if the short code 52919 is still alive! I chose a random keyword INDIGO and SMSed it to 52919. The response text suggested that the short code 52919 is perhaps retired. The response text read; select longname, password from smstable where longname=’hutch’ and password=’hutch’ Thank you, your message has been registered. Stay tuned to Indigo 91.9 FM. Log on to www.indigo919.in

5 comments:

  1. Hi Himanshu, Thanks for listening to Indigo 91.9.

    Do continue and be a part of all the action on the Radio Station for a Fun Young Bangalore.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good one Himanshu

    ReplyDelete
  3. Adapt to changing conditions or perish - that's the story of evolution of life on earth and also the evolution of businesses. Looks like Indigo did a great job of building on an idea and taking it across different media. Wish them all the best & keep such blogs coming.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for inspiring me with your amazing work.Also below real projects can help you in your future investment.
    Mangalam Arcade
    Tulsi Ariana
    Shree Samarth Paradise

    ReplyDelete

  5. Amazing work you have done. Below real projects can help you in your future investment

    projects in mumbai
    flats in mumbai
    homes in mumbai

    ReplyDelete

If you have time, please drop a line..!!