Small towns in South India are going to experience nothing less than a ‘radio wave’ over the next three years as 235 private FM licences will be e-auctioned for 80 towns. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B Ministry) will auction 839 FM radio licences, out of which 235 will be for Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry. People staying in small towns will no longer be dependent only on Akashvani, but will have a plethora of radio stations belting out various kinds of music to choose from.

According to ministry data available with Express, with 104 FM radio station licences to be given for 34 towns in Andhra Pradesh, the state tops the all-India list under Phase III expansion of radio services.

Karnataka takes the second spot with 59 licences to be auctioned for 20 towns. The towns and cities are: Belgaum, Bidar, Bellary, Bijapur, Chikmagalur, Chitradurga, Davangere, Gadag-Betigeri, Gulbarga, Hassan, Hospet, Hubli-Dharwad, Kolar, Mangalore, Mysore, Raichur, Shimoga, Tumkur, Udupi and Bangalore. Barring Bangalore, Bellary, Bijapur, Chitradurga, Gulbarga, Hassan, Hospet, Hubli-Dharwad, Mysore and Raichur, no other cities in the state have either government or private-run FM channels.

Bangalore, Gulbarga, Mysore and Mangalore have private FM channels – Red FM of Sun TV Network and Big FM.

In Tamil Nadu, 58 licences would be auctioned for 19 towns.

Six cities in Kerala would get 13 licences, while Puducherry would get one FM radio licence.

According to the policy guidelines on expansion of FM radio broadcasting services through private agencies in Phase III, the government will expand radio services to 839 new private FM radio channels in 294 towns and cities over the next three years.