Megazone Bollywood 104.8FM was conceptualized in 2016 to fill a niche gap in the market.
It was identified that for over 16 years, at that point, there were only two radio stations broadcasting
to the Indian community in Durban. None of these stations made an attempt to cater for the youth
and the young professionals in the market. Megazone Bollywood 104.8FM was built, from the ground up,
to speak to and for the young Indian professional aged 18 – 49.
The radio station was mandated to entertain and inform with current music,
news and minimal talk, whilst also creating opportunities for young up and coming
broadcasters with a passion for radio.
Thus the origination of our motto of “More Music, Less Talk”
Megazone Bollywood 104.8FM was started as an online streaming station and set the benchmark for streaming
radio in South Africa. As a result, we have built a large online presence that spans globally.
Speaking to over 219 unique countries, Megazone Bollywood 104.8FM has taken Durban to the World,
and brought the World to Durban.
With radio being the oldest medium of mass communication, we have had to constantly innovate ways to keep ourselves
relevant in this ever-evolving technological age. At Megazone Radio, we have identified that the world now consumes media
through their smartphones, whether it is news, entertainment or social networking.
We believe that radio should not be any different. We have partnered with software developers to build an app that not
only allows you to listen in to the radio station, but allows for two-way interactive communication. Our listeners (or app users)
are able to speak to any presenter on air, enter competitions, vote for the song of the year, listen to music on demand,
access our original YouTube content, get the latest news as heard on air and speak to other listeners in our community centre,
without ever leaving the Megazone Bollywood 104.8FM app.
Building this kind of platform allows for us to track, in real time, our listenership and demographics. While conventional radio
has been tried and tested over decades, obtaining accurate listenership numbers has always been a challenge. With this new
and innovative way of broadcasting, we are able to provide exact figures, which are verifiable and traceable, and a more
comprehensive understanding of who these people are, such as their age, gender, interests, location, music tastes etc.
This not only allows us to constantly keep the station relevant to who our listeners are, but also allows our advertisers the
benefit of knowing who their listeners are. This is in stark contrast to FM radio, by which the listenership provided is
just a number, which is a guestimate at best with NO detailed breakdown of consumers.
While we understand that we need to innovate to remain relevant, we do not ignore that people are accustomed to certain practices which have stood the test of time. Jumping into your vehicle and turning on the radio has become a habit, and we know that if we are not available on such a platform, we will lose out on a large chunk of our market audience.
We also understand that South Africa’s infrastructure makes it such that data and streaming is not cheap, and may not be accessible to all. Having an FM radio in one’s home, and turning to it for consumption of media, is still very much prevalent.
As such, Megazone Bollywood 104.8FM had acquired it’s FM licence with ICASA in 2018, and since then we have expanded our reach to lower-income markets as well as those who still depend on technology that is readily available and established.
The station can be found on the 104.8FM band, and has since become a staple in cars and homes in most parts of Durban and surrounding suburbs. Our signal serves communities from as far as Tongaat in the north, down to Chatsworth in the south and up to Hillcrest in the inner west, however our main catchment areas are Umhlanga and surrounding areas.
We are a fully licensed and registered FM station, registered with the Independent Communications Authority South Africa (ICASA), the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) as a broadcaster certified for responsible advertising.
