Radio Hungama for South Indian Audiences Celebrates 7th Anniversary

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HOUSTON: Radio Hungama, a nonstop entertainer among south Indian households of greater Houston is celebrating its 7th grand year of community service. In the last seven years since inception, they have proved successful in entertaining the Houston Indian crowd with their trade mark events deeply rooted to the Indian culture. “The Radio Hungama Show”, started in June 2007 by Sridhar Dadi, is the first ever Telugu Radio Show in Texas, and Second among North America, airs every Sunday from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm CST on KCHN AM 1050. Radio Hungama is also Houston’s first ever 24/7 Telugu online radio station of its class, hosted on state of the art infrastructure of its own.

Radio Hungama show throws the spotlight on the Telugu community through music, concerts, festivals, new-year eve parties, math and spelling bees, local and international news and views. It also addresses the professional, legal, medical, and social issues relevant to the community. While the median age of listeners is 30 years of age, the program reaches a wide swath of the Telugu community young and older.

Radio Hungama had humble beginnings. The year it was aired in the year 2007, it was an hour long show on every Sundays. Despite its shorter show duration, Radio Hungama made a mark in the ratings and with listeners. On public demand, the show got extended to two hours within six months. The results were explosive. “We started out with a lot of things working against us, but the belief of those early broadcasters, combined with the unbelievable power of the entertainment combined with enthusiasm, led to our first successes,” says Dadi. Thanks to the continuous support from vendors, sponsors and of course the listeners, the show now runs for three full hours on very Sunday.

Long recognized among the community’s cultural landmarks, the Hungama Entertainment has a conduct of running spectacular events. On its first anniversary in 2008, Radio Hungama hosted a bumper party at the Durga Bari Mandir hall with food and entertainment; about thousand attended. The second anniversary at the same location was overcrowded. So Dadi, with the cooperation of the Ashtalakshmi Temple board, and sponsors, hosted the third anniversary on the temple grounds.  With wide range of shopping, food and kid’s activities, there was carnival atmosphere of an outdoor mela, over 2000 people congregated and danced in the moonlight. They organized a similar fest again in Nov 2011 at the DurgaBari. On an October evening of 2012, there was only one place where the entire Houston Indian community was gathered- at Radio Hungama’s outdoor extravaganza “Hungama Mela” in Durga Bari temple grounds. The event was a grand success with an outstanding turnout of over 2500 people. Hungama entertainmet has kick started the year 2013 with “Hungama Super Singers” musical concert, where the singers enthralled audience with their performances. The songs ranged back from the 60’s movies to the latest hits.

In 2013, the Houston Indian community witnessed an event that showcased the rich heritage of the Hindu population while providing wholesome Texas style hospitality and entertainment – The Hungama Ganesh Mahotsav. The event was a testimony to Radio Hungama’s intent to play a significant role in promoting cultural and religious heritage of Indian community, under the leadership of Sridhar Dadi and his able team. As the saying goes, “Everything is Big in Texas,” and the outstanding attendance certainly appreciated the efforts and dedication of the event committee.

During the entertainment journey of Radio Hungama, Dadi had many trend setting events like New Year Parties, hosting and supporting International award events, and of course the Tollywood Movie Nights.

Radio Hungama were media partners for several Bollywood and Tollywood (Telugu) concerts in Houston and other cities in the US, including Salim Suleiman, and A.R Rehman’s concert. They organized music director Mani Sharma’s concert with a group of friends in Houston in 2010 and supported a concert in 2013. They are also media partners for TANA (Telugu Association of North America), NATS (North America Telugu Society), ATA (American Telugu Association), and NATA (North America Telugu Association), which are national associations for the Telugu community in the US.  Recently they were media partners for the Light of India Awards 2012, and IIFA Awards 2014 held at Orlando, Florida.

As part of Radio Hungama’s community outreach, they have been a strong voice for various non-profit organizations including Vibha, Daya, Sewa International, ICC, NSF (North South Foundation), Telugu Association, University of Houston – NASHA etc. As part of an effort to reach out to the larger South Indian community, they have held Immigration workshops at various universities. Dadi says, “Being part of festivals and events celebrated with the community and for the community is community outreach”. Sridhar Dadi is BOD at ICC (India Culture Center) and served as Cultural Secretary in the local Telugu Association and Publicity and PR Chair for the NATA convention in Houston.

Dadi thanked his wonderful team of Radio Jockeys on the completion of seven years. It would not have been possible without the support and cooperation from our Hungama team, sponsors, supporters and well-wishers”, he added.

Radio Hungama airs on KCHN AM 1050 Sunday at 12 PM CST and live on the internet at www.radiohungama.net. Contact Sridhar Dadi at 281-217-9736 for further details.