On October 15, the country's largest radio holding Gazprom-Media Radio (until 2016 - All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, or VGTRK for short) is celebrating its 15th anniversary.
The holding was established in 2003 to manage three radio stations. Avtoradio’s president Alexander Varin was named the head of the new broadcasting corporation, while Alexander Pavlovich became the first vice-president, Yury Kostin the vice-president of public relations, and Oleg Ostashevsky the vice-president of customer relations.
An effectively functioning broadcasting holding was formed under the leadership of Alexander Varin and his team. It included not only Moscow-based radio stations, but also their regional branches. In 2009, after Alexander Varin passed away, Yury Kostin took over leading the holding. Thanks to the efforts of the team, the set pace of development could be maintained and the corporation’s strategic plans were completed.
Today Gazprom-Media Radio brings together nine radio brands, the Internet radio 101.ru and a network of its branches in the largest cities of Russia. The holding’s branches can be found in St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, Krasnoyarsk, Kazan, Perm and Samara. Its radio stations are heard throughout the Russian Federation, in the CIS countries and in several European countries. Over 6,500 cities and towns get reliable reception of the Gazprom-Media Radio stations in Russia alone.
Dmitry Chernyshenko, CEO of Gazprom-Media Holding, offered his congratulations to the Gazprom-Media Radio team: “In the 15 years of Gazprom-Media Radio’s existence you have proven that you can maintain traditions and at the same time be an industry leader, a recognized trendsetter and technological innovator. You have created the most popular, large-scale projects for a wide variety of listeners. Every day, millions of people in Russia and other countries listen to you across all available media platforms. I wish you not to stop now with all the successes you have achieved, but to climb new mountains and, most importantly, to preserve and increase your main resource - the audience.”
Gazprom-Media Radio is the absolute leader among the capital's radio broadcasters. The total weekly audience of the holding’s radio stations in Moscow is 6,741,800 listeners aged 12 years and older, while the daily audience is 3,633,600 Moscow residents, according to the latest data from MediaScope (July-September 2018).
One in three Russians listens to Gazprom-Media Radio stations on a daily basis, which adds up to 18,596,400 people aged 12 years and older. The weekly share of the holding’s audience in the country is more than 36 million (57.1% of all Russian listeners).
Avtoradio is the flagship station of Gazprom-Media Radio. It is one of the industry leaders, consistently ranking among the Top 3 federal radio stations and ranking first in the capital rating for the last nine years in a row.
Gazprom-Media Radio also includes radio ENERGY - one of the most in-demand and popular radio stations in Russia (it is part of the French NRJ GROUP). The holding successfully develops two comic formats - Humor FM and Comedy Radio. The youngest and most high-tech project of the holding, Like FM, is distinguished by its innovative approach to on-air programming and the ways it interacts with the audience. Radio Romantika is targeted at the female audience. Detskoe Radio is the only radio station in Russia where the programming is entirely dedicated to children. Ekho Moskvy is one of the most respected news radio stations in the capital. Relax FM is distinguished by its unique format, which puts the stress not on the musical, but on the emotional component. Gazprom-Media Radio’s portfolio also includes the only sports radio in the country today, Radio Zenit, which is very popular in its native St. Petersburg.
The online radio 101.ru is a virtual radio city in which anyone can find music to suit their tastes. This includes 267 Internet radio stations of all styles and genres, broadcasting 24 hours a day, as well as more than 76,000 personal stations created by users of the resource. The online resource had about 5 million unique visitors last month alone.
A variety of formats that target different categories of listeners allows Gazprom-Media Radio to capture the broadest audience possible.
The content of Gazprom-Media Radio is available on all platforms - it is possible to listen to the radio stations online as well as though mobile applications on the phone, while photos and video reports can be seen on social networks and on YouTube. For example, the audience of Autoradio’s channel on YouTube has already exceeded 600,000 subscribers. This is a record among Russian radio stations.
The Gazprom-Media Radio team comes up with and carries out the most courageous creative and technological projects. The holding was the first in the domestic radio industry to develop a time-based signal delivery system, similar to Orbit TV, improving the quality of the radio product and its reception by the audience.
Gazprom-Media Radio is one of the most titled radio holdings in the country. Its radio stations have won the Radiomania national awards on multiple occasions: the holding has already received 80 “golden microphones” of this prestigious award. Gazprom-Media Radio is also the only Russian media holding to be awarded the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) International Broadcasting Excellence Award. It was also twice awarded prizes at the NYF's International Radio Program Awards. The radio stations of the holding have been recognized with the Brand of the Year / Effie, Ovatsiya, MK ZD AWARDS, and many other prestigious prizes.
The managers of Gazprom-Media Radio are among the most efficient managers in the media business according to the annual rating of the Top 1000 Russian Managers by the Association of Managers and Kommersant publishing house. The holding’s top-managers have received the distinguished professional awards “Media Manager of Russia.” Employees of Gazprom-Media Radio were also among the leaders in the “Rating of Young Media Managers of Russia 2018,” which was compiled by one of the leading HR consulting companies, Odgers Berndtson, in partnership with MediaScope.
The country’s leaders have repeatedly recognized the top management of the holding with diplomas and congratulations.
