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Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

The much-awaited Star FM channel came alive in Lucknow on December 11 with the voice of Amitabh Bachchan, who specially came down for the launch.

Christened as 'Radio City', the Star FM was launched at nine 'o' clock in the morning, in the presence of Star India Radio division CEO John Carlett, chief operating officer Sumantra Dutta and station head Parveen Malhotra.

In its bid to targeting the local audience, the channel was predominantly in Hindi. "Our aim is to cut across demographic barriers, though each of our presenters and RJs have been selected from among those who call Lucknow their home," Bachchan says in the press conference.

The man, whose voice moved billions of hearts across the globe, unhesitatingly admits how the All India Radio found him "unsuitable" once. "I wanted to become a news reader and had applied for both Hindi and English news reader at the AIR. But I failed in the voice test," he confesses. With a smile he adds, "Now I will ask John Carlett why this happened to me."

He quips, "Well, if I had got in, radio would have been my profession and I would not have been in Bollywood."

Radio City, India’s first private radio station, has played a successful innings in Bangalore. In fact, it may be a major challenge to AIR FM channel, which had taken the city by storm earlier.