REVISED PLATFORM. REVISED CONTENT. NEW MANGALUREAN CO-HOST
Media Release
Canada, Sep 18: Nothing’s the same, not even the name. The history-making and highly popular Radio Mango Canada was relaunched as ‘K For Konkani’ on August 15, 2026. Now it not only has a brand-new name, it’s on a more accessible platform, backed by a more professional team, has new and refreshed content and most importantly, has a co-host that has been hosting reputed Konkani shows since long.
“We have re-branded Radio Mango as ‘K for Konkani’ because we have expanded our primary target audience to include kids and young adults so they know and understand that learning Konkani is as easy as A for Apple. K For Konkani intends to encourage our young ones to take pride in our language and our culture,” says Milena Marques-Zachariah, who created Radio Mango 13 years ago. “It is the language that connects them to the past and the future, the language of storytelling, of laughing with friends and family and, most crucially, the language that gives us our identity,” adds Babita Pinto, who has joined Milena as co-host.
Milena, whose career began with advertising in Mumbai and continued in Abu Dhabi and Dubai for 12 years before moving to Canada in 1999, felt there was a huge void in Canada because there was no Konkani media of any kind. “Our people have been in Canada since the early 70s and there was no entertainment available in the Konkani language, connecting our people to their Konkani heritage,” says Milena. “Almost every other language was represented here in Canada, except Konkani. I realised this gap must be closed and our language given the pride of place it deserves.”
Milena was ideally suited to set up a radio show to promote Konkani. Professionally trained in radio and TV at the Xavier's Institute of Mass Communications, Mumbai, her advertising and marketing background helped in understanding the market and target audience and create content to keep it engaged.
Konkani has a large and varied repertoire of music and songs from Goa and Mangaluru. All it needed was a platform to showcase this wealth. Radio was the perfect medium to propagate the language and music. To give this initiative a chance to succeed, Milena realised from the outset that it was crucial to target the Mangalurean community who took great pride in the language and most spoke it more fluently and frequently than the Goan diaspora.
Radio Mango’s first broadcast went live on CMR 101.3 FM on September 29, 2012, and created history as the first Konkani radio not just in North America but also in the western hemisphere.
Milena felt that Radio Mango had to move on with the times and so after five years of being live on radio, Radio Mango evolved into a podcast format. This widened the reach, making it more accessible to the Goan and Mangalurean diaspora spread across the globe.
HOW K FOR KONKANI CREATED ITS FIRST CHAPTER
As Milena was considering retirement, 2 highly accomplished and talented professionals from the media industry immigrated to Canada. This husband-and-wife team became game changers and together they changed the landscape of the Konkani music industry in Canada.
“This husband-and-wife team has a lot of experience in TV programming. The new co-host, Babita Pinto, is a celebrity in her own right. A well-known TV host, Babita hosted Daiji TV’s hugely popular ‘Mozo Tallo Gaitolo’ in Mangaluru and Canada's well-known ‘Konkani Utsav’. She is also an acclaimed singer and a much sought-after MC. She brings a breath of fresh air and much needed young blood into K for Konkani,” said Milena.
Ashith Pinto is an experienced audio engineer and brings expertise in audio-visual and post-production to the team. “What’s even more exciting is that he is also a consummate musician. It is indeed a pleasure to work with professionals who understand the audio-visual medium,” Milena added.
Milena and Babita are joined on air by the Pintos’ gifted son, Zach. Zach, who speaks Konkani fluently, is part of the cute, funny yet thought-provoking segment: MANGO MYSTERY BOX. This segment has been deliberately introduced to appeal to a younger target audience, who can watch and learn Konkani via K for Konkani. Once a month, Milena and Babita will discuss various topics, which they hope will appeal to the future generation and connect with them in a special way.
The new format will tackle relevant topics and will include humour, old and new songs and music, different collaborators and of course, a special segment for kids. While Babita and Milena strive to keep the programme topical and exciting, Ashith handles the audio-visual component and post-production."
Radio Mango’s ‘K For Konkani’ awaits the pleasure of all Konkani lovers on YouTube. The second episode was streamed on YouTube on September 15. In its new avatar, the sweet and juicy flavour of our mother tongue will continue to delight and entertain not just Mangalureans and Goans, but Konkani lovers all over the world.
To watch Radio Mango’s K for Konkani’s future episodes, CLICK HERE.