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Tv & Radio > News & Features Sunday April 9, 2006
Getting it right
AIR RAVES
BY ANTHONY THANASAYAN
LAST week I expressed my disappointment with many of our local FM radio stations for showing little or no interest in the recently concluded 18th Commonwealth Games in Australia last month.
When watching the opening ceremony of the Games in Melbourne live on television on March 15, and tuning in to my radio set at the same time, I caught a totally different picture.
While radio stations worldwide and RTM1 aired the ceremony – and plenty of the events live – local FM broadcasters came across as being indifferent to the Games.
The only exceptions were probably Nasional FM (NFM) and Airtime Management and Programming’s (AMP) Info Centre sports desk.
Although NFM featured live crossover reports from its correspondent in Melbourne, it simply wasn’t enough.
As for AMP, I found its coverage was not as comprehensive as that of past events like the FIFA World Cup. There was a lack of background info on the local athletes and coaches, previews and sports details.
And was it any different with the closing ceremony of the Games at 5.30pm on Sunday, March 26?
I’m afraid not, folks!
TraxxFM’s news headlines at 5pm said nothing about the event, even though it was a mere 30 minutes away, with some of the world’s top leaders such as British Prime Minister Tony Blair in attendance.
Putting the Games’ closing in the headlines would have alerted listeners to the fact that the Games was drawing to an end.
The half-hour notice would also have given them enough time to catch the action on TV if they had wanted to.
Halfway during the same 5pm bulletin came a confounding report that “the Commonwealth Games came to a close today” when the closing ceremony had hardly started. At 6pm, there was no mention – or correction – of the blunder.
The Commonwealth Games was only officially declared closed by Britain’s Prince Edward at 6.52pm.
In the 7pm bulletin, TraxxFM made a second blunder when it announced: “The Commonwealth Games is to wrap up later today.”
So did the closing ceremony end at a different time for Malaysians?
TraxxFM really needs to pay more attention to details, otherwise it will simply lose credibility with listeners who may think that the station is sloppy with the facts.
What I don’t understand is why TraxxFM had not simply switched on RTM1 to get a picture of what was happening with the Games’ closing ceremony.
With competition from various media sources these days, radio stations need to get their act right if they do not want to lose their share of the audience pie.
Anthony Thanasayan, who was born disabled, is an avid radio listener. His work, training special dogs for the physically handicapped, has been featured on local and international radio. His dogs, he says, help him ‘stay in tune with life’.
E-mail him at athanasayan@hotmail.com.
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