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Tv & Radio > News & Features Sunday May 7, 2006
Farewell tune
AIR RAVES
By ANTHONY THANASAYAN
ON Sunday, April 23, Malaysians woke up to the sad news that Tun Ghafar Baba had passed away.
The former deputy prime minister was 81 when he died at 7.35am at a private hospital in Kuala Lumpur where he was warded for lung and kidney complications since Jan 24. He had prior to that been hospitalised for several months after suffering a heart attack last October.
Ghafar was laid to rest with full national honours in the late afternoon on the same day at the Heroes Mausoleum in Masjid Negara.
I first learnt of Ghafar’s passing at 9.31am through The Star’s SMS news alert on my cellphone.
Although I managed to catch some of the TV coverage of Ghafar’s funeral, it wasn’t until 8pm that I finally had time to tune in to the radio. Many of the stations such as Hitz.fm, Fly fm and Red 104.9 were playing their usual stuff.
I noted that Hot FM, however, was hotter than ever, with its female deejay practically screaming in excitement over the airwaves about something happening at KLIA.
It obviously wouldn’t have struck anyone listening to her at the time that the nation was in mourning.
TraxxFM was distinctly different. The local broadcaster cancelled its regular oldies music show to play instrumentals all the way until midnight when the FM station resumed its normal programming.
The only time TraxxFM interrupted its music was to air news bulletins every hour.
While I very much appreciated TraxxFM’s effort to maintain a sombre mood to mark the passing of a leader, I couldn’t help thinking of how we can do better.
1. Music: Let’s not just play any instrumental number. We need to be more selective. While some of TraxxFM’s picks like English classical pieces were good choices, others with a more pop and upbeat tempo weren’t that appropriate on a sad day. Some of the tracks actually sounded rather cheerful. I wondered why no station thought of playing some of Ghafar’s personal favourites? It would have made it radio’s personal farewell for the man.
2. Specials: FM bands could have tried to match some of the special interviews and profiles of the late Tun featured on television. Radio stations in anticipation of such an event should have produced pre-recorded features and aired them in capsule form throughout the day.
Last but not least, news of Ghafar’s death did not appear on the websites of many of the radio stations when I checked, which was a pity for those who listen via the Internet.
In sharp contrast, Ghafar’s passing appeared on Singapore’s NewsRadio 938 Live website (http://www.938live.sg/).
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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