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Tv & Radio > News & Features Sunday July 23, 2006
Power to help, or harm
AIR RAVES
By ANTHONY THANASAYAN
ANIMALS have been the hot topic on several local radio stations lately.
A fortnight ago, What’s Up, TraxxFM’s three-hour morning show on weekdays, tackled the thorny subject of stray dogs and cats in our neighbourhoods.
Veterinarian guest, Dr Jon S Satyamoorthy, the president of Malaysian Association for Responsible Pet Ownership, Selangor, was interviewed by programme host Jezza at 11am.
The one-hour discussion revolved around some of the causes of stray animal problem.
Pet owners, for example, should not allow their dogs and cats to roam freely, Dr Satyamoorthy said.
Proper disposal of garbage was also a must so that animals would not be able to get access to it, he added.
Selangor SPCA chairman Christine Chin was also featured in a similar slot on the same show a few days earlier.
Both of the interviews were open to callers who rang in to offer their personal views on the subject.
Elsewhere, Fly.fm received flak last month from several animal lovers who accused the station of promoting cruelty among animals.
Listeners were outrage at the comments of a listener taking part in a contest run by the station.
The contestant said she would, out of boredom, sit on a chicken, pluck out its feathers and even boil the bird, if she was stuck on a desert island with the animal.
Whilst the Fly Guy and the contestant joked and laughed about her remarks, listeners didn’t find it funny.
They wrote in to the KLIA station, along with a copy to Air Raves, to voice their objections.
“This kind of talk only sends out one message to the public – that it’s okay to be cruel to animals,” they said.
But all was settled when Fly.fm officially responded to one of the complainants, thanking the listener for her “valuable” comment and assuring listeners that “Fly.fm does NOT encourage any form of animal cruelty.”
As an animal rights activist myself, I think that radio deejays should always remember that, as on-air broadcasters, they are in a very privileged position to speak out for the defenceless creatures.
What they utter – knowingly or unwittingly – can do a lot of good or much harm. Often, what the deejays do or say on the air ultimately reflects on the level of maturity and general exposure of a broadcaster.
Fifa aftermath
So how was the morning after the end of Fifa 2006 – the greatest show on earth – on July 10?
After the final game ended, I was glued to my portable tuner to catch the reactions on morning radio.
The mood was clearly dampened for RedFM’s David Chew because his favourite team, France, had lost to Italy.
French captain Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt against Italy’s defender Marco Materazzi made it no easier for Chew when it became the hot topic of the morning on many stations.
Chew’s co-host Nellie Ng, like me, read much more into Zidane’s “stunt”, suspecting a sinister element.
“A moment of madness,” was how Ross put it in an audio clip from Germany on Mix FM.
But London’s BBC World Service later hinted that Materazzi might have insulted Zidane’s family to provoke the Frenchman’s action.
TraxxFM’s Gary Ratnam bluntly remarked, “I’m sorry ? but the team that played badly, won the match.”
I wonder if the Italians just might respond to the deejay's remark with a headbutt of their own?
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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