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Tv & Radio > News & Features Sunday January 21, 2007
Staying abreast of the deluge
AIR RAVES WITH ANTHONY THANASAYAN
I WAS shocked by the news – and I reckon many of you were, too – that the floods were back in Johor. All it took was two days of rain last week for a second evil wave to hit many parts of the southern state.
I learned about the tragedy well before any of the newspapers came out with it in print the next morning. I knew about it first from The Star’s SMS News Alert Service, of which I am a subscriber. My mobile beeped the breaking news a little after 10am on Jan 12. (I rely on the alert service daily to keep me informed on the latest happenings, especially when I am not by my radio, TV set or online on my computer).
The news item was transmitted on the same day that the murky waters began threatening villages and homes.
Twenty-four hours later, another SMS alert on Saturday disclosed that the situation had deteriorated.
The numbers of victims had doubled to more than 50,000! Fortunately, they were all safely moved into more than 200 relief centres throughout the state.
It wasn’t until later that day, at 7pm, when I finally decided to catch up on the latest developments, this time on radio.
Compared to a fortnight ago, this time around, my expectation of the radio stations' role in providing good coverage of the flood crisis was much higher.
Broadcasters like RedFM have been playing a helpful part in getting the public to volunteer to help flood victims. They’ve been airing regular announcements of what, where and how to do it for their listeners.
Radio Televisyen Malaysia’s (RTM) TraxxFM (English broadcast) and Klasik Nasional (Bahasa Malaysia station) have been keeping an eye more keenly now on Johor.
The stations’ deejays frequently pause to reflect on the flood victims and even directly talking to them. Some have opened their studio lines to invite listeners to offer their dedications and prayers for those caught in the terrible waters.
Others appear to be much more sensitive in their song airplay now. They even pause to mention that they hope that their selections could help flood victims forget about their woes, even if only for a while. Bravo!
I managed to tune in to TraxxFM’s news bulletin at 7pm on Jan 13. I was absolutely delighted to find them on the ball with their news headlines. The top story was, of course, the Johor floods.
TraxxFM also updated listeners on the latest statistics of the evacuees.
These and other local and foreign items were included in the RTM broadcaster’s 10-minute news bulletin.
However, I felt that our radio stations could have gone even further with the news.
I’m thinking about such things as posting a correspondent in one of the relief centres with the victims in order to bring in special reports of how the victims were coping with the disaster and about the very latest developments there.
And never mind if they are recorded earlier or even repeated a few times. As long as fresh reports are introduced every three or four hours or so, like how international news broadcasters do it, I don’t think listeners would really mind.
If our radio stations can feature crossovers on joyous national occasions, why can’t it also be done for a national tragedy? After all, the whole nation can learn precious lessons from this experience and, hopefully, be better prepared should such a crisis strike again.
Despite living in the cyber age, Anthony Thanasayan insists that radio still provides a unique window on the world. When he isn't scanning bandwidths, he trains service dogs for disabled people through his organisation, Petpositive (Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association).
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