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Music > News & Features Sunday August 12, 2007
Poor signals
Air Raves: By ANTHONY THANASAYAN
DEEJAYS often tell us to stay locked on to our radio sets. But some of them talk down to us as if we have nothing better to do except to listen to them all day long. And radio programmers keep churning out contests and segments week after week.
Recently I began to seriously wonder if it had occurred to any of these guys in radio-land that for some listeners (or maybe more out there!), the problem could be as basic as locating a radio channel’s frequency to tune in to.
Here’s a classic letter from 59-year-old AKS of Seremban, Negri Sembilan, who relates his woes as a radio listener via an e-mail to Air Raves last week:
“Are there big ‘black holes’ in the radio umbrella over Malaysia, one wonders?
“Here in Peninsular Malaysia, if one lives in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor Baru or Ipoh, the radio reception (thank God) is generally quite good.
“However, in the rural areas and in and around ‘remote’ towns such as Seremban, it’s quite a different story!”
AKS points out that if he wants to listen to, say, Traxx fm in the state capital, which comes on over the local frequency of 88.7 (South Selangor and NS), the “run-around” will start for him.
“At home the reception is simply dreadful. I have to move around the house, upstairs and downstairs, near the window, on top of the garden wall, and elsewhere in, around and outside the house just to try to get a good signal.
“Alas, all attempts will be futile, since even the strongest signal is too weak for my radio.”
Makeshift antennas made from wire coat hangers, or just plain lengths of wire, do not help either, adds AKS.
“Oh, the perils of living in the ulu!” he laments. “It’s no better trying to listen to the radio in the car on the driveway.”
How about Traxx fm on the Internet?
“Attempting to listen to the online broadcast (http://www.traxxfm.net/) is also not much of a solution because TM Net’s Streamyx service keeps hiccoughing in my area, thus resulting in frequent breaks in the transmission!
“Imagine facing such problems, especially when the studio in Angkasapuri in Kuala Lumpur is only about 60km away!”
AKS says that apart from tuning in to local radio – or at least trying to – he makes it a point to listen to local radio stations from Britain, Australia and other countries around the world.
“So, in the end, I am only able to enjoy Traxx fm while driving,” he adds. “Even then, only when I am nearing KL during my trips to the capital, on the frequency of FM90.3 MHz.”
As for other non-RTM broadcasters, AKS feels that they only seem interested to cater for city dwellers.
“And so, on behalf of all the non-urbanites and rural population, including those ‘in the wilds of Seremban’, I appeal for social equality in radio reception,” says AKS.
“Please, radio broadcasters, get your act together; check and fill in the huge holes in your coverage areas by enhancing your transmitting power. Otherwise you’ll only be missing the many thousands of potential listeners, and continuing to short-change the advertisers.
“Surely, after 50 years of independence, this shouldn’t be too difficult a request to fulfil,” AKS concludes.
Despite living in the cyber age, the writer insists that radio still provides a unique window on the world. When he isn’t scanning bandwidths, he helps to raise awareness of positive living with pets through his organisation, Petpositive (Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association).
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