Radio Reach

The radio used to be a huge part of my life when I was in secondary school, and after that, I "graduated" to short wave radio. However, to my regret, I no longer have time for the radio anymore, though I still keep all my radio sets, and hope that one day, I will have the time and the mood to listen to a good programme or two.

Now, the computer and internet take up the better part of my day and night. I guess, the reason my radio has taken a back seat, besides the propagation on shortwave radio stations caused by the computer, is the fact that I could listen to just about any song I want on the web. I could also tune to in radio stations, FM or SW on the internet but I no longer do that because it's a total distraction and I can't work.

The other day, I came across this chart, results from a survey by The Nielsen Company on the radio reach in Malaysia. It's pretty interesting see that Malay stations lead the popularity chart. And I am rather surprised to see that Hitz.fm, one of the most popular English language stations, "only" garnered an average of 7% of the weekly reach audience.

With so many more things to occupy our time, I wonder how the trend will shift to ten years down the line.

Radio DW Monitor

After years of being an official monitor for Radio Deutsche Welle for the region of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, I finally decided leave. It has been a long and fruitful association but unfortunately, I am not longer able to commit my time to the broadcaster like I used to. was also only doing my job half-heartedly since I am always hard pressed for time. Yes, I felt bad, I felt guilty.

So after a long quiet reflection, I felt that it is better for me to leave and pass this post to another more deserving person. As soon as I wrote in to terminate my service, even if it was with a heavy heart, I felt the pressure was off. Otherwise, it is just extra stress when the deadline is near.

I hope that I would still be able to be a general monitor off and on when time permits and maybe when I am old and grey and have retired from work, I will have the leisure and pleasure of being an official monitor again.

To ALL Shortwave Kakis ~ Open Invitation From RTI

Image courtsey of Radio Taiwan International

I recently received an invitation from Radio Taiwan International to attend their 2006 meet-the-Malaysian-listeners gathering..... I don't read Mandarin but that's what I think it is.

Here's the invitation:

親愛的聽眾朋友

央廣華語節目聯合聽友會，即將於六月初，在馬來西亞吉隆坡和沙巴亞庇市舉行。

竭誠歡迎您能夠踴躍出席這次聽友會，第一場聽友會將訂於6月3日下午1:30，首先在沙巴亞庇市的Hyatt Regency Kinabalu Hotel（凱悅飯店60-88-221-234）舉行，第二場聽友會6月4日下午2:00，在吉隆坡Hotel Istana Kuala Lumpur（伊士丹飯店60-3-2141-9988）舉行。

央廣2006馬來西亞聽友會，將由董事長林峯正先生，率領華語節目吳瑞文、袁碧雯、客語節目江光大、粵語節目沙菲等一行出席。

為期聽友會能夠順利圓滿舉行，歡迎大家預先報名，並請將回條盡速寄回，以便聯繫。來信請寄台灣台北市北安路55號，或傳真886-2-28852302，或是E-MAIL到ypw@rti.org.tw信箱。我們將盡速與您聯絡。

央廣2006馬來西亞聽友會，盛情邀請您！

If you are a shortwave radio enthusiast and would like to attend this gathering, you may download the RSVP form here.

It's unfortunate that I won't be able to participate despite having tuned in to RTI since early 1997. Kuala Lumpur is such a distance away.... *sigh* Kota Kinabalu is worse... urgghh

Anyway, hope you guys will enjoy meeting up with the people behind the voices.

Drop me a comment if you are a shortwave kaki, please?