Wednesday May 28, 2008

Cosy place to jam

Air Raves by ANTHONY THANASAYAN

ARE you bored with the present humdrum offerings on radio? And perhaps, even desperately looking for something more out-of-the-ordinary to whet your music appetite?

Well, if you are, then look no further. CAPITAL fm is the station for you! CAPITAL jams is a four-hour show on the FM broadcaster that is loaded with new music from a variety of genres.

From start to finish, listeners will be treated to some of the hottest music, including rare tracks from hip-hop, broken beat, dub step and many others.

In fact, there is a good chance that the music played on the show – which is sourced from all over the world – is not likely to be heard in any of our other FM bands.

Admittedly, while some listeners may find such selections weird, Arabyrd, the show’s host, insisted to Air Raves last week that they are eclectic and appeal to music lovers from all age groups.

Frankly, I could not help but totally agree with her when I tuned in to the show over the weekend. The music was odd but curiously wonderful. It is great for people at home on the weekends with nowhere to go but to share a cosy and private party ... on air.

Arabyrd, who is really 22-year-old Malaysian Arafah Edruce, is also rather unique in her style of presentation. Apart from having a cute voice and accent, her speech is unscripted. But that is not a problem as she seems to be able to gel well with the music she spins – occasionally even talking while the music is still playing.

And no wonder because she is a performer too: she raps, sings, dances and is about to release her first solo album in August. However, the first time deejay has a few things to learn about her new job. One of them is how to explain things clearly to listeners who are unfamiliar with her brand of music.

CAPITAL jams can be heard on Saturdays and Sundays from 9pm until 1am the next morning. The station, which is operated by ISY Holdings in Kuala Lumpur, can be heard only in the Klang Valley for now on FM88.9MHz.

Meanwhile, we all now know which of the two Davids it was who succeeded in walking away with the coveted American Idol 2008 title last Thursday.

But how about which radio station emerged as the winner for their coverage of the live event in Malaysian?

What an unexpected let down it was for the many of us who had expected Hitz.fm to get the crown. More so as the station had been faithfully running related features on Idols every week since the latest season began.

Most of the other radio stations practically snubbed the event. Hitz.fm, for at least an hour-and-a-half during the live ceremony in Los Angeles, said virtually nothing about Idol or cared to air live audio clips or any latest updates.

Even when the results were finally announced live on TV, it took about 10 minutes before Hitz.fm disclosed it to listeners and everyone knows that is too long a time for radio.

Who Will Win?

PRINT DATE: Wednesday, MAY 21, 2008

Start of Article

T

HE spotlight is not only on but red hot over the next two days.

Who will walk away with the coveted American Idol 2008 title? This is what pop music fans are dying to know this week.

Will it be 17-year old David Archuleta from Murray in Utah?

Or the rugged David Cook from Blue Springs, Missouri, instead who is eight years senior to the baby-faced Archuleta?

The answers will finally be revealed in two culminating live performances scheduled to be telecast from Los Angeles today (finals) and tomorrow (results show).

Kindly check with The Star’s TV page for show-time details.

For those who cannot be by their TV sets during the live broadcasts, take heart.

Hitz.fm is hot on the American Idol trail too.

In fact, ever since this latest Idol show started, the radio station has been running a contest to offer listeners a rare chance to be in Hollywood during the Idol action.

Now the radio station is offering another special again.

In the next couple of days, Hitz.fm listeners will be able to sample some of the notable high and low points of the entire Idol’s seven seasons since it began in 2002.

The feature called “The Best and Worst of American Idol” will be aired throughout the Morning Crew show from 6am to 10am.

Over the next couple of days there will also be ‘live’ crossovers to the Kodak Theatre where the event is transpiring.

Look out also for first-hand reports from Hitz.fm listener, Jeremy Matthew Danker.

He is the winner of the once-in-a-lifetime chance from the station and Star World to be in Hollywood to watch the action unfold.

Danker, 24, from Klang is spending three days in LA along with other extremely lucky Star World winners from The Philippines, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore.

Elsewhere, listeners to Bernama’s Radio24 will have noticed some new changes in the radio station this month.

The additions are generally in two programming time belts.

From 7am to 7pm daily, listeners can expect to hear the latest news developments in Malaysia and around the world.

Radio24 has clearly made some progress here. However, some of its news anchors need to urgently liven up their presentation style.

Their pace of introducing news stories is not quick enough when compared to other news broadcasters like Singapore’s 938 LIVE and BBC World Service.

This afternoon, for instance, the female anchor whom I was listening to did not sound motivated at all when she read the news. From her tone of voice it appeared as if the whole exercise was a great chore for her.

The station’s talk shows are aired from 7pm until 7am. When I listened, I noted a distinct difference among the presenters. Some were remarkable in their input and content.

Others, well, not to offend anyone in Radio24, were just plain boring to listen to.

Another weak spot of the round-the-clock broadcaster is its traffic reports. They are read with even poorer quality.

Some of them are so bad that we do not know what is being said.