Merdeka mania
By ANTHONY THANASAYAN
I was at home on Merdeka’s Eve last Saturday. Not because I had nowhere to go or nothing to do. I chose to be home because I was eager to find out what the mood would be like over the airwaves as our nation prepared to usher in its 51st birthday at midnight.
Fortunately, I was not disappointed. The Merdeka mood was loud and clear over our local airwaves.
Most of the English and Bahasa Malaysia radio stations played patriotic songs.
The selections helped to put listeners in the National Day spirit. The Hari Kebangsaan songs were also a welcome change from the usual tracks.
In addition, some stations provided two radio deejays instead of only one announcer in their time slots. Naturally, the ones with two deejays sounded more festive.
Not to be outdone, some single jocks seemed to fight back. They opened up their studios’ telephone lines and invited listeners to share what they were doing and where they were for the holidays.
Some callers said they were looking forward to watching the fireworks whilst others spoke about watching football matches. Others were looking to join in the local events in town. The listeners themselves did not sound nervous when they spoke on the air. One could tell clearly that people all over the nation were truly having a great time.
Here are three of our radio stations which I thought deserved special mention for doing something extra for Merdeka. They are listed in order of preference:
- Radio24 by the Bernama News Agency: The station took listeners back to the first Merdeka. It offered some in-depth perspectives of Malaysia from where she was to how she is today. The station simultaneously carried a “live” discussion show from Bernama TV. This was a good move as listeners who were not by their TV sets were able to follow it over the radio. The “live” crossover conducted at midnight, however, was badly marred by poor sound quality.
- KLFM by Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM): The male and female deejays were relaxed in their presentations – a nice touch to the occasion. Or was it perhaps because the FM broadcaster managed to mainly catch exactly what I was feeling at that particular moment?
TraxxFM by RTM: There were good crossovers but at midnight, the female announcer on the scene sounded dry and dull even though she was covering what she herself described as a truly “momentous” occasion.
