Thursday 9 October 2008

Raya cheer on radio

Wednesday October 8, 2008

Spreading the Raya cheer on radio

By ANTHONY THANASAYAN


One of the best ways to get into the festive feel during the holidays is to listen to the radio. That was exactly what I did last week. I wanted to gauge what the mood was like among for Hari Raya. I’m delighted to report that my exercise was not in vain. Our local FM broadcasters did not disappoint. Here’s what I heard:

There were copious amounts of Raya songs. Almost all of our radio stations were playing them. Needless to say, the Bahasa Malaysia broadcasters were noticeably the best.

Sinar FM appeared to be intoxicated with sentimental tunes while KLFM gave a rock feel to its festive numbers. English broadcaster TraxxFM went back in time to feature the legendary P. Ramlee’s Dendang Berantau, which effectively took us all down memory lane.

Over at The Star’s Redfm broadcast, the station chose to stick to contemporary numbers (mostly in English). It was Suria FM that stole the limelight. Suria excelled with its festive flair ... quite a few were also traditional in nature. That made it my winning choice.

Having a favourite deejay wish fans over the air is a dream come true for many listeners. This, perhaps, was the best Raya gift of all for a few lucky ones.

This year, I was pleasantly fortunate to be able to create some of that magic myself with help from Sinar FM.

Thanks to a special arrangement I made with the publicist for Airtime Management and Programming network which runs the radio station, such a dream came true for a young listener I got to know only recently.

The 26-year old driver received a most unexpected phone call from his favourite deejay Salih Yaccob on the latter’s mobile phone, wishing him Selamat Hari Raya. My new friend was speechless for days!

It’s amazing how the simplest things that we do for others can sometimes be the most rewarding of them all.