ASIA

Radio Pakistan has launched Planet FM 87.6 – its first English language channel.It will broadcast programs on news, current affairs, entertainment, infotainment, education and interviews of renowned achievers from different walks of life.The transmission will initially air from Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi and will be be expanded nationwide later. It will also be available on all social media platforms for international listeners.Speaking to Radio Pakistan’s News and Current Affairs Channel today, founder of a social organization and entrepreneur Nouman Abbasi said: “It is a great initiative by Radio Pakistan which will provide an opportunity to engage and involve the English-speaking community and expats in Pakistan to have a flavour of the local perspective. It also is a great forum to share the narrative of Pakistan with the world through multi-dimensional broadcasting.“China Radio International (CRI) has also commended Radio Pakistan for the launch. A CRI team visited Planet FM 87.6 at the National Broadcasting House in Islamabad on Wednesday and expressed the desire to have a cooperative relationship with the channel.Planet FM 87.6 in-charge Imran Javed briefed the CRI team that the channel runs round the clock transmission to cater to the needs of the listeners of English language and the diplomatic community across the country.Radio Pakistan’s Director General Muhammad Tahir Hassan was also present on the occasion. […]

Content from BPRThe Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in the US said the American economy gained 528,000 jobs in July. Consensus forecasts were for a gain of 258,000. This puts the unemployment rate at just 3.5%.By all accounts it was an incredible result. But as Joel Bowman, Managing Editor for Bonner Private Research, said:“Here’s the bad news. The real unemployment rate is 9.6%. Much of the gain in jobs came from people taking a SECOND or part-time job. The labor force participation rate is at the same level it was in March 1977. Don’t take it from me. The following facts come straight from the BLS report (emphasis added is mine):
The number of persons not in the labor force who currently want a job was 5.9 million in July, little changed over the month. This measure is above its February 2020 level of 5.0 million. These individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for work during the 4 weeks preceding the survey or were unavailable to take a job.

The labor force participation rate, at 62.1 percent, and the employment-population ratio, at 60.0 percent, were little changed over the month. Both measures remain below their February 2020 values(63.4 percent and 61.2 percent, respectively).”
So the US unemployment rate isn’t 3.5% but 9.6%? Maybe …maybe not…..it’s all in the way governments, bureaucrats and economists around the world slice and dice the numbers.Radio is no different. You have a great survey result so you don’t really want to dig too deep unless you find out that there were was a massive anomaly in the data that benefitted your station.You had a bad result so you spend hours trolling through the data, going down rabbit holes to come up with “but we did increase cume with 18-24’s!”… even though that demo is way outside your target.Every station gets a bad bounce occasionally. Equally, some will get a favourable spike that really doesn’t make sense. Therefore, don’t just look at two surveys back to back. Look at trends overtime. Don’t panic about one bad survey when your station is on an otherwise upward trend and don’t start popping the champagne corks over one up survey on what really is a downward trend.The important thing is that as a program director, you need to be honest with yourself about the numbers…. whether they are good or bad. Let the sales team polish up the less than optimum results for client presentations if they need to but as a programmer you must always look at the data objectively without bias or emotion. This applies to both the good news and the bad news.That is the only way correct strategic decisions are made.By David Kidd, BPR […]

Jacqueline Bierhorst, Project Director of Digital Radio Netherlands has been given this year’s WorldDAB Award for Outstanding Service.The Award recognises an individual for an exceptional contribution to the roll-out of DAB digital radio and is made annually at the WorldDAB General Assembly.It is offered in memory of Per-Erik Selemark of Swedish Radio, former vice president and chair of the Technical Committee, who died in January 1999.Bierhorst has been a pioneer in commercial radio since 1987, specialising in distribution, marketing and content. She was project leader on the rollout of the DAB+ network in The Netherlands for all commercial broadcasters, launched in 2013.In 2015, she became Project Director for Digital Radio Netherlands, a collaboration between public and commercial broadcasters and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, coordinating stakeholder involvement, and joint marketing of DAB+ in the Netherlands.Bierhorst is vice president and a member of the Steering Board of WorldDAB, and a consultant for the Flemish government Department of Culture, Youth and Media on the introduction of DAB+ in Flanders.Presenting the Award at the General Assembly, WorldDAB’s President, Patrick Hannon, said: “She’s launched DAB not once, but twice – in the Netherlands and then in the Flemish-speaking part of Belgium. She’s been an absolute star in galvanising both of those countries – the Netherlands has been the gold standard of how to launch DAB+. Not only has she been an advocate for DAB+, she’s also passionate about spreading good practice and enthusiasm for DAB+ right across the organisation and in many different countries. The phrase that springs to mind is ‘a breath of fresh air’, and I have been very grateful for her support.” […]

The only live Bollywood platform across South East Asia, Masti Media Network Singapore’s flagship brand Radio Masti 24×7 established its first ever international collaboration by expanding formally to Malaysia. The station is now available exclusively on SYOK, the Astro Radio digital platform.Radio Masti 24×7 was initially launched in 2009 as a three-hour live Bollywood Radio station on MediaCorp’s Expat Radio frequency, XFM963. It was also winner at the Mediacorp Radio Awards.In 2016, with the change of media policies leading to existence of only four national languages on the airwaves in Singapore, Radio Masti 24×7 was re-established as the first and only live 24-hours digital Bollywood radio across south east Asia.As a part of the collaboration, SYOK and Radio Masti 24×7 will cater to Malaysian fans of Bollywood music while also offering digital content, gossip, news and updates from across the world, notably from India, Singapore and Malaysia.During the pandemic, Radio Masti 24×7 was appointed exclusively by the Ministry of Communication & Information (MCI) in Singapore, leading to the launch of special Bangla programming that gained immense popularity with the Bangladeshi migrant community in Singapore as well as Malaysia.Kenny Ong, CEO, Astro Radio and Rocketfuel Entertainment, said: “We are delighted to announce our collaboration with Masti Media Network, our first partner from Singapore and we welcome Radio Masti 24×7 on board SYOK, which will now offer Malaysians access to more popular Bollywood music, digital content and updates to enjoy. This addition will bolster our current offering on SYOK for radio, music and podcasts and we look forward to working with more local and international partners as we further define our footprint in the local audio landscape.”Renuka Arora Bhagat, Founder Director, Masti Media Network, said: “We are pleased to confirm Astro Radio as our First ever International collaboration in the region. Together we hope to blend communities across Singapore and Malaysia together with the Indian Bollywood content as the foundation. Our clients continue to remain our focus as they advertise to reach out to our vast audience base. We are confident that Malaysia will love our content as we go local and bring along the much-loved Khans of Bollywood closer to our neighbouring country” […]

Three E’s — economics, environment and emergencies — will drive the case for DAB+ adoption, said WorldDAB President, Patrick Hannon, opening the organisation’s annual Summit in London on Thursday.The annual Summit was held in-person for the first time in three years. It brought together more than 375 delegates online and in-person, from over 60 countries around the world, and was hosted by technology journalist, Spencer Kelly. The Summit is organised by WorldDAB, the global industry forum for DAB digital radio.“DAB+ offers lower costs of distribution than FM, coupled with lower energy requirements, and greater resilience in emergencies, especially out of home,” said Hannon. “It’s essential to protect the core benefits of broadcast radio – it’s free to air, universal and reliable in emergencies. DAB+ is key to securing this,” he added.This was supported in keynote sessions, with Shuja Khan, CEO of UK communications infrastructure company Arqiva, arguing that governments need to safeguard broadcast services – not just in the short term but to 2040 and beyond. “DAB is here to stay – it’s embedded in the lives of radio listeners,” said Khan. Matt Payton, CEO of UK commercial radio trade body Radiocentre, noted the potential threat posed by tech giants positioning themselves as powerful gatekeepers between broadcasters and listeners, a concern echoed by Jean-Eric Valli, President of Les Indés Radios, a group bringing together 129 French local radio broadcasters.Innovative new DAB+ services from around the world were highlighted at the Summit, including the newly launched ANTENNE NRW in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia. Its Managing Director, Julia Schutz, said that the station had gone from an idea to a contender within just one year – but also noted that “developing DAB+ is not a sprint but a marathon.” France’s first “100% positive” radio station dedicated to wellness, AirZen Radio, was represented by its Founder, Anne-Marie de Couvreur, who explained the DAB+ station’s mission to help the French to live better.Speakers emphasised the need for continued collaboration between the radio and automotive sectors, to ensure radio’s continued dominance of in-car audio, and to optimise the experience for listeners. Diana Franganillo from Strategy Analytics said that “radio remains royalty” in the car. To strengthen this position and remain relevant, Franganillo advised providing content for younger listeners as the next generation of car buyers, synergising with other services to provide a holistic user experience for drivers and remaining alert and creative to the advent of autonomous vehicles.David Holroyd, Director of Technology for Europe’s largest radio group, Global, in conversation with Lindsay Mack from BBC Sounds, said that Global provides a range of metadata, such as station names and logos, for in-car use through DAB and RadioDNS hybrid radio. Holroyd added that while he was cautious about making in-car screens too busy, programme and schedule data could also add value for listeners, alongside ‘now playing’ information.Gregor Pötzsch from CARIAD, part of Volkswagen Group, showed how this looked in-car and said he expected that in the future, dashboard devices would feature recommendations for listening and greater incorporation of podcasts and online broadcasts. Joe D’Angelo from Xperi spoke about the challenge of personalising radio services and the growth of tuning and location data available from receivers available to broadcasters. 3.6 billion “measurement events” were captured by DTS Autostage in 2022, and D’Angelo expects this to increase to over 90 billion next year.Meanwhile, the growth of small-scale DAB+ was covered by Donald McTernan from Ujima Radio in Bristol, England, who emphasised the social gain benefits that low-cost access to the digital airwaves can bring. 148 stations now broadcast in on newly launched small-scale DAB multiplexes across the UK. […]

The GfK Radio Audience Measurement Survey (RAM) Wave 2, 2022 reported a new high for Malaysian radio as listenership reached almost 97.2% of individuals in Peninsular Malaysia, equivalent to a high of 21.6 million weekly listeners, marking a phenomenal increase of 300,000 from the previous survey. From this, Astro Radio continued its stronghold as the No. 1 local radio with 16.1 million weekly listeners or 74.6% of 21.6 million available radio listeners, strengthening its leadership as the radio operator with the highest number of listeners in Malaysia.Astro Radio’s increased reach in radio listenership is underpinned by 18.4 million average digital radio streams, 26.6 million social media followers, 177.4 million video views, and 75.1 million monthly average Facebook post reach.Astro Radio brands continued to lead as No. 1 across all languages: Hitz FM, the No. 1 English brand; ERA, the No. 1 Malay brand; MY, the No. 1 Chinese brand; and RAAGA, the No. 1 Tamil brand. Astro Radio Malay brands recorded a reach 9.7 million listeners equivalent to 69.0% reach, English brands achieving 3.7 million listeners equivalent to 85.6% reach, while Chinese brands amassed 3.5 million listeners translating to 70.7% reach and the Tamil radio brand marking 1.6 million listeners equivalent to 86.1% in reach.
With 2.4 million weekly listeners, Hitz FM achieved an increase in the highest ‘Exclusive Audience’ for English brands at 356,000 listeners, the Highest Breakfast segment for English brands with 1.1 million listeners and the Highest Drive segment for English brands with 1.2 million listeners.
Mix FM recorded an increase to 1.3 million weekly listeners, with the Breakfast segment increasing to 617,000 while the Drive segment increased to 636,000 listeners.
Lite FM charted an increase in weekly listeners to 855,000 with Breakfast and Drive segments respectively increasing to 406,000 and 393,000 listeners
ERA, also Malaysia’s No. 1 radio brand, recorded weekly listenership of 5.3 million, and continued to achieve Malaysia’s highest weekly reach on radio amongst young Malay listeners between the ages of 10 to 29, with 2.7 million listeners. The Breakfast show remained No. 1, recording 2.8 million listeners, and the ERA Drive Show remained the highest with 2.4 million listeners. ERA also achieved an increase for the Highest Exclusive Audience amongst all radio brands to 1.0 million.
SINAR, remained Malaysia’s second most-listened-to brand overall and the No. 2 Malay-language radio brand in Malaysia, with a recorded weekly listenership of 5.0 million weekly listeners. SINAR Breakfast segment increased to 2.6 million while Drive segment marked 2.3 million weekly listeners respectively. SINAR also recorded an increase in Exclusive Audience to 865,000.
GEGAR, Malaysia’s No. 1 radio brand in the East Coast, recorded a reach of 2.1 million weekly listeners consisting of approximately 39% from Kelantan, 20% from Pahang, 23% from Terengganu and 17% from the West Coast.
ZAYAN recorded weekly listenership of 321,000 with the Breakfast segment increasing to 172,000 listeners while the Drive segment garnered 151,000 listeners.
Weekly listenership on MY was recorded at 2.7 million weekly listeners with the Breakfast and Drive segments achieving the highest number of listeners across Chinese radio brands with 1.6 million and 1.6 million respectively. MY also recorded an increase in its Exclusive Audience to 728,000.
MELODY increased its weekly listenership to 1.2 million weekly listeners, with Breakfast and Drive shows increasing to 658,000 and 634,000 listeners respectively.
GOXUAN achieved an increase in its weekly listeners to 244,000. The Breakfast segment recorded an increase to 115,000 listeners while the Drive segment recorded 102,000 listeners. GOXUAN also marked an increase in its Exclusive Audience to 50,000.
RAAGA, Malaysia’s No. 1 Tamil radio brand recorded a weekly listenership of 1.6 million, where the Breakfast and Drive segments recorded 863,000 and 879,000 listeners each.
The survey was carried out over 6 weeks with a mix of traditional radio diaries (75%) and e-diaries (25%) distributed to 6,000 unique individuals across Peninsular Malaysia to capture their listening habits. 21 commercial radio brands subscribed to this wave and Astro Radio secured 7 positions in the Top 10 brands ranking.Data source: GfK Radio Audience Measurement (RAM), Wave 2 2022 | Facebook Page Reach: Facebook Business Manager (Aug – Oct 2022) | Digital Streams: Radioactive (Aug – Oct 2022) | Website Unique Visitors/Page Views: Google Analytics (Aug – Oct 2022) | Video Views: Facebook Creator Studio, CrowdTangle, YouTube (Oct 2022) | Total Social Media Followers: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok (Oct 2022) […]