Last week, Asia Radio Today spoke to Kudsia Kahar about her role as President of Commercial Radio Malaysia, the industry body for the private FM sector.
This week, we find out more about her other position as Star Radio’s Deputy Group Chief Broadcasting Officer and how she views the challenges presented by digital platforms and advertising.
1. Tell us more about Star Radio Group.
The group grew out of the Redifusion cable radio network which was set up by the British army in colonial times and over the past 40 or so years since Independence underwent a number of changes. It eventually became Red FM which was bought by the Star newspaper.
We have four radio brands. Suria FM is in the national language (Bahasa Malaysian) , Red FM is in English, Capital FM is the country’s only radio station targeted at women (also in English) and 988 is aimed Chinese speakers.
2. Are you planning to launch new brands on FM? Can you apply for new frequencies?
As Malaysia is a very small country in terms of population and as we are located close to several other countries, there are often cross border frequency issues. This affects all broadcasters. So up north there are cross border issues with Thailand and the frequencies they use. Down south in the state of Johor, if you want to expand, any frequencies have to be cleared not just by Malaysia but also by Singapore.
For a small country of 28 million people, there are 42 radio stations and quite a few of them are national. You also have regional radio stations and in some states, there is still a frequency available to have a regional licence. But if you wanted to launch a new national station, there is already a queue and not necessary the frequencies to give out.
The terrain of east Malaysia with its mountains and rain forests is quite a challenge. So we’re pleased that anytime broadband or wireless expands into new areas, we seek a spike in online listening.
3. One of your competitors, Astro Radio, sees its TV satellites as the way to deliver radio over this difficult terrain, along with the internet. They’re not so keen on terrestrial digital radio. Do you have a similar strategy?
Most of the commercial radio broadcasters are not too keen on exploring the opportunities with DAB+ because we see smartphones, wifi and good 3G coverage as being key to reaching even wider radio audiences and this has already been achieved.
Previously, radio reached 90-91 percent of the population every week. It has now reached 92 percent thanks to mobile listening.
As well as broadcasting nationwide on FM, Star Radio Group has IOS and Android apps and our four stations are available on the decoders of HyppTV, the IPTV service from Telekom Malaysia.
4. Do see music streaming platforms as a major threat in Malaysia?
We already have several music services operating in the country including Spotify Malaysia and Deezer. However as someone who has always been passionate about radio, I truly believe the thing that sets us apart is the localisation of information and content. You can share similar music with streaming services but the rest of the content makes the difference.
Having said that, we have digital products that will be available online and through apps soon but we will still ensure the other content is there too.
Malaysians – and I read somewhere this applies across Southeast Asia – are in the habit of getting content for free and don’t tend to pay for content unless its something like football. Until you can bring something that is really unique and not available on any other platform, the audience is unlikely to go for it.
5. How are you facing the challenge of digital taking up a larger slice of the advertising pie and the growing belief in the visual?
Starting last year, there’s been a huge move to digitize our services. For example, our online audience has grown exponentially for all our radio services. Our websites and apps are an important part of our business along with our YouTube channels. We’ve increased our video content online by 300 percent at least.
We’ve already tested and we’re about to launch advertising products that will help us engage with our online and on-app audiences in an audio and visual manner at the same time, which we’re very excited about.
So although the 30 second radio ad was the bread and butter of any radio station 10 years ago, there are now many new revenue streams available for broadcasters and it’s up to us to evolve onto these new platforms and to make them work for us and to allow our advertisers to also engage with our audiences through these different services.