Launched in 1996, Malaysia’s Astro Radio runs nine FM and 10 satellite music services.

But serving a population that lives in two separate regions – Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo – split by the South China Sea, is no mean feat.

The stations air in one of Malaysia’s four official languages.  Era FM, Sonar FM and THR Gegar broadcast in Malay, MY FM and Melody FM in Mandarin,  Hitz.fm, Mix FM and Lite FM broadcast in English and THR Ragaa in Tamil.

Asia Radio Today spoke to Dr Jake Abdullah, CEO of Astro Radio to find out more about the company and its future plans.

1.  How has radio developed as an industry in Malaysia over the past few years?   Is it still growing?

Tricky question… I would say that we have had almost 20 years of commercial radio and at this juncture, I see a possibility of niche formats emerging as listeners become more selective and become come more niche.

Radio should also see itself as more a content portal where the multitude of platforms, namely digital will help increase its growth. In other words, I can get my ‘radio’ at the platform of my choice, in either real-time or ‘catch up’.

 2.  Astro has nine FM stations and 10 satellite stations.   Is your FM coverage nationwide and how does satellite radio fit into your strategy?

We generally cover most of the nation but due to the terrain and transmitter restrictions, there are some key blind spots . This is where satellite and also our phone apps come into play.

The other 10 satellite stations are for a niche format but some of them do enjoy good listenership like Kenyalang for the Sarawakian audience, Bayu for Sabah and also Osai for the Tamil listeneers

3.  What excites you more about digital delivery of radio?  Is it satellite or terrestrial digital radio (like DAB)?

Satellite for sure. Next year with an additional satellite, we have the opportunity to create and distribute more listening types of product and there is a team of people working very hard on creating these products which we believe our listening audience will get excited about.

We need to understand that radio is not a boom box anymore. In fact to call us an FM station could be also in some ways incorrect as more and more people are tuning in to us via our phone apps and online players.

5.  In terms of international expansion, Astro already part owns India’s Red FM.  Do you see an expansion into India? Any other markets?

Yes, we have an interest in RED FM, but the FDI laws in India restrict us from owning any more than 26%.

In China we have ADREP, a representation company that represents the MYFM network and in Indonesia we have an interest in JAK and GEN FM.

I’m not sure what the plans are for any further radio involvement overseas as it’s handled by Astro Overseas Limited (AOL).

6. As someone who’s come up through a programming background, what’s the one frustration about the decisions you have to make as CEO (taking an overview of the whole business)?

I guess the age old sales vs programming content dilemma  is the constant argument. Sometimes I have to make the call where the content team sees a particular item as an intrusion to their strategy but the sales guys think otherwise. But this is how we keep improving.

The fact that we keep having the right arguments is key to our success as it pushes the envelope and the eventual winners are the audience and the advertiser.

7. What else does the rest of Asia need to know about Astro Radio and Malaysian radio in general?

I guess we pride ourselves in being the innovator and the yardstick for commercial radio in Malaysia but we are also a group of people who really are passionate about the business and work in a very fun family like atmosphere.

Most of the senior Managers and Execs have grown up through the company (like me who started as an announcer in 1996) . We have an awesome development process and we grow leaders.

Malaysian radio is probably the most complex radio in the world as there is a multitude of races, languages, ethnicity, psychographics, terrain and so forth and it gets really complex unlike most countries in Asia.

Malaysia is predominantly made up of Malay. Chinese and Indian cultures, so these vernacular stations have taken the lion’s share of the audience while English listenership has been on the decline year on year. This is also attributed to the improvement of these vernacular stations.

Apart from this factor, there is a clear distinction between East Coast and West Coast (Peninsular Malaysia) where even dialects become a differentiator. This gets more complex with East(Sabah and Sarawak) Malaysia and West Malaysia. Its a highly complex and unique market unlike Indonesia where stations predominantly air in one or two languages.