In part one of Asia Radio Today’s interview with Kudsia Kahar, Star Radio Group’s Deputy Group Chief Broadcasting Officer. we ask about her other role as President of the industry body Commercial Radio Malaysia.

What issues are you working on at the moment on behalf of the industry?

We would like to see certain content regulation being re-looked at. Currently all commercial radio broadcasters are regulated by the Communication and Media Act (CRA) 1998. This was adopted way before the age of Twitter, Facebook, microblogging, mobile devices and wifi.

Considering the way people consume media now and how much more exposed they are to certain topics and certain news items that were deemed sensitive at the time, we should take a look once again at certain regulations that have been imposed on broadcasters.

Can you expand on that a bit more?

There were a lot of sensitivities that were mapped out in the Act back in 1998.  For example, the prevention of HIV/AIDS. It is not something you can talk about across the board to the different races in the various languages. It may be ok on English or Chinese stations but completely taboo on Malay radio stations.

But if prevention is better than cure, then awareness is key in making sure that prevention happens. So radio must be able to play a active and engaging role to ensure that this awareness of certain social issues, health and wellness issues takes place.  We don’t want to have a situation where, in order to find information and active discussions about these things, people turn to micro-blogging sites or social media instead of radio stations.

So any government that wants to continue to engage with its citizens in a more meaningful way should re-look at where people are currently going to find information. If we push everyone to the social media sphere, then it excludes broadcasters including TV and radio from being part of that discussion.

Is there a collective strategy for digital radio from the commercial sector?

At the moment, each broadcaster has different formats, business models and target audiences and so there is no strategy at industry level, except to encourage everyone to make their content available on digital platforms as far as possible.

Some stations may not be able to – some don’t exist to make a profit, more for community building. They may not have the resources to ensure all their content is available digitally.

The commercial sector appears lukewarm about digital terrestrial radio. Are you going to be joining public broadcaster RTM working towards DAB? 

If you asked me the same question five years ago, I was huge fan of DAB and I thought it was definitely the way to go and then the iphone and android appeared. So with the availability and friendly price-point for smart-phones and tablets, there seems to be less of a reason for us to depend on DAB. Yes perhaps, we’ll have it in the home. But how many devices do you want to have in your pocket or bag?

I personally believe that having a kick-ass app for your radio brand is more important at this point because that’s where the audience is. Every broadcaster will want to think about where the movement of the audience is taking place. I don’t see the audience wanting to spend x amount of money for another box when they can just dock their phone and stream radio and music from their phone.

What are you doing as an industry body to position radio against competition from the growth in internet advertising?

We constantly work to demonstrate the huge numbers of listeners that the entire industry delivers every week. That’s why the Nielsen twice-yearly research is so important, so that agencies and advertisers know how effective radio is as a medium.

We’re also lucky because Malaysia is a multi-lingual and multi-racial nation and stations operate in all four main languages. So there is a much bigger pie, which is real advantage for us and makes the industry here very robust.

Next week Kudsia tells us more about Star Radio Group, which owns four commercial radio stations in Malaysia.