“In times of huge global news, natural disasters, as well as national or local community stories, radio can accurately reflect what is happening.
“Just as importantly, audio can celebrate culture, entertainment and music and give the sense of belonging to the listener,” said Malaysia’s Deputy Minister for Communications and Digital, Nie Ching Teo at the official opening of the 2023 Radiodays Asia conference in Kuala Lumpur.
“Radio is important… it is considered a trustworthy source to keep audiences informed and to counter mis-information,” she said.
After decades of adapting and changing, the minister recognised that “even though radio has been around for years, it is not an old medium, it has stayed current.” It is on all types of digital platforms, is direct, immediate and a forum for music and conversations.
“With the rise in podcasting we see a younger audience being attracted to audio with some becoming podcasters themselves.”
Minister Teo described radio as “a vibrant media industry, looking ahead to meet audience expectations and develop its future business models.”
The opening session was introduced by Steve Ahern, from ABC Australia, and Ryan Matjeraie, presenter at Fly FM Kuala Lumpur.
Radiodays founder Anders Held said, “Radio Asia 2023 wants to shape our audio industry to provide a platform to share ideas to help industry to stay relevant and develop… We’re bringing professionals together in this international meeting place in Asia Pacific we hope everyone finds this useful, inspiring and fun.”
Olya Booyar, Head of Radio at the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union said, “The ABU is proud to be combine our resources with Radiodays. Our special strength is that we are the biggest broadcasting union with huge diversity… we have helped bring people together to face the greatest challenges in the industry… Audio choice is staggering and will continue to grow, generations to come will wonder how we managed content in a changing media climate… we are inventing the future now.”
Speaking about the transformation of radio, Astro CEO Kenny Ong gave his perspectives on the importance of radio and its brands and how to grow your audience in a competitive media market, urging radio businesses to think beyond their format to what the audience is really looking for. “People don’t buy things for the most obvious reason, they buy them for other reasons such as prestige or peer pressure… it has nothing to do with the content and the features of the product.”
Astro is one of Malaysia’s media companies working hard to invent the future by trying many things and thinking strategically about the business. “Radio’s survival is reliant on a saviour that may not yet be here, so we need to hold the fort as best as we can until the day comes, when that saviour comes it may not be in the form we expect.”
In Malaysia, reach is high, but revenues are falling. Ong speculated that the problem facing radio will be trying to survive in the next couple of years as less revenue is available. “Look at the music industry crashing and burning and took 20 years to become profitable with new solutions,” he said, making the point that the music industry is now turning around afetr reinventing its business model in the face of technological change.
In another session during the conference, speaking about the leadership principles that are important to him, Kenny Ong said: “My job is to shield my team so they can do a good job in the output area they are responsible for.”
From an Asian perspective, “in our culture we have been conditioned to listen to your elders,” so it can be difficult for managers to encourage people to speak up if they have a good idea or want tell their boss something that I may need to know.
Emotional intelligence encourages us to know ourselves. Kenny Ong’s tip for good leadership in Asia is “understand your own moods and emotions first, control them properly, then use then same techniques to know your team.”
Pamela Cook, the Head of Planning and Delivery at SBS Australia gave delegates insights into how SBS has had a makeover from radio to audio and how it is finding clever ways to visualize audio and use podcasts. 
The opening session also included a musical performance from local Malaysian music group Naungan
The conference included a range of events, lunches and meetups for delegates to mix together and learn about each others’ markets.
