Red FM (Malaysia)

Last updated

Red FM
Broadcast area West Malaysia and Singapore
Frequency Varies depending on its region
Programming
Language English
Format Talk, contemporary hit radio
Ownership
OwnerStar Media Group Berhad
History
First air date
1 September 2001;23 years ago (2001-09-01)
Last air date
31 December 2015, 2359 hours
Links
Website www.red.fm (defunct)

Red FM is a defunct Malaysian English language private radio station that used to broadcast across Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. It was managed by Star Media Radio Group, [1] a wholly owned subsidiary of Star Publications (M) Bhd. Red FM began broadcasting on 1 September 2001 and was one of Malaysia's top five English radio stations. [2]

Contents

The station was targeted at urban and suburban listeners, playing selected music from the 1980s and 1990s as well as current favorites. The station, as of 2003, played pop and rock songs with a focus on R&B. [3] In a 2015 listener survey done by GfK, Red FM had about 325,000 listeners per week, which shows expansion by 70%. [4]

On 9 September 2016, satellite TV company Astro announced plans to acquire both Red FM and Capital FM from Star Radio for a price of RM42 million. Astro intended to rebrand and broadcast these two radio stations via on-air and online platforms after acquisition. [5] The acquisition was completed on 30 December 2016 and these stations are now owned by Astro Radio and no longer branded as such. From 1 February 2017 until 2 October 2017, these stations broadcast test transmissions for the then-upcoming rebrand and the official website also stopped working. [6] Red FM's frequencies are now used by Astro Radio's newest Muslim-oriented radio station, Zayan FM, starting 2 October 2017.

History

The radio station originates back to 1949 as Rediffusion Malaysia by the first commercial cable-transmitted radio stations. In 1989, Arab-Malaysian Group acquired a 49% stake in Rediffusion. It changed its name to Rediffusion Cable Network in 1991. In 1996, FM transmission was launched as a trilingual service. In December 1997, REDI-FM 98.8 was relaunched as a full-fledged Chinese radio station, ending the monopoly of the government-owned Radio 5 (now Ai FM) as the only Chinese radio station in Malaysia. The frequency of Rediffusion was changed to 91.5 FM immediately, and it became a bilingual radio service. By the end of the year, cable transmission ceased. In 1999, the frequency was changed to 104.9 FM, but 91.5 FM was not taken over by any radio station, until 2001, when IKIM.FM (Malaysia's Islamic radio station) took over the previous FM slot and began broadcasting. In 2003, RED FM was acquired by Star Media Group Berhad. The current reincarnation was in 2008, when it dropped the 104.9 in the name RED 104.9 FM, to become RED FM only.

Starting from 2016, the radio station would remain active, albeit with the lack of radio shows and the public service announcements. News and traffic reports are unaffected. All of these have since stopped after the acquisition of this station by Astro Radio.

Frequencies

Active

All frequencies are now taken over by Astro Radio's Zayan starting 2 October 2017.

Defunct

See also

Other Rediffusion stations:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radio Mirchi</span> Indian national radio 98.3 network

Radio Mirchi, also known as 98.3 Mirchi, is a nationwide network of private FM radio stations in India. It is owned by the EntertainmentNetwork India Ltd (ENIL), which is one of the subsidiaries of The Times Group. The tagline of Radio Mirchi is "Mirchi Sunnewaale Always Khush!". It is the first privately owned radio station in India.

The Breeze is a New Zealand radio station playing an adult contemporary music format owned by MediaWorks New Zealand. It airs in 25 markets across New Zealand and each market shows a mix of local and network programmes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Star Radio (Cambridge and Ely)</span> Radio station in Cambridge, England

Star Radio is an Independent Local Radio station broadcasting on 100.7 MHz in Cambridge, 107.1 MHz in Ely, 107.3 MHz in Saffron Walden, and 107.9 MHz in Haverhill.

Public radio broadcasting began in Singapore in April 1925 after the Amateur Wireless Society of Malaya obtained a temporary license to broadcast. Radio Singapura was established as the first local mass market radio service in 1959. Subsequently, on February 15, 1963, before the withdrawal of the British Armed Forces and after the merger with Malaya, Singapore's first television service began as Televisyen Singapura under its owner, Radio Television Singapore (RTS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">THR.fm</span> Radio station in Kuala Lumpur

THR is a defunct radio channel in Malaysia. It was the first private commercial radio station in the country, having based in the capital of Kuala Lumpur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TraXX FM</span> Radio station in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

TraXX FM is a 24/7 English-language radio station operated by Radio Televisyen Malaysia. Established on 1 April 2005, it was previously known as the English Language Service in 1946, the Blue Network in 1959 and Radio 4 in 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astro Radio</span> Malaysian radio network company

Astro Radio is a Malaysian radio network company which operates radio broadcasting services and more since 1996. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad. Astro Radio owns and manages 12 private radio stations which are transmitted through the FM radio spectrum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WILT (FM)</span> Radio station in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina

WILT is an FM radio station licensed to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, United States. The station serves the Wilmington area. The station is currently owned by Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc., through licensee Sunrise Broadcasting, LLC.

This is a list of radio stations that broadcast on FM frequency 87.8 MHz:

Rediffusion Singapore, started in 1949, was the first cable-transmitted radio station in Singapore. It was a Singapore subsidiary of the Broadcast Relay Services (Overseas) Ltd. It was also Singapore's only subscription radio service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital FM 88.9</span> Radio station in Kuala Lumpur

Capital FM was a Malaysian radio station which began broadcasting in 2008. Throughout the station's lifetime, it went through two phases, as an urban radio station and as a women-oriented radio station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">988 FM</span> Radio station in Petaling Jaya

988 FM is a Malaysian Chinese-language radio station. The stations broadcast area covers West Malaysia and Singapore. The station is managed by Star Media Radio Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Star Media Group Berhad. 988 FM began broadcasting in 1996 as a trilingual radio station, with 50% Chinese content and became a fully-fledged radio station in December 1997. The station aims to reflect and cater to the different Chinese-speaking cultures of Malaysia.

Sinar is a Malaysian Malay-language radio station operated by Astro Radio. The radio station began broadcasting on 1 March 2004. The radio station focused on mature listeners and plays classic music from both local and foreign artists, compared to its sister station, Era, Gegar and Zayan), which target younger and East Coast listeners, respectively. In 2015, as according to Nielsen RAM Survey Wave #1, Sinar maintained its position as Malaysia's second leading Malay-language station with over 3.7 million listeners.

Raaga is a Malaysian Tamil-language radio station operated by Astro Radio. In 2015, as according to Nielsen RAM Survey Wave #1, THR Raaga maintained its position as Malaysia's leading Tamil-language station with over two million listeners. It also emerged as South East Asia's No.1 Tamil radio station by beating state-owned Minnal FM and Singapore-based Oli 96.8FM.

Zayan is a Malaysian Malay language radio station operated by Astro Radio. The radio station went on air on 2 October 2017. Its frequencies were formerly used by The Star's former radio station, Red FM. The radio station targets Muslim listeners aged 18–35 and plays music from local and international artists, as well as mainly Islamic-related content. It is the first Islamic radio station operated by Astro Radio.

CITYPlus is a Chinese business radio station catering primarily to Chinese-speaking PMEBs and SMEs in Malaysia. It is owned by Ooga X Sdn Bhd. The radio station started its trial transmission in Kuching on 24 April 2016 on FM 92.5 MHz. Another trial transmission was aired in Seremban on FM 106.0 MHz by launching a transmitter in Gunung Telapak Buruk. On 2 May 2017, the radio station was officially launched in these areas. Meanwhile Kuching FM 92.5 MHz was rebranded as the third radio station. Its frequency for the Klang Valley was formerly carried by Red FM before June 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gegar (radio station)</span> Radio station in Kuala Lumpur

Gegar is a Malaysian Malay language radio station operated by Astro Radio. The radio station targets East Coast Peninsular listeners and plays music from local artists, as well as some Islamic-related content. In late 2017, the former THR Gegar is rated as the No. 1 radio brand in the East Coast with 2.8 million weekly listeners by the GfK's Wave 2 Radio Audience Measurement (RAM). The rebranding on 1 January 2018 removed the "THR" name from Gegar, and the change also happened to Raaga.

The following radio stations broadcast on FM frequency 92.8 MHz:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IKIMfm</span> Radio station in Kuala Lumpur

IKIMfm (formerly known as IKIM.fm and Radio IKIM) is a radio station in Malaysia. IKIM is an abbreviation for the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia, which is the operator of this radio station. IKIMfm is the first Islamic radio station in Malaysia that operates for 24 hours. IKIMfm was officially launched by the then Prime Minister, YAB Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad on 6 July 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Molek FM</span> Radio station in East Coast, Malaysia

Molek FM, stylized as molek fm is a Malaysian private radio station operated by Media Prima Audio, a radio subsidiary of Media Prima Berhad, serving the East Coast areas of Peninsular Malaysia. The Station operates 24 hours daily from the Company's Balai Berita headquarters in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur. The Station is targeted to listeners aged 18 to 39, as well as East Coast peninsular listeners aged 24 to 34.

References

  1. "Star Media Radio Group".
  2. "Radio Maintains Strong Appeal Among Malaysians With Nine In 10 Tuning In Weekly". Archived from the original on 6 December 2011.
  3. "How to tune into these voices from afar". The New Paper. 25 May 2003. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  4. "Star Radio getting louder". The Star (Malaysia) . 28 November 2015. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
  5. "Astro seeks to acquire all of Capital FM for RM42m". The Malay Mail. 9 September 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
  6. "Radio industry will remain relevant, says Astro Radio CEO". 23 January 2017. Archived from the original on 29 September 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2017.