Driving home the point

There are two type of drivers - A) the one who commands utter silence in the car, paying undivided attention to the gadgets and meters in the cars and its surroundings so as to not to land a single scratch on his prized car; B) the other who turns on the car radio just as he switches the ignition key - to heighten his senses and beat the boredom of monotony of driving by having music in the background. And perhaps to rekindle long lost memory buried in the dendritic mash of hippocampus whilst sharpening the brain.

I am of the latter category.
In one of these auditory stimulatory exercise moments, I stumbled upon an episode of MKI (masih-kah kau ingat) on Klasik FM.
We, Malaysians, are guilty (me included) of categorising, compartmentalising and stereotyping people. Just like Harith Iskandar in one of his stand-up comedies, he recreated a scene of a typical road accident scenario. Malaysians, whose favourite pastime, besides eating is watching accidents by the road side like they do not have enough crash and burn scenes on TV, typically would look at an accident and blurt out, "Whoa, sure die one!" And the next question would be, "Eh, Malay, Chinese or Indian?" - like it would actually matter.
The DJ on MKI, as part of the their apprenticeship program, was doing a show with a young announcer named Ameline. It was a request programme, so people were texting and Face Booking. Rather than requesting for songs, people were more interested in knowing whether Ameline is of Chinese or Malay origin. So the DJ sheepishly told the listeners that she looks more like a Thangachee before revealing the real ethnic group.
In most civilised societies, this type is considered offensive and downright rude. What a person's parentage is is his or her business, but not here! Malaysia Boleh! We are tolerant, are we?
There are strict guidelines on what can spoken on air. One cannot speak on matters related to racial issues, politics and sex. So, I was pleasantly surprised when, on another station (BFM), a speaker was actually talking on the superiority of socialism. Listening through the interview, it is nice to know that there are other who share my perception of life.

Masihkah kau ingat?

We, the product of the post NEP era, grew literally soaked in an environment filled with the Malay Language and its culture. With limited exposure to the outside world via telecommunications, (the pre-Top of Pops and music video era), we were bombarded with cultural presentations meted out by the sole telecommunications controller of yesteryear Radio and Television Malaysia (RTM).
We were exposed to likes of singers of the 70s through 90s Sudirman, JJ, Flybaits , Ramli Sarip, Sweet Charity, Chris Vadham, Ben Nathan, Chris Vadham, Alleycats, Rafeah Buang, Wann (the singer with constipated voice), Search, etcetera . This does not include the exposure to P.Ramlee and his brand of music and humour.

We, the Malaysian post NEP generation have been exposed to lots of Malay literature and music throughout outgrowing age and we are quite well versed with the turn of events in the local scene. If not for the ever changing rules and vocabulary set the language governing authority (DBP), we would still be literary professors. A language is suppose to evolve over time but when then the structure and vocabulary changes at the lip of a coin many times within a lifetime, we call that being fickle.
Sometimes, I listen to the songs that I use to hear in my childhood on radio, specifically on Klasik FM (RIMA-Radio Irama Melayu Asli) at 93.9FM in the Klang Valley. It has since been disbanded recently and had been fused into the national Malay radio channel under the banner of Klasik Nasional.
The interesting shows there are 'Masihkah Kau Ingat?'- showcasing songs from 1970- 90 era and 'Hati Ke Hati' - request programme playing songs of the 1950-60 golden era of the Malay screen. In the new programme schedule, 'Hati ke Hati' has been slashed.
The point of discontent with these networks is that the programmers assume that all its listeners of one particular ethnic race and religion only. All the salutations and special programmes were aligned these lines and the others were assumed to uninterested and uninformed about this genre. There will be a lot of hype and razzmatazz about Ramadan, fasting, Hari Raya Puasa and Merdeka but not a single mention of Gregorian New Year, Chinese New Year, Thaipusam, Deepavali or Christmas. This way of thinking is common in all non-English speaking channels. I can vouch for the Tamil radio station as well. They assume that all Minnal FMs listeners are all Tamil speaking and of Hindu faith! Talk about stereotyping, not a mention of ushering in the Year of the Water Dragon or well wishes on Klasik Nasional FM! Anyway, Gong Xi Fa Cai!

This is the song that the quartet of us (FG, Ooi Tuck Yew, Ahmad Sabri, Rosli Amran) practised to sing for our school annual singing contest in 1982. The contest was cancelled due to lack of quorum of participants. We remember the nostalgic fond jamming sessions in the Sick Bay Room! 

Radio Ga Ga

9.6.2010


Radio Ga Ga

When we were growing up in RRF, radio was a constant companion and sometimes an unwanted irritant playing and buzzing in the background like mismatched background music score of a B-grade movie!
Appa had the habit of tuning in to the radio the moment he returns from work. After the normal broadcast time of Radio Malaysia Rangkaian Merah (Red Channel, later to Radio 6, now it is named Minnal), he would fiddle with the transistor aerial and tuning knob to receive a decent reception of SW transmission from Radio Singapore Tamil Channel. Invariably, the sounds from the radio will be waxing and waning, from melody to static noise, much to Amma’s annoyance. Most of the time, after painstakingly searching the band, Appa would just doze off on the sofa!
Once a week, there will be radio drama on the Tamil radio. Dramas written by Anjalai from Simpang Empat and S. Vairakanoo were particularly interesting and the whole family would be glued to the radio for a full half an hour. These make dramas recorded in the RTM studios with the aid of pre-recorded sound effects were quite spell-bounding and would usher us in to land of make believe of suspense, terror, horror, melodrama and preachy! During those days they also had children drama on the educational radio on hermits, elves and fairy tales (சித்திரக்குளர்கள், chittirakkullargal)
Just like how the Queen and The Buggles were complaining about the glory days of the radio and how the visual media has replaced the nostalgic days of the radio in their respective songs (Radio Ga Ga and Video killed the radio star), those days of the whole family listening to the radio drama with each other creating their own scenario in their minds is over. The newer (post MTV) generation is too lazy to imagine but yearn for instant gratifications! That reminds me of yet another scene from a P. Ramlee’s 1956 award winning movie, ‘Anakku Sazali’, where P. Ramlee and his wife enjoy an intimate moment playing an old gramophone player and singing the song, ‘Mari Mari Che Adek’…. .

The song Radio Ga Ga was a commentary on how television was overtaking radio's popularity and how onewould listen to radio for a favorite comedy, drama, or sci-fi program. It also mentioned the advent of themusic video and MTV. (Ironically, the video would become a regular staple on MTV in 1984.)

Roger Taylor of the Queen (the writer of the song), originally conceived of it as "Radio CaCa" (apparently from something his toddler son once said), which doubled as a criticism of radio for the decrease in variety of programming and the type of music being played. At the time of release that name was changed to Radio Ga-Ga - rumours denote the publishers were objecting to the original title because of the close resemblance of "Ca-Ca" to a common word for faeces in many languages! (Except probably for Portuguese language; Brazilian star striker's name is Kaka!)
"Video Killed the Radio Star" is a song by the British Synthpop/New Wave group, ‘The Buggles’ in 1979. It celebrates the golden days of radio, describing a singer whose career is cut short by television. The song topped the music chart in several countries and has been covered by many recording artists. It was the first music video shown on MTV in North America at 00:01 on 1 August 1981. (Ref: Wikipedia)