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4 radio DJs. 4 languages. 1 interview. So. Many. Differences.
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[Update] An earlier edition of this article stated that Bob was from Sinar FM when he actually was from Suria FM. Our apologies to Bob and Suria FM for this error.
Hans is currently serving time wearing the hat of shame for his mistake. (Yes, we have a helmet where we engrave the mistakes of our writers for all eternity….Well, at least until the helmet decays.)
—————
So before we start, a quick question.
If you answered any of the English radio stations, we’re sorry to tell you that you are incorrect. In fact, English radio stations don’t even make it to the top 5 most popular radio stations in Malaysia! (http://www.nielsen.com/my/en/insights/news/2015/radio-listenership-continues-to-appeal-among- malaysians.html)
Unfortunately, we at CILISOS (http://cilisos.my) are all English language speakers la. So most of us listened to only English language stations. When we found out about this, we actually got a bit curious about the other flers out there. What kinda music do they play on Tamil stations? Do Malay stations play non-Malay music? Why Chinese announcers always wear funny glasses!?
So we got an organisation called Commercial Radio Malaysia (http://commercialradio.my/) (CRM) that works for the COLLECTIVE interests of all radio stations (not including gomen stations) to help organise a sama-sama interview with…
Tamil: Aanantha (https://www.facebook.com/AananthaTHR/?fref=ts) from THR Raaga!
BM: Bob Ringgo (https://www.facebook.com/bobringgoLRC.suriafm?fref=ts) from Suria FM!
English: Jeremy Teo (https://www.facebook.com/jeremyteozhenwee/?fref=ts) from Red FM!
Chinese: Jeff Chin (https://www.facebook.com/jeff.com.my/?fref=ts) from MY FM!
Honestly, these 4 gentlemen provided us with one of the most FUN INTERVIEWS we’ve ever conducted! So here they are, 6 interesting things that we got from talking to radio deejays from an English, Malay, Chinese, and radio station.
1. On Malay radio, you can’t even say “Bodoh”
We all know that you can’t curse on Malaysian radio… but we didn’t know to what extent. Bob from Suria FM told us that on his station, he’s not even allowed to say “Bodoh” (!).
“You kena cakap kurang cerdik.” – Bob
Jeremy from Red FM however, says that for him, anything vulgar needs to be justified – IS there was a better way of saying something. So if we were to say something like “take the piss (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=take+the+piss)“, Jeremy says you could say “make fun of” instead.
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But sometimes they also cannot avoid saying words that sound vulgar in some way la.
“There’s a song called ‘She’s so high (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sohai)‘ right? So yesterday I intro-ed that song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ElORM9O-0U) and my co-host looked at me and goes like *trying not to laugh face* and I was like “Bro, you cannot do this to me on air bro!”” – Jeremy
Restrictions don’t just go as far as swear words though. Jeff of MY FM says that he’s not even allowed to mention brands. E.g. They cannot say Maggi mee! If they want to talk about it they can say instant noodles instead. Why? Because Maggi didn’t pay them to say it. (But we at CILISOS can say Maggi mee la, cos they do advertise with us. (http://cilisos.my/11-macam-yes-ways-malaysians-get-the-pedas-out-of-their-mouths/) )
As for Tamil radio stations, Aanantha of THR Raaga says that there are those among his audience who wouldn’t be so happy if the Tamil he used, wasn’t in a sense, proper.
“There are 2 ways of saying ‘head’. One is taleh and one is mandeh (Editor’s note: OMG so sorry if we got this wrong!). Taleh is the proper word and mandeh is like very colloquial. If I use mandeh then someone will ask “Why you use that word? Better you use this word (taleh) la.”” – Aanantha
Bob faces something similar but while he isn’t allowed to rojak a sentence, he can still use other languages if they were in separate sentences. Meaning that if you start a sentence in BM, cannot switch to English halfway. If you wanna use English, you gotta end your BM sentence first, and vice versa.
2. Chinese radio personalities are like Hong Kong celebrities
So according to Jeff, radio personalities in Malaysia are actually really, really big in Malaysia. Like they’re big enough to like branch out into making their own music and even movies! And here’s why..
“If you sit in front of the TV, you can choose from Hong Kong or Taiwan, so there’s a lot of choices for you. Local Chinese personalities compete with them. But when you sit in your car, you have not much choice but to listen to local Chinese radio stations.” – Jeff
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In other words, because local radio doesn’t have Hong Kong or Taiwan superstars, local Chinese personalities are the celebrities instead. He adds that they also have the advantage because they get a lot of training by being on air constantly. This makes it easier to do things like memorise scripts for TV shows and movies. However, the downside is that their fans notice what they do in the real world too.
Jeff says there was even a time he was called out for double parking.
“I double park, and sui sui the next morning I’m doing a story on double parking. Then the guy (that he double parked) called, but to be real I let the thing go on air and I apologised.” – Jeff
On the Tamil side, Aanantha is quite a star too (although arguably he’s the biggest celebrity on Malaysian Tamil radio) movie titled Anushthaana (https://www.facebook.com/Anushthaana-the-Movie- 152212514840248/), and this musical titled Malaysian Girls (http://www.klpac.org/?p=5014).
But while being a radio personality on Chinese and Tamil stations might help make you a celebrity, the opposite seems to be the case for Malay radio stations. Bob says that it’s more like a requirement that you are already a celebrity BEFORE becoming a radio announcer due to the immense competition in the industry. (http://ram-ent.com.my/movies/ah- bengmissions-impossible/) “Sekarang perlu pernah berlakon ke, menyanyi ke, apa sajalah yang pernah popular.” – Bob One of the movies that Jeff (guy on the left) has starred in. His co-host, Jack Lim, produced and starred in this film too (guy with banana). Image from ram- ent.com.my
3. You cannot talk bad about Tamil movie stars, cannot dei
(http://movies.ndtv.com/photos/tamil-cinemas-richest-stars -11035)
Image from movies.ndtv.com.
When it comes to things you should never, ever talk about on radio, Aanantha tells us that on Tamil stations, celebrities are a huge thing. So big that a radio announcer should never openly make fun of Tamil actors.
“We don’t say “Eh, you know this actor ah” and then name that actor and what he did. No we don’t do that.” – Aanantha
He says this is the case because in the Tamil context, these actors are larger than life (http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/larger+than+life) to them. Which may be true, considering the response that Tamil legend Rajinikanth got when he came to Malaysia (http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/citynews/greater- kl/article/rajinikanth-fans-go-wild-as-superstar-starts-film-shoot-in-bangsar/rajinikanth-fans-go-wild-as-superstar-starts-film-shoot-in-bangsar) recently (he’s so boss that there was even a theory that he got rid of the recent haze (http://www.therakyatpost.com/viral/2015/10/28/did-rajinikanth-get-rid-of-the-haze-in- malaysia/)).
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(http://in.bookmyshow.com/entertainment/rajini-mania- hits-malaysia/65606)
Rajinikanth surrounded by his M’sian fans. Image from in.bookmyshow.com.
But according to Jeff, Chinese radio stations also have something that they try to avoid talking about: Money . Jeff says that something Chinese listeners don’t like listening to is people boasting about their wealth or talking about their cars or what not. He tells us about a time when some radio announcers decided to prank him by wrapping his car in newspaper, to this response from his audience.
“The next day I kena complain. People say I’m trying to show off my car.” – Jeff
If like that ah, they probably won’t like our Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/cilisosmy/) very much either.
Wrong suit. Should’ve gone with the Armani instead of Boss. Argh fml #richkidsofmalaysia #richkidsofcilisos #macamyes #cilisossyoksendiri (https://www.instagram.com/p/yfVZCBTKMq/)
A photo posted by cilisos (@cilisosmy) on Jan 30, 2015 at 11:20am PST
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