UrbanWire

Campus radio station Radio Heatwave (RHW) established close links with Radio Multimedia University (RMMU) in its first trip overseas in the station’s 12-year history.

The Internet radio station of Kuala Lumpur-based Multimedia University was one of two major stops in an educational trip to Malaysia’s capital. 3 lecturers and 20 students from the School of Film & Media Studies embarked on this inaugural trip from Feb 23 to Feb 25.

Organiser of the trip Ms Anita Kuan said, “I initiated the trip… because I felt it would be great exposure to see another campus radio station as well as a commercial radio station in a neighbouring country.

“This will help our Heatwave team develop a more holistic view of the

radio industry and hopefully understand the Malaysian market, perhaps even initiate inter-cultural collaborations.”

The Radio Journalism lecturer added, “This is also a good bonding process for the team.”

Radio Production lecturer Mr Kwek Chin Ling continued, “This trip will open up the horizon for specialist groups and students to experience other working environments other than that of school and other radio stations in and outside Singapore. It’s a good opportunity [for the students] to interact and see how other young people think and how they do things.”
He said, “The main thing is the learning experience through interaction.”

Some things that Programme Director of Radio Heatwave, Sasha Shahira, 20, would like to achieve include “fostering closer ties with a national Malaysian radio station and exchanging ideas and experiences with the campus radio station”.

Apart from the educational visits to the Multimedia University (MMU) and Astro, Malaysia’s radio network with the highest listenership , the students also had a chance to visit the magnificent Petronas Towers, and do other touristy things like shopping and feasting.

Radio Multimedia University
On the lush Multimedia University (MMU) 80-hectare Cyberjaya Campus, the students were introduced to MMU’s radio station, Radio Multimedia University (RMMU) and the students running the station. RMMU enjoys listenership and hits from Malaysian students and others around the world.

RMMU, then known Radio Unitele and based in the Malacca campus, started webcasting through the Internet on June 1998.

The differences between Radio Heatwave and RMMU are that Radio Heatwave has a News section, and in-campus broadcast to the Atrium and the canteens and also ‘live’ air-time from 9am to 6pm, compared to RMMU’s 6pm to 2am slots.

News Director of RHW Ashley Choo, 21, reasoned that “they might already have personalised news because they did mention they talked about stuff within the campus like gossip and the latest happenings. Maybe their listeners felt more akin to the station that way than just having formal news bulletins.”

RMMU is led by advisor Mr Abdul Lazi bin Nordin, and student president Daniel Tiew Wah Seng, and vice-presidents Sven Tang Chee Lok and Wong Wai Hong.

The Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) lecturers and students had a pleasant surprise when they learnt that students running the station were not media students, but instead were from different faculties such as Engineering, Information Technology (IT) and Management.

Vice-president Wong Wai Hong, 21, explained, “Our knowledge [of running a radio station and presenting] was passed on by seniors and it’s largely based on experience. We also try to get guest lecturers to come and share experiences with us. We can’t say that we are professionals, we just do our best in presenting and I think this is a good outlet for us to sharpen our skills in listening and speaking.”

On why she joined RMMU, IT student Christine Kim, 21, also known as DJ Christy, said, “It was for the interest in it. Most of us just joined, went through the interviews, the auditions, the crash course… but I think what ultimately binds us together is the will to make this radio station work,”

Radio presenter, 3rd-year Mass Communication (MCM) student Ashlynn Sum, 19, echoed Christine’s thoughts, “I think it is admirable that students like themselves who are not taking Radio Production as a module, could do so well in running a radio station by themselves. Although they do have a lecturer in charge that they could turn to for help, you could tell that each student was very involved in all aspects of running the station.”

The highlight of the day was an impromptu on-air exchange session between Sasha and Nicholas Kueh, 20, also known as DJ Nick, which ended with DJ Nick translating Radio Heatwave’s tagline of “It’s What You Want!” in Hokkien and Malay.

Assistant Manager of the Marketing Communications Unit from MMU, Ms Khairul Mazwan Ibrahim Pati, led the students on a tour of the Cyberjaya campus. She introduced the students to the Networked Multimedia Education System (NMES) Learning Centre, which was having an on-going lesson with students in Kuantan, Pahang, via web-conferencing.

The next stop was the Nokia Wireless Communication Lab, a collaboration between MMU and Nokia. Ms Khairul explained that the lab acts as a “mini telecommunications exchange hub, with systems complete with transmitters for direct data communication”.
Moving on to the Intel Microelectronics Lab, the students were told that this lab was strictly for post-graduate students’ research and simulations.

The fourth pit stop of 5 was the E-gallery, part of the Faculty of Creative Multimedia. There the students were treated to a display of a selection of the best works done by the students of MMU.

The last stop was the Digital Library. Ms Khairul introduced it as “a mix between a digital and traditional library [with the usage of] the smart card”.

According to the MMU Guide for International Students, MMU is one of the first universities in the world to use the smart card for “e-purse, library, laboratory access, e-commerce [and] security monitoring”.

Ms Kuan rounded up the visit nicely, “Just being in a different cultural setting was an eye-opener for many students. I hope Heatwave realises how fortunate they are that they are given so many resources compared to the RMMU station, which is run purely by the DJ Club. Touring the campus was also allowed the students to compare and contrast. So hopefully they can play up on NP's strengths and suggest improvements for weaknesses. It was in their interest to speak to Malaysia counterparts.”

ASTRO- Out of this world

On the third day, the group paid a visit to Airtime Management & Programming Radio Networks, better known as ASTRO. Ms Leong Tzu-Ann, senior publicist, dealing with management and promotions, brought the students and lecturers around the station.
ASTRO is situated at All Asia Broadcast Centre, Technology Park, Malaysia. On top of 10 music channels, it houses 6 FM radio stations, namely, ERA, MY, Hitz FM, Mix FM SINAR and Light & Easy.

Ms Leong also explained what the equipment – Radio Communications Systems (RCS) was about.

Next, the students and lecturers were given a brief tour of the radio studios. Then the students were dropped off for some quality time with one of Hitz FM’s most popular radio presenters, Roslan Hamid Yusoff, or better known to listeners as Ross.

The deejay who had worked on Power 98 in Singapore before returning to his country demonstrated the uses of the RCS system. He also gave an insight on uniformity in the industry, “During our talksets, at the beginning and the end, we have to announce ‘Hitz FM’. That’s like something we have to do so listeners can identify with us.”

Ashlynn noted, “DJ Ross was so much fun to watch. He's one very unique and magnetic character. Hitz FM seems very much like Perfect 10 so we roughly have an idea what kind of audience they are catering to. I’ve learned from DJ Ross (who didn't study to be a radio presenter) that you don't have to be mass communication in order to be a DJ on radio. What you really need is the charisma, interest and passion for your work. The rest will fall in place.”

Time to Say Goodbye
Ms Kuan said that she “would love to do field trips farther afield, say Indonesia, India, Hong Kong, UK, etc., but with cost-cutting measures [she] doubts this will be possible.”

Mr Kwek was more upbeat, “Of course. This is a pilot programme for the radio station and its students, and this [trip] is quite successful and well organised. The students enjoyed interaction with the industry players and other students from overseas educational institutions.”

He also added “for CTV (CampusTV) and Urbanwire, it would be a good opportunity for exposure and [the lecturers] will work towards this direction. We hope that one day we can just book 2 coaches and we can all go together.”

The trip whetted the appetite of the students for more intensive collaboration. Sasha suggested that “apart from the trip, maybe all the Heatwave members could intern for two to three weeks with some real-life [overseas] counterparts as part of a 'learn as you work' thing.”