Radio Stations in Malaysia

One FM

Hot FM

Hitz FM

Hitz FM 2

In this task, we were told to conduct research on a variety of Malaysian Radio Stations/TV Channels, discovering their audience demographic and classifying them in accordance with their stationed programs. I looked at three of these stations that had outliers in the TV industry, focusing on their audience market and the message that they typically send to viewers, which of course ties into the psychographics of their chosen market.

First, I looked at Hitz.fm which chiefly uses the English language and a fun, youthful approach to the way they market to their consumers.

This works well for them, as according to the following article Hitz.fm has an estimated 1.5 million listeners. (http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42133505/ns/today-entertainment/)

This means that Hitz.fm is reaching a huge audience because of the English language and the demographics that they are targeting. As you can see from the following screenshot, their website is reaching a younger crowd consisting of 13 year olds to 30 year olds, due to the type of music they play (Pop hits, Club songs and International, American acts). Combined with their use of social media which presents them with a more friendly platform to reach their target audience, Hitz.fm does an excellent job of catering to their listeners.

Next, I went to Hot.fm which uses Bahasa Melayu to attract a wide range of BM speakers, who are typically Malay. If we look at their website, we can see that the news and music genre is predominantly traditional Malay in nature. On top of that, their website is only available in Bahasa Melayu, making it clear that this channel is only for locals between the age of 15 and 50 years old. Because of that, they have millions of listeners, outranking many of the other Malaysian radio stations.

As you can already guess, these radio stations split up their audience markets into racial stereotypes, providing certain styles of music and radio personalities that work for the different races and age groups.

Thus, it was no surprise to find the last of the three radio stations, One FM, is broadcasted for the Chinese audience of Malaysia. As can be seen from the website and the type of music played on a regular basis, it is easy to see how both traditional and modern Chinese songs appeal to them, along with the predominance of Mandarin as a language. This radio station is interesting in particular, however, due to its ability to follow a trend that is popular with its audience. Specifically, One FM plays Korean Pop to attract the Chinese population of Malaysia (aged 14 to 28) who follow the trend known as K-POP. This tactic is a very good ploy that seems to work as One FM is a very successful station, although there is very little in the way of statistics.

In conclusion, it is easy to understand how these radio stations that are partly owned by larger TV networks are used to capture the attention of certain stereotypes, factoring in such things as race, age and language used.