A trip to BFM

      BFM is a radio station in the Klang area. BFM stands for Business FM.

 

Last Friday, our school organized a trip to BFM. BFM was located at BU8 plaza. We took a car to the place. Before entering the station office, we were amazed by the decoration of the station. We entered the station with excitement, waiting to know what was next.

       We were welcomed by one of the co-worker. We entered their office and into their meeting room or conference room. Their office was flooded with computers and laptops with all brands. Before starting the discussion session, we were provided some snacks from the workers. They were very kind and friendly. Inside the conference room, there were examples of BFM slogans such as:

Battle For Malaysia

Bieber Free Music

Bungalows For Me

Brake Faster Macha

Bribe Free Malaysia

Busy Finding Money

Brainy Female Mentors

Blazing Female Managers

Bold Fearless Mothers

       There were 8 different people speaking to us excluding the founder, Mr. Malek Ali.

Uncle Sharaad – Current Affairs

Mr.Sharaad is one of the morning FM hosts that talks about current affairs. He is currently 48 years old. Current affairs are basically things that are happening now, or facts about the world. Uncle Sharaad said that there are a lot of current affairs to talk about, but he will only choose the ones that people would love to hear the most. Uncle Sharaad said that his responsibility was to first find the facts. After he has collected the facts he would frame it in his own words. After that the facts would be easier to understand. An example is what caused the war in Syria. It was because of some conflict. Uncle Sharaad is on the radio at 6.15 a.m. and 7.30 a.m. from Monday to Saturday.

Uncle Malek Ali – Founder of BFM

Malek Ali was the founder BFM. He started this radio station because there was a need in the radio station world for Business radio station. He started BFM in 2008. Thisradio station was not popular till now. BFM earned money by having advertisement. A 30 seconds advertisement cost RM500 per plays. As BFM is a business station, they frequently interview people such as Tony Fernandes- the AirAsia boss, Lim Guan Eng, and Khalid Ibrahim. Starting a radio station needed 5 million ringgit. It was very costly for them, but they still survived till now.

David Chew

David Chew is the “technical guy” in BFM. He works as one of the host in Morning Run from 6-10am. He is the one who is in charge of the radio system. He told us how radio works. Firstly, the BFM station broadcast the signal from a transmitter to a transmitter tower in Batang Kali. The transmitter send microwave signals to Batang Kali. These microwave signals are strong and can be broadcasted as far as 500km. From Batang Kali transmitter tower, it broadcast the radio out to Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Selangor and Melaka. This type of broadcasting is called Terrestrial Broadcast. FM stands for Frequency Modulation. It costs roughly about 10,000 ringgit a year to own a radio station in Malaysia. Then, he told us how Astro works. Astro studio sends up a signal to a satellite in space. From the satellite, it broadcasts to the whole Malaysia. It uses VHF, very high frequency. Sometimes when it rains there is no signal, because the clouds in the sky blocked them.

Diana Blackburn

Aunty Diana was in charge of the songs played on BFM. She had 5000 song in a playlist. She had a software that sorts out the different types of songs played on the radio.

Aunty Meera

Aunty Meera told us about all the policies and guidelines for radio stations. We were discussing about the Rules and Regulation of radio. She said that since BFM is a business radio station and they talk a lot, they always get in trouble. Aunty Meera told us that they couldn’t talk about politics and other stuff having to do with the government.

Uncle Jason

Uncle Jason is the guy who does all the things to do with the iPad app call the B-side. It’s called e-magazine and is available for Android too. These articles are contributed by other people. There are various types of visual effects since it’s on the iPad. It is also downloadable on Android.

 

       Lastly, we were toured around by one of the workers. He was an old aged guy. He name was Uncle Soon Heng. He brings us to the studio and introduces the equipment in the studio. It was interesting. I am very pleased and happy with this trip because I learned another new knowledge. It was fun and I hoped to join them and spend more time with them next time.