`Cakrawala' rides the Chinese cultural revival

`Cakrawala' rides the Chinese cultural revival

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

For almost a full decade in the 1990s, Radio Cakrawala had to be
content with being a nondescript private radio station with
little to distinguish it from among the many other private radio
stations operating in Jakarta.

Today, riding the wave of the Chinese cultural revival that
has come about since the downfall of the New Order regime in
1998, it is the only radio station in the city that broadcasts in
Mandarin, and it is doing increasingly well commercially as a
result.

But the change in fortune did not happen overnight.

Founded in 1971 by Abraham Ari Supono, Syarifudin and Hendrik
Deil -- all non-Chinese (the latter two are no longer
shareholders) -- the station began as an AM broadcaster airing
Indonesian songs aimed at middle to lower-income-bracket
listeners.

In 1992, they moved their studios from Jl. Gajah Mada in West
Jakarta to Kota and switched from AM to FM. At the same time,
they also changed the station's listener profile from the lower
income bracket to the upper and higher income brackets, playing
easy listening Western songs.

Then, after a year of doing business in the city's thriving
Chinatown commercial district, they began eyeing the Chinese
communities around their offices as a potential market.

So, the station began playing a few Mandarin songs every day
-- furtively, because the government at that time banned the
public airing of all aspects of Chinese culture.

First, they played one Mandarin song about every hour, later
increasing this to three songs per hour.

"Sometimes when we played Mandarin songs, we received phone
calls, probably from BIA (Military Intelligence), just hinting at
us not to play them," Harry, a staffer in the human resources
department, recounted.

In 1998, after the Soeharto regime fell, the new situation
gave Cakrawala -- which literally means horizon -- greater
opportunities to play Mandarin songs. But it was not until 2000,
when then President Abdurrahman Wahid abrogated the law that
banned Chinese cultural and religious activities, that the
station finally got the opportunity to freely broadcast in the
Chinese language.

That year, the management and owners -- all non-Chinese
Indonesians -- Abraham Ari Supono, Effendi Ilham and his wife,
decided to use Mandarin as the station's principal medium.

"Fifty-five percent of the programs are now in Mandarin, while
the remainder are in Indonesian and English," explained Harry.

However, finding DJs fluent in Mandarin was no easy task as at
that time the station had no ethnic Chinese staff members, let
alone someone who was expert in the Mandarin language.

So, they hired a graduate from the University of Indonesia's
Chinese Literature Department.

"We do not hire DJs who speak Mandarin with a Hokkian or a Khe
dialect. We use the national dialect," said Harry, who does not
understand Mandarin himself.

First, they hired one Mandarin DJ. Now, out of the 20 DJs they
have, 12 of them are fluent in the Mandarin language and,
coincidentally, are of ethnic Chinese origin.

"Most of the Mandarin DJs have spent time in Taiwan or China,"
he said. Brenda Yu, who once worked as a presenter in the
Mandarin news program, Metro Xin Wen, on Metro television, had
been a DJ at Cakrawala.

Harry said that most of the station's listeners were members
of the Chinese community, especially those living in West
Jakarta. "If you go shopping in Glodok or Mangga Dua (both
business centers run mainly by Chinese Indonesians), you will
notice that many of the shops there are tuned in to Cakrawala,"
said Harry proudly.

In 1998, the station established a fan club. With membership
of the club, listeners get an ID that can be used as a pass for
requesting songs or joining quizzes. Now, the club has around
7,000 members, 92 percent of them ethnic Chinese.

Sometimes, fans come flocking to the Cakrawala offices on the
third floor of an old building next to a Chinese ancestor worship
house across the street from Kota railway station. "Some of them
are surprised to see us with non-Chinese faces working in a
Mandarin-language radio station," he said.

However, Harry said, no problems had arisen because of this so
far. "This station intends to encourage the assimilation process,
a process that is still not working properly," he said.

According to Harry, ethnic prejudice still exists, although he
has never encountered any ethnic conflict inside his office.

While admitting that at least half of Cakrawala listeners are
middle-aged people, Harry feels optimistic about the future of
the station.

"For 32 years, the Chinese language was banned, so those who
understand Chinese are mostly older people. But now I see that
Chinese language courses here are booming," he said. "Besides,
music is universal. A lot of Cakrawala listeners do not
understand Mandarin, but they tune in to our radio anyway."

Hendra Suryadi, a photographer with a magazine in Jakarta,
says that although he does not understand Mandarin, he sometimes
tunes in to Cakrawala.

"When I'm going home in my car, I sometimes listen to
Cakrawala. I don't understand what the DJs are saying, but I like
listening to the songs they play," he said.

As the Chinese culture in Indonesia undergoes a revival, so
have the fortunes of Cakrawala improved. Since Cakrawala started
broadcasting 55 percent of its content in the Mandarin language,
the station has seen its revenue increase fourfold compared to
when it was broadcasting solely in the Indonesian language.

"We will continue broadcasting mainly in Mandarin for as long
as it brings us good fortune," Harry said.

History, it seems, is repeating itself. For centuries in the
past, business and trade have been factors encouraging friendship
and rapport among peoples around the world, no matter what their
ethnicity or race.