Professionalism of radio announcer

I venture to question the professionalism displayed by one of the local radio stations, 107.85 FM, otherwise commonly known as radio DMC. Last Saturday night I happened to tune my radio to DMC, listening to what was, apparently, a combination of rap and soul music. What greatly surprised and amused me was the manner of the disc jockey that was hosting the show.

The D.J., Max Donner, proceeded to babble some of the most pathetic, inconsiderate and, some may consider, racist comments I have ever heard on the air. Some examples of this would be his calling the show "The spirit of Black American Music", which was sung by his "Brothers In The Hood".

He seemed fairly loose with such terms as "Bringing The Bong Into The Song" and "Black Hip Hop Brothers". Hold on for just a moment; does this Mr. Donner realize what he's saying?

Another blatant mistake I noticed was that he often mistakenly named the songs and their artists. Excuse me for being picky, but I do think that the listening audience does have a right to know what they are listening to; correctly. The last time I checked, the British born rap artist apache Indian was not from Australia, nor did he sing a song by the title of Snoop Doggy Dog, which is ,in fact, the name of another rap artist.

However, the highlight of the show was when I began to hear songs with blatant obscenities in them being broadcasted. Is it a figment of my imagination, or has Jakarta not been trying to crack down on the "evils" of television and radio broadcasts? Would not a song that played out vulgar phrases be considered for censorship? I would think so, having been in the field of television and radio broadcasting for the last three years.

I was appalled to see this standard of professionalism, or should I say, lack of it, in Indonesia. Surely the radio station, or Mr. Donner, has heard of the revolutionary concept of dubbing, or even go to the extent of not playing the song?

I hope that Max Donner, the self proclaimed Prince of Darkness, wakes up to the real world; and in the future, tries to act with some degree of credibility.

MUKESH VASANDANI

Jakarta