Radio station offers locals rock nostalgia

Radio station offers locals rock nostalgia

By Yoko N. Sari

JAKARTA (JP): Fans of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Uriah Heep,
Grand Funk Railroad, Genesis, or other rock bands dating back to
the 1960s and 1970s, now can enjoy their songs on local radio all
day long.

Just tune in to M97 FM radio, a local station which has been
taking Jakartans back to the "good old days" with "classic rock"
songs every day, starting in October last year.

Hikmat Darmawan, a member of the station's program department,
said recently that his radio station offers Jakartans, who grew
up with this kind of rock music, a chance to walk down memory
lane to the accompaniment of their favorite songs.

This nostalgic music is interspersed occasionally with tunes
from younger rock bands, such Guns n' Roses and Europe, in order
to capture the attention of teenagers as well as their older
siblings and parents.

But the majority of the programing is based on broadcasting
classic rock songs because there's a large market for it.

"The management is aware that there's a huge market out there.
Many people like to listen to such old songs again. Most were
regular listeners of Prambors radio in the 1970s," Hikmat said.

Another reason for the radio station to specialize in classic
rock songs is the tough competition, especially in Jakarta. In
1994 alone there were 29 FM radio stations in Jakarta, out of the
169 privately-run radio stations throughout Indonesia.

"With such stiff competition, it is important for a radio
station to specialize for the sake of its own listeners with
their own tastes," Hikmat said.

"Tough competition means facing more rivals in getting
advertisements, which help radio stations to survive," he said.

Speaking of commercial prospects for his station, Hikmat, said
it is still just "a baby". The radio needs time to exist in the
public's heart.

"But we are optimistic about that, because the listeners'
response has been very great. Some of them praise the station and
say they have been waiting for this kind of radio for 20 years,"
he said.

He added that his station is still listing potential
advertisers.

"The station tries to fulfill the listeners' demand for
classic rock by playing the songs clear through, even if it takes
29 minutes," he said.

Most of the listeners are fanatics about their own favorite
groups and they would be disappointed if the songs were cut
abruptly, he said. "For such fans true fans each song is not just
an ordinary song. It has special meaning and it will lose its
soul if it's not played clear through to the end."

In order to be sure it has the best selection possible, the
station is working on collecting more than 6,000 songs by rock
bands from the 1960s and 1970s to be broadcast, he said.

"Sometimes it's difficult to get a CD of certain groups here
in Jakarta," he said. He refused to say where his station is
getting them.

Hikmat said that his station is also preparing its radio
jockeys so they will not only play the music but also be able to
give comments on the songs.

The radio management is carrying out training programs for its
radio jockeys. This training program includes lessons on the
backgrounds and histories of the bands, the music itself and the
current affairs of the times the music was produced, as well as
how to present classic rock to listeners, he said.

"Such matters are very important because during the initial
airing of our programs there were complaints from listeners about
our radio jockeys' ways of presenting the songs," he said.

Prambors Group

Radio M97 FM is owned and managed by the Prambors Group.

Prambors Group has six radio stations and all of them have
their own specialities and listener targets.

Delta FM specializes in pop songs from the 1950s, 1960s and
1970s, Female is especially for career women, Prambors for
teenagers, SPFM plays dangdut music and two other stations cater
to the tastes of teens in Bali and Bandung.

Prambors radio first went on the air in 1967 as an unlicensed
station. It got its license in 1971. Established by teenagers
living in Menteng, Malik Syafei, Imran Amir and Mursid Rustam,
Prambors has since been very popular among teenagers.

Hikmat said that Prambors listeners in the 1970s are older
now, but their taste in music has not changed. "They are still
crazy about rock music from that era."

When Prambors took over Monalisa radio, which used to cater to
female listeners, last October, the management decided to
specialize in classic rock music to meet the existing demand for
radio broadcasts of such music.

"We called the radio M97 FM because we don't think that
Monalisa is an appropriate name for a station that caters to both
male and female listeners," Hikmat said.