`RCTI' to start bilingual programs

JAKARTA (JP): Good news is on the way for those who dislike watching soap operas or cartoons which are dubbed into Bahasa Indonesia and broadcast by the private channel RCTI.

An official of RCTI said the station on Wednesday will start airing bilingual serial movie programs, in Bahasa and in English, to let viewers make their own choices.

"If you want Rebecca Gilling speaking Bahasa choose channel one, but choose channel two if you want her speaking English," said Murdjadi Ichsan, a public relations officer of RCTI, referring to the star of an Australian-made Return to Eden serial movie.

Ichsan told The Jakarta Post yesterday that PT Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia (RCTI) will start the bilingual broadcasts, which can only be received by certain television sets, on the Return to Eden and Judge Bao serials.

Return to Eden is usually aired every Wednesday at 1 p.m. while Judge Bao is broadcast every Tuesday at 9:30 p.m.

Television sets should be equipped with a stereo system which provides viewers with double-track audio facility.

It can separate different audio signals into an autonomous track by pushing the right two buttons: channel one and channel two.

Ichsan said that modern television sets usually come with a built-in stereo system.

RCTI currently dubs 10 serial movies including well-known cartoons like Candy Candy, Dora Emon, Saint Seiya as well as movies for children such as The Masked Black Rider, Power Ranger and White Fang.

It also broadcasts dramas such as Soledad, Isamar and Return to Eden as well as the Hong Kong-made Judge Bao classic story.

Ichsan said RCTI will start the bilingual program in the Greater Jakarta area for the next two months while preparing similar programs in Bandung, Yogyakarta, Semarang, Surakarta, Malang and Surabaya, all in Java, as well as in Denpasar (Bali), Medan and Palembang (Sumatra), Manado and Ujungpandang (Sulawesi).

He said it will be some time before RCTI works the same way in Balikpapan, Pontianak and Banjarmasin (Kalimantan), Kupang (Timor), Jayapura (Irian Jaya) and Ambon (Maluku).

The reason is that at the moment the relay stations in the areas are only able to transmit mono audio signals.

Ichsan said RCTI will soon finance the development of stereo signals. (09)