Tamil radio station market in Malaysia

Currently Malaysia Tamil language radio stations are Minnal FM and THR Raaga.

Back to the pre 2000s generation of Malaysia, there is only one Tamil radio station, known as Radio6 or Red Network (Rangkaian Merah in 1960s), now becomes Minnal FM.

Minnal FM is owned by Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM), which is under Ministry of Information of Malaysia government.

Minnal FM was monopolizing Tamil radio station market in Malaysia for five decades, from 1950s till 1990s, but when came to 2001 there is a new Tamil radio programme on Time Highway Radio, known as THR Raaga. It ended the monopoly of Minnal FM in Malaysia, and THR Raaga is currently monopolizing Tamil radio market since 2001.

Basically THR Raaga was not a radio station, instead it was just a radio programme of Time Highway Radio until acquired by Astro in 2005. After THR was acquired by Astro, THR Raaga became full fledged Tamil radio station in Malaysia, meanwhile the simulcast relay from THR Gegar on THR Raaga frequencies was deceased phase by phase.

Compared to other language stations, English was the earliest to end the monopoly of RTM, there was Time Highway Radio, ended the monopoly of Radio 4 (Traxx FM) in 1994, following by Chinese commercial radio station, Redi FM 988, ended the monopoly of Radio 5 (Ai FM) in 1996. Then, Malay commercial radio, Era FM, ended the monopoly of Radio1, Radio Muzik and RTM state stations in 1997.

In terms of music taste, THR Raaga mainly plays latest and some older Tamil songs, which targets all age of Indians, same as Minnal FM, but RTM Minnal FM plays older Tamil songs more than latest, which targets majority older Indians.

Minnal FM does not only play music, it also carry some talks, including Islamic talks in Tamil.

I'm Chinese, I also have Indian friends too. During high school era, most of my Indians told me that they were listening to THR Raaga, rather than Minnal FM. Then I also shared to them too, stated that most of my Chinese friends preferred listening to My FM, One FM and 988, rather than Ai FM.

In Malaysia, most of Malaysians are listening to commercial radio, rather than government radio (RTM) because there has many factors.

Although I don't really understand every single words of Tamil language, but I was used to try to listen to Tamil radio station in Malaysia, mostly Minnal and THR Raaga. In term of taste, I felt that THR Raaga is nicer. Minnal FM is ok too, but the name "government radio" makes me feel "meh".

Religion talk (mainly Islamic) normally broadcasted on Malay radio stations mostly among all RTM stations (never include IKIM FM, despite IKIM is semi commercial radio), Ai FM and Traxx FM never usually air religion talk at all, just very minor slot of religion talk on the air. Back to 2013, I went to a barber shop to have hair cut, the barber shop owner was listening to Minnal FM, I heard Minnal FM aired religion talk on 11am, I believed that Minnal FM also had another targeted audience too. Minnal FM did not only target Tamil speaking listeners, also including Indian Muslims in Malaysia, so there was a establishment of religion talk, in cooperated with Jakim on Minnal FM resulted.

Now talk to the competition of Tamil radio stations in Malaysia. After THR Raaga launched in 2001, the popularity of Raaga grew rapidly, but most obvious since 2005. In addition, THR Raaga listenership went more stable and higher since 2009. In terms of coverage, Minnal FM is wider than THR Raaga because the station is funded by government, even Minnal FM is available in Terengganu and Kelantan, meanwhile THR Raaga does not go to any East Coast region.

Imagine if THR Raaga has frequency in Kuantan, together with Malay East Coast station THR Gegar, I think Minnal FM will feel threatened in Kuantan and some Terengganu areas and the competition gets stiffer.

Look at Media Prima, and Star Radio Group, these two giant media airs few stations in Malay, Chinese and English, but currently Media Prima and Star Radio Group haven't operated any Tamil radio yet, even Media Prima does not have any Tamil TV station too. Star also closed down its English radio (Red and Capital) since 31st December 2015, then Media Prima 8TV and NTV7 English programmes got decreased heavily since 2016.

Astro has two different music genre stations in three languages:

- Malay
1. Era (hot contemporary)
2. Sinar (classic)
3. THR Gegar (mix format, but for East Coast)

- English
1. Hitz (Hot contemporary, Top40)
2. Mix (90s, 2000s and adult mainstream contemporary)
3. Lite (classic hits and easy listening)

- Chinese
1. My (hot contemporary)
2. Melody (classic)

- Tamil
1. Raaga (hot adult contemporary 80%; classic 20%)

Look at this list, Astro still lacks of Tamil retro station, but Astro has Osai on Astro satellite radio. On September 2016, Astro acquired Red and Capital.

If Red FM is rebranded to Osai FM, and the Tamil retro station is launched by Astro, the competition of Tamil radio market will be stiffer than current.

Minnal FM is not only threatened  by THR Raaga, but it will be threatened again by Osai FM.

Talk about Tamil radio stations in South East Asia, currently there have Raaga, and Minnal from Malaysia as well as Oli from Singapore. Based on the popularity, THR Raaga is currently the most famous Tamil radio in South East Asia.

THR Raaga is also popular in Singapore.

Osai FM can become 4th Tamil radio station in South East Asia and join the battle of radio war.

Singapore is one of battle war place for Tamil radio stations.  The war can be liked this:

Raaga+Osai (from Astro) vs. Minnal (RTM) vs. Oli (Singapore)

Oli FM 96.8MHz only covers Singapore, Batam and Johor (Central and South), meanwhile Minnal covers whole Peninsular Malaysia and Raaga covers West Coast only.

The Astro classic radio station is grouped like below:
- English: Lite FM (since 1997)
- Malay: Sinar FM (since 2004)
- Chinese: Melody FM (since 2012)
- Tamil: Osai FM (to be 2017??)

For Malaysia domestic Tamil radio market, currently Minnal FM monopolizes East Coast Tamil radio market, meanwhile THR Raaga is unable reach East Coast (Kuantan) due to license condition. After Red FM is rebranded to Osai FM, I believe that Red FM Kuantan frequency 91.6MHz will air Osai FM, so Osai FM will end the monopoly of Minnal FM in Kuantan and the battle begins. This East Coast Tamil radio battle can spread until Sotuh Terengganu as Bukit Pelindung can cover there too. To be fair, Astro THR Raaga should reach Kuantan by modifying its license, so the battle among three Tamil radio stations in Kuantan can be started.

Note: This blog post is not fully truth, it is just a speculation, based on my opinion. For most accurate news of rebranding Red FM, please wait the news from Astro.