My memories of listening to Red FM (Malaysia)

Red FM was an English radio stations which operated by Star Media Group until 31st December 2015. Until today, it is almost 2.5 years of Red FM ceased its broadcast. Since 30th December 2016, the radio was taken over by Astro and rebranded as Zayan from September 2017.

Red FM was my memories during teenagers moment. I was starting to listen to Red FM since 2009, alongside with Hitz FM and Fly FM. Began from 2009, I loved to listen to Red FM than Fly FM because Red FM played variety of songs from different decades.

I tuned the unfamiliar frequency FM 106.0MHz to listen to Red FM when I was around Southern Selangor, then switched to 104.9 for better reception.

"40 minutes non-stop music" on Red FM 104.9MHz was super awesome to me when I listened in 2009, 2010, 2011 and early 2012, less repeating same music over again like Mix FM. Red FM "40 minutes non-stop music" playlist are from late 1970s till current hits. Actually "40 minutes non-stop music" was applied with Red Drive and Red Evenings, it is available from 10am till 7pm.

During that time, Red FM became "Fastest growing English radio station in Malaysia" by AC Nielsen.

Besides "40 minutes non-stop music" on Red FM, "Skool Daze" was my most favorite weekend programs on Red FM. I was listening to Skool Daze on Red FM every Saturday evening from 7pm onwards. I liked this programmes much because it played English songs from 1970s till early 2000s (noughties), most of those retro hits on Red FM were synthpop, hip hop, pop and dance where we don't usually hear on Lite FM.

Compare with Lite FM, I loved Red FM Skool Daze more, but Lite FM plays more sentimental and easy listening classic hits.

I also liked to hear Red FM played Michael Jackson songs too.

Until 2012, I didn't really listen to Red FM after "Sorry Uncle" campaign where playlist and programs were nearly to Fly FM and Hitz FM, more crappy songs after that. May be they did that to avoid self competition with Capital FM women station where plays rare 1980s and 1990s most of the time.

I felt awesome about Red FM playlist from 2009 till 2012, then 2015. In addition, I also hated some of it. Because its sister station Suria FM is Malay radio station, of course it is very common if Suria has Indonesia song chart show where language is closely related to Malay, BUT Red FM launched a programme known as "Red FM Indonesian's Chart Show", I disliked it because it already made internal competition with Suria FM. In addition, there was no direction on targeted listeners when Red FM launched Indonesian's Chart Show. At last, this programme was short life one, and finally halted.

In 2013, Red FM had changed its logo with tagline "Living It!". To me, the logo looked very simple only. The most attractive show was "The Red Breakfast WTF" because of the branding, the word "WTF" made me to think about the vulgarity "What The F**k". Hahahhahaha! XD

What The F**k show. Hahhahahahha! XD
Definitely not for kids show.

Until the final 2 years broadcasting of Red FM, the playlist genre was changed again. At that time, Red FM shifted its music genre from contemporary hits to rock. From late 2014, no more Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars and other crappy songs on Red FM, but Red FM played rock songs majority such as Linkin Park, The Click Five, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, 30 Seconds To Mars, Coldplay etc. Red FM 2015 was not same as BFM 89.9 where played rock songs.

BFM 89.9 plays independent rock and some oldies, but Red FM 2015 played mainstream rock.

After Red FM ceased broadcasting with Capital FM, Malaysia already lost 2 English radio stations. This already makes me less choice. Before Red FM ceased, I also listened to BFM 89.9 partially for the news and talk.

Hitz, Mix, Lite and Fly are playing same songs over again, they're torturing listeners' hearing when people tune to music radio stations. For most of Red FM listeners, Traxx FM is their choice because it plays variety of English songs, regardless decades and genres.

For the transmission coverage, unlike other radio stations where work well, Red FM had cut down some frequencies in 2009, the most impressive was its Negeri Sembilan frequency 106.0 was closed down. So, Negeri Sembilan listeners needed to tune 104.9 or 98.9, but unstable reception. Meanwhile Taiping frequency FM 98.2MHz from Bukit Larut was closed down due to interference with its 98.1MHz for Kedah, Perlis and Penang, but Taiping could get 98.1MHz. Five years later, Red FM Penang frequency 107.6MHz was ceased and taken over by Capital FM.

That's about it for my stories about Red FM 104.9. If you have stories about Red FM, please do share your memories by posting comment below this page.