Why does Era have Tapah frequency on FM 102.0MHz, meanwhile sister radio stations have no of it?

 

Many people are asking me that why Astro Malay language radio station Era has Tapah tuning frequency FM 102.0MHz.

 

In Tapah, there are only 3 radio stations having local frequencies which transmitted from Changkat Rembian, 2 of them are from RTM such as Perak FM 97.3MHz and Radio Klasik FM 88.7MHz, meanwhile 1 of them is Era FM.

 

Era is the only commercial radio station operating in Tapah on FM 102.0MHz, but let's talk about the history.

 

FM 102.0MHz in Tapah, Perak was actually belonged to Time Highway Radio (THR FM) before Era. In 1994, Malaysia's 2nd commercial radio station Time Highway Radio was launched, the radio station broadcasted in English (80%) and Malay (20%), THR FM expanded outside Klang Valley in 1995.

 

THR FM launched its frequencies in northern region with the frequencies below:

 

101.9MHz Langkawi

102.4MHz Alor Setar and Seberang Perai

99.3MHz Penang

102.1MHz Taiping

97.9MHz Ipoh

102.0MHz Tapah

 

Time Highway Radio launched Tapah frequency FM 102.0MHz was to cover the blind spot coverage of FM 97.9MHz (Ipoh frequency) and FM 99.3MHz (Gunung Ulu Kali).

 

In 2001, Time Highway Radio ceased English broadcast due to stiff competition with Astro Radio Hitz, Mix, Lite and other English radio stations such as Red 104.9, Wow FM 97.6 and RTM Radio 4 (Traxx FM), and introduced Tamil slot, known as Raaga.

 

Time Highway Radio was acquired by Astro Radio (AMP Networks) in 2005. In west coast, the frequencies were broadcasted as THR Raaga in Tamil, meanwhile THR Gegar in Malay is in east coast.

 

FM 102.0MHz in Tapah was still in operation after THR joined Astro. Astro Radio never applied any frequency license to MCMC for Tapah area. 

From 2005 to 2008, FM 102.0MHz was THR Raaga in Tapah, Perak, however in 2009, Astro Radio decided to ceased THR Raaga in Tapah and the frequency FM 102.0MHz was switched to Era because Tapah has more Malays than Indians. 

I remembered the moment I tuning the radio randomly. Back to 2007, when I was 13 years old, I pressed AST (Auto Store) button on the car radio in Bidor, Perak along PLUS Highway, FM 102.0MHz was detected, it was Tamil radio broadcast, so I knew it was THR Raaga, but I had no idea where's the intend coverage of FM 102.0MHz actually.

 

In June 2009 when I was 15, I tuned to FM 102.0MHz again in Bidor, it was totally different, from Tamil to Malay broadcast. I thought it was Perak FM, but FM 102.0MHz had more commercials, meanwhile Perak FM did not have much commercials. Until January 2010, I read newspaper and saw Era FM advertisement with the frequencies list, then I saw FM 102.0MHz (Tapah). Hence, from there, I only realized Era FM had Tapah frequency which taking over from Time Highway Radio THR Raaga.

 

The radio program switch of Tapah frequency FM 102.0MHz from THR Raaga to Era did not affect THR Raaga's listeners in Tapah because the listeners can continue listen via FM 99.3MHz from Gunung Ulu Kali. 

 

Commercially, Era took over THR Raaga Tapah frequency FM 102.0MHz would help Astro Radio to gain more profits because Era is the most popular radio brand of Astro Radio.

 

Listeners who tune to Era will definitely receive clearer signal in Tapah on FM 102.0MHz, compare to weaker FM 103.3MHz and FM 103.7MHz.

 

Meanwhile sister radio station Sinar FM has no Tapah frequency as Astro never intends to launch the frequencies for all of its radio brands in Tapah, instead Astro just simply switched THR Raaga to Era in Tapah on FM 102.0MHz.