Ai FM formerly known as Radio 5 Chinese service (Chinese name: 爱 FM, literally "Love FM") is a oldest

Malaysian Mandarin Malaysian Mandarin ( zh, s=马来西亚华语, t=馬來西亞華語, p=Mǎláixīyà Huáyǔ, first=s) is a variety of the Chinese language spoken in Malaysia by ethnic Chinese residents. It is currently the primary language used by the Malay ...

-language radio station for

Malaysian Chinese Malaysian Chinese, Chinese Malaysians, or Sino-Malaysians are Malaysians, Malaysian citizens of Chinese people, Chinese ethnicity. They form the second-largest ethnic group in Malaysia, after the Malaysian Malays, Malay majority, and , const ...

community operated by

Radio Televisyen Malaysia Radio Televisyen Malaysia (, Jawi: ; abbreviated as RTM, stylised as rtm), also known as the Department of Broadcasting, Malaysia (; Jawi: ) is the national public broadcaster of Malaysia, headquartered at Angkasapuri, Kuala Lumpur. Establi ...

was first broadcast on 1 April 1946 as Radio Malaya. It is broadcast 24 hours a day (starting on 28 December 1994), 7 days a week. The station mostly plays

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...

and

Oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...

from the

1950s File:1950s decade montage.png, 370x370px, Top, L-R: U.S. Marines engaged in street fighting during the Korean War, late September 1950; The first polio vaccine is developed by Jonas Salk.Centre, L-R: US tests its first thermonuclear bomb with co ...

1960s File:1960s montage.png, Clockwise from top left: U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War; the Beatles led the British Invasion of the U.S. music market; a half-a-million people participate in the Woodstock, 1969 Woodstock Festival; Neil Armstrong ...

and 1970s similar and related to Capital 95.8FM in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

and

Melody A melody (), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of Pitch (music), pitch and rhythm, while more figurativel ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

as targeting listeners between the age of 50 to now.

Etymology

The station's name means "love" in

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

and carries a universal meaning. The name was chosen through discussions with various parties including leaders of MCA.

History

The station started as Radio Malaya operating of

George Town, Penang George Town is the capital of the States and federal territories of Malaysia, Malaysian state of Penang. It is the core city of the George Town Conurbation, Malaysia's List of cities and towns in Malaysia by population#Largest metropolitan are ...

on 1 April 1946. With the independence of Malaya on 31 August 1957 after its establishment, the radio station Perkhidmatan Bahasa Cina (''Chinese Language Service''). On 19 January 1971, Perkhidmatan Bahasa Cina was known as Rangkaian Hijau (''Green Network''). On 1 January 1989, Rangkaian Hijau was known as Radio 5. On 28 December 1994, Radio 5 was started broadcasting 24 hours a day. Ai FM adopts the

and

radio format with the majority of the playlist consisting of

Easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...

and

music from the

and 1970s. On daily nights features Golden Oldies music from the

and

Dialect News History

Since 1946, the radio station has introduced news time slots in dialects, which has been one of its characteristics for more than 70 years. At that time, news in five dialects was broadcast, including news in Hainan dialect that had stopped broadcasting. Dialect news has been broadcast separately at different times for many years. Since 2005, dialect news has been changed to centralized and integrated broadcasting from 8: 00 to 8: 30 every night. 10 minutes for each news segment.

Dialect news period

From 1 April 2017, each segment of dialect news was shortened from 10 minutes to 5 minutes, and it was split and broadcast in sections. Ai FM is the only Chinese radio station broadcasting dialect news in Malaysia at present. The channel that broadcasts dialect news in Singapore is Capital 95.8FM. Ai FM currently broadcasts news in four dialects: Fujian dialect, Chaozhou dialect, Hakka dialect and

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

. At present, each news segment is about 5 minutes, which is scheduled to be broadcast after the Chinese news bulletin every hour in the evening. * Monday to Sunday (daily): 8:05pm ( Fujian dialect), 9:05pm ( Chaozhou dialect), 10:05pm ( Hakka dialect) and 11:05pm (

). Note: During the reporting period of the National Assembly, the news of Chaozhou dialect is broadcast at 9:10pm from Monday to Thursday.

National Anthem

At midnight every day, the station along with all RTM national and regional radio stations, play the

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and European ...

as the opening.

Frequency

Radio

Television

References

External links

* 1934 establishments in the Straits Settlements Radio stations in Malaysia Chinese-language radio stations in Malaysia Radio Televisyen Malaysia {{Asia-radio-station-stub