Gold 905 is an English-language radio station that broadcasts 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 ...

. Owned by the state-owned broadcaster

Mediacorp Mediacorp Pte. Ltd. is the state media, state-owned media conglomerate of Singapore. Owned by Temasek Holdings—the investment arm of the Government of Singapore—it owns and operates television channels, radio, and digital media properties. ...

, it provides a classic hits format. The station's origins date to the beginning of regulated radio broadcasting in Singapore; it initially broadcast on AM under

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

ZHL, and carried programmes in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

, Malay, and

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

. With the gradual expansion of language-based radio services in Singapore, the station focused on English-language programmes. It was renamed Radio 1 in 1982; it offered a

full service Full service or Full Service may refer to: Entertainment Books * ''Full Service'' (book), a 2012 memoir by Scotty Bowers * '' Full Service No Waiting'', a 1998 album by Peter Case Music * "Full Service", a song by the New Kids on the Block fr ...

format until 1998, when news programming was relocated to the new NewsRadio 93.8, and 90.5 relaunched as an

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 ...

station.

History

The station was awarded a licence in 1935 under the auspices of the British Malaya Broadcasting Corporation. Broadcasting began on 1 March 1937, roughly two months after the expiry of the previous radio station in Singapore, ZHI. The new station carried the callsign ZHL, and broadcast on an AM

medium wave Medium wave (MW) is a part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the daytim ...

frequency of 630 kHz (which remained unchanged after the

Geneva Frequency Plan of 1975 The Final Acts of the Regional Administrative LF/MF Broadcasting Conference (Regions 1 and 3) Geneva, 1975 is the internationally agreed frequency plan which was drawn up to implement the provisions of the Final Acts of the Regional Administrati ...

, as it was already on a multiple of 9 kHz), and began FM transmissions in 1967. On 1 January 1994, AM broadcasting was discontinued in Singapore in favour of FM. Until late-1945, the station, as the country's then-sole radio station, broadcast language-based

block programming Block programming (also known as a strand in British broadcasting) is the arrangement of programs on radio or television so that those of a particular genre, theme, or target audience are united. Overview Block programming involves scheduling a ...

aimed at the local population in English, Chinese dialects, Malay and Tamil. Over time, its language-based programmes diffused into separate stations serving specific language groups, leaving ZHL as the English-language service of Radio Singapore. On 1 January 1982, the

Singapore Broadcasting Corporation Mediacorp Pte. Ltd. is the state media, state-owned media conglomerate of Singapore. Owned by Temasek Holdings—the investment arm of the Government of Singapore—it owns and operates television channels, radio, and digital media properties. ...

rebranded its stations, with the English service being rebranded as Radio 1. On 28 October 1989, Radio 1 began airing "mellow, middle-of-the-road music" on weekday afternoons through a seven-hour programme block. One FM became Gold 90.5 on 2 July 1998, playing music from the 1970s, golden oldies and country, with plans to include contemporary jazz and Latin American pop. News content moved to NewsRadio 93.8. In 2016, the station introduced new Saturday evening shows devoted to

classic rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

(''Rock of Ages'') and

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

(''Solid Gold'') as part of a revamp of its DJ lineup.

References

External links

GOLD 905's Official Website
{{coord missing, Singapore Radio stations established in 1937 1937 establishments in Singapore Radio stations in Singapore Oldies radio stations

History

See also

References

External links