Radio has proven to be a remarkably resilient broadcast media. Surprisingly, television has not displaced it. Neither will the new multimedia forms. There is something about audio communication which appeals to the human brain in a way quite different from that of visual communication. Radio is also unmatched when it comes to portability, whether the radio in the car or the hardy transistor radio. Thus we see the FM spectrum in Singapore filled with a wide range of music channels catering to different language and age groups.

Radio news has always been important because of its timeliness. Since the regional economic crisis began over a year ago, the demand for financial and political news has soared. Because of the ready access to radio news, the percentage of listeners who rely on the radio for firsthand news has jumped from 23% in 1996 to 31% in 1997. As there is no danger that the economic crisis would pass away quickly, we can expect a strong market for radio news for many years to come.

This is where NewsRadio 93.8 comes in. Well before its official launch today, NewsRadio 93.8 has already become a very important radio station in Singapore. NewsRadio 93.8 is an unexpected beneficiary of the economic crisis. In the competition for listeners, the objective of any radio station must be to become one of the first-tier pre-set channels on the car radio.

NewsRadio 93.8 has become my most important radio station. Because of its good regional coverage, I turn on to it much more often than I do BBC FM. From anecdotal accounts, I believe that many Singaporeans have made NewsRadio 93.8 a key pre-set channel. In the first few months, the interstitial music did not appeal to me and I found myself quickly turning to other stations for better music the moment news was over. But, to be fair, the enjoyment of music is very subjective and depends a lot on the generation one belongs to. From my own perspective at least, I have found the interstitial music to have improved greatly, so that I don't mind remaining on 93.8 nowadays even when I am not listening to anything in particular.

What NewsRadio 93.8 should try to do is to improve the quality of its analysis. Straight reporting is not a problem but the quality of analysis has been a little patchy so far. As NewsRadio 93.8 becomes a staple source of news for Singaporeans and foreign residents living here, the quality of news analysis becomes very important. The success of NewsRadio 93.8 means that it has a deep responsibility to present local, regional and international news in a clear, accurate and compelling way.

A year ago, I was not sure that NewsRadio 93.8 would succeed. Today, I take that for granted and worry more about the quality of the service that we are able to provide. My congratulations to the Radio Corporation of Singapore on the establishment of a new radio station that has become an important part of our lives.

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