To commemorate World Radio Day today, FMT caught up with Patrick Teoh, still often referred to as the Voice of Malaysia, who said it’s not unfair to think the industry is “in a coma” and needs an IV drip of soul to be revived.
“Radio must be personality driven,” he said, adding that much of what he was hearing was an endless stream of music, giveaways and occasional banter.
“If I want to listen to music, why am I listening to you? I’ll just make a Spotify playlist. I listen to the radio for the company because I can relate to the presenter.”
Teoh was prolific in his heyday, both as a voiceover talent for advertisements and as a presenter with Rediffusion and RTM’s Radio 4, with some of his most popular shows being the Coca-Cola Cool and Swinging Show and Kee Huat’s Fantastic Facts and Fancies.
He said that’s what drove his success at the time, and what was missing today, was his connection and interaction with his listeners, even those who hated him.
“Some people who used to listen to me might say, ‘Oh Patrick Teoh is a b*****d, he was rude, he cut people off, blah blah blah,’ but that was a character I created for the radio because I believe that agreement is not entertainment. Debate and argument are.
“People who say they hate you want to know what you’re up to next. They might complain about you, but they’ll want to listen the next day and maybe call in so they could be a star for 15 seconds. They always want to come back.”
Intertwined with Teoh’s story is that of fellow radio star and recording artist Yasmin Yusuff, who spent 13 years with Radio 4 and convinced Patrick to return after he briefly stepped away from radio.
“In my opinion,” she said, “listening to the radio has become very vicarious. You’re eavesdropping on two or three people having a conversation. That connection between you and the DJ is completely missing.”
She said Malay radio had maintained that focus on forging relationships with listeners but English broadcasts had strayed.
Both credit, in part, the shift in the landscape to the entrance of Astro into the radio world, which introduced listeners to “format radio”, in which content is tightly controlled and opinions are less welcomed.
“Basically, it’s play three songs, play a commercial, play another three songs, speak for like 17 seconds, another three songs, and on and on,” Yasmin said.
“I think that listeners now need to become a part of the equation more, definitely. It should be less about talking at listeners and more about engaging with them.”
She said that being the talk of the water cooler should be the yardstick used to measure radio success.
She also said things had changed a lot from the days when people used to tune in specifically for their favourite personalities.
“Patrick used to come on my morning show sometimes, and I’ve had people tell me they would sit in their car and wait for Patrick to finish because they didn’t want to miss anything.”
Yasmin said she was happy with what she was able to accomplish during her career, with people still coming up to her to talk about segments she ran decades ago.
She would occasionally think about making a return, she added.
“I’d have Patrick on once a week for sure,” she chuckled, recalling how a picture of them together at an event a few years ago saw scores of netizens clamouring for them to hop back into the booth.
Teoh, on the other hand, said he was happy to let the next generation of presenters and DJs take up the mantle and restore radio to what it once was.
“I had a damn good run,” he said. “It has given me so much and I’m very grateful. But I’m a strong believer in there being a time and place for everything.”
He told FMT he believed radio would once again hit the high notes of his day and that it was merely a matter of allowing the media landscape to mature to “get back to what it should be”.