Radio Televisyen Malaysia


Radio Televisyen Malaysia , also known as Department of Broadcasting, Malaysia is a Malaysian public broadcaster based in Kuala Lumpur. Established on 1 April 1946 as Radio Malaya, it is the first and the oldest broadcaster in the country. When Malaysia was formed on 16 September 1963, Radio Malaya was renamed Radio Malaysia while Televisyen Malaysia was established three months later. In 1969, Radio Malaysia and Televisyen Malaysia merged to form the present day broadcast department.
Today, it runs 5 television channels and 33 radio stations. Despite its' status as public broadcaster, RTM's television channels have some amount of commercial advertising.

History

RTM started broadcasting radio on 1 April 1946, and television on 28 December 1963. The first two radio stations are Radio Malaya and The Blue Network. The transmitters were located first in Singapore and later in Kuala Lumpur.
With the independence of Malaya on 31 August 1957 Radio Malaya was split into two separate stations; the original studios in Singapore was taken over by a new station called Radio Singapura and Radio Malaya moved to Kuala Lumpur going on air from the new location on 1 January 1959. It would be later renamed Radio Malaysia on 16 September 1963 with the transmissions beginning with its trademark words Inilah Radio Malaysia on the day the Malaysia of today was born. Television services under the name Malaysia Televisyen or Malaysia Television started on 28 December 1963 in time for the national New Year celebrations in Kuala Lumpur and regional telecasts in the Klang Valley in Selangor state, with its first studios being located in Jalan Ampang. The then 10-month-old Television Singapura became part of Malaysia Televisyen as its state station for Singapore viewers, a role served until 1965, when Singapore became independent.
Radio and TV operations merged in 1968 as the new Angkasapuri headquarters was inaugurated. Thus Radio Malaysia and Televisyen Malaysia's identities merged to become Radio Televisyen Malaysia in 1969. A second TV station also opened in the same year as its rebranding. In 1971 Radio Malaysia became the first radio station to broadcast 24 hours a day, nationwide, thus becoming Rangkaian Nasional in the process.
RTM began broadcasting in colour since 1978 in Peninsular Malaysia and 1980 in Sabah and Sarawak.
Between 1972 and 1999, RTM shared time with TV Pendidikan, the national education channel, in the daytime. TV1 introduced daytime transmissions in 1994 thus resulting in TV Pendidikan ceased broadcasting on TV1, while TV2 introduced daytime transmissions in 2000. TV1 broadcast overnight many times since the early 1990s, but daily 24-hour transmissions did not come until 2003, which was later cancelled. Permanent 24-hour broadcasting was introduced in 2006 on TV2, and 2012 on TV1. An international radio station, Voice of Malaysia was established on 15 February 1963 to promote the country, but was converted to internet podcast in 2011 before it ceased operation.

Terrestrial stations

Radio stations

RTM offers thirty three FM radio channels, six of them are national while the other twenty seven are local.

Nationwide

Local

RTM's local radio network offers localised services to listeners across their respective states. Majority of its stations operate from 6:00 am to as late as midnight daily, with simulcasts of Nasional FM taking place during downtime; others like Sabah V FM, meanwhile, take simulcasts from another national radio network overnight. KL FM, however, operates 24 hours a day.
StateStation
PerlisPerlis FM
KedahKedah FM and Langkawi FM
PenangMutiara FM
PerakPerak FM
Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and PutrajayaSelangor FM and KL FM
Negeri SembilanNegeri FM
MalaccaMalacca FM
JohorJohor FM
PahangPahang FM
TerengganuTerengganu FM
KelantanKelantan FM
SarawakSarawak FM, Red FM, Wai FM, Sibu FM, Miri FM, Sri Aman FM, Bintulu FM and Limbang FM
SabahSabah FM, Sabah V FM, Keningau FM, Sandakan FM and Tawau FM
LabuanLabuan FM

Television Channels

RTM offers five terrestrial TV channels in Malaysia. While Malay and English are main languages used for its programmes, three out of five channels also offer vernacular language programmes for its non-Malay native population, as well as Chinese and Indian minorities.
NameLanguageProgrammingRef
TV1Malay and EnglishNews, culture, entertainment and children
TV2Malay, English, Chinese, Indian News, culture, entertainment and children
TV OkeyMalay, English, Iban, Kadazan, Dusun and BajauNews, culture, entertainment and children
RTM SportsMalay and EnglishSports
Berita RTMMalay, English, Chinese and Indian News

Over-the-top media service

MyKlik is RTM's Over-the-top media service. It covers viewers across multiple devices such as computers, tablets, smartphones. Apart from RTM's television channels and radio stations, 2 online television channels are available in the service's website: RTM Parlimen and 1News.
RTM Parlimen is an online television channel launched on 1 July 2013 that broadcasts the parliamentary session from Monday to Thursday. Apart from Myklik, RTM Parlimen can be seen through the RTM Parlimen website channel and Unifi TV Channel 633. Reruns of parliamentary hearings are usually displayed at night.
One News is an online television channel launched by RTM on 19 April 2013. It acts as an alternative and complementary to existing news releases on TV1 and TV2. The basic features of the channel are news, interest-based, interactive, exclusive, compact and compact news releases. One News also provides documentary, agriculture programming, info society and places to visit for tourists. One News was launched at Taylor's University, Subang Jaya by former Secretary General of the Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture Datuk Seri Kamaruddin Siaraf.