Astro Radio

Astro Audio Sdn Bhd (also know as Astro Audio; formerly known as Astro Radio Sdn Bhd) is a first Malaysian private radio network company which operates radio broadcasting services and more since 1996. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad. Astro Audio owns and manage of 12 private radio stations which are transmitted through the FM (frequency modulation) radio spectrum and online.

Astro Audio

Formerly	Airtime Management and Programming (1996 – 2002) AMP Radio Networks (2002 – 2012) Astro Radio (2012 - 2024)
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Radio network Broadcasting
Founded	16 September 1996; 29 years ago (1996-09-16)
Headquarters	All Asia Broadcast Centre, Technology Park Malaysia, Bukit Jalil, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Area served	Nationwide
Owner	MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems
Parent	Astro Malaysia Holdings
Website	astroradio.com.my

As of November 2024, Astro Audio still remains the number one and largest radio network company in Malaysia, with 72% of Peninsular Malaysians and 14.9 million listeners tuning in to its stations weekly, together with its Media Prima counterpart, Media Prima Audio like Kool FM, Fly FM, Eight FM, Hot FM and Molek FM, according to the GfK Radio Audience Measurement (RAM) Wave 2 in November 2024. Era being at top of the list with the most audience reach estimated at 4.8 million listeners, followed by Sinar and current ever-growing MY.^[1] In mid-2024, this company was soft-rebranded as Astro Audio, following the rebranding of Astro Malaysia on August 2024 and was offical called on early 2025.

History

In 1996, Airtime Management and Programming Sdn. Bhd was begin with initially provided 7 radio stations, such as Era FM, 傳真心曲台 (pinyin; Chuan Zhen Xin Qu Tai, literally "Fax heart song"; now MY FM), Hitz FM, Mix FM, Light and Easy (now Lite FM), Classic Rock and TalkRadio and this company only first Malaysian private radio network. But on this time, all these stations were only broadcast only for Astro satellite decoder users.

On January 1998, Hitz FM was broadcasting in FM, following Mix FM and Lite FM, MY FM and Era FM was broadcasting in FM band on August same year. However, TalkRadio shut down its entire station in August 1998 and its frequency was taken over by MY FM. On the same date, Classic Rock was fully transferred to digital via the Astro satellite platform and its frequency was also taken over by Era FM. AMP broadcasts in four languages with 11.5 million Malaysians tuning in weekly.

To expand Malay language radio stations such as Era FM in the network, on 1 March 2004, Sinar FM was launched by playing retro music hits for targeting listeners between the ages of 25 to 39, compared to Era FM was playing by wider mixture of music from the 1980s to present, and covers Malaysian and international pop genres.

In early 2005, AMP Radio Networks announced was acquired THR.fm from TIME Engineering Berhad (now TIME dotCom Berhad) due to a lack of listeners and to increase the number of listeners, THR.fm was divided into 2 different channels; namely THR Raaga (since 2018 known as Raaga) and THR Gegar. THR Raaga it is a Malaysia's first Tamil private radio station and also emerged as South East Asia's No.1 Tamil radio with playing by the India's contemporary hit music (whether local or from India), talk, comedy and entertainment for the Tamil listeners. While THR Gegar is the east coast first private radio station broadcast from outside Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang in Astro's HQ, Bukit Jalil which broadcasts by new and old music (mostly Rock Jiwang), culture and community music from Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang, news, entertainment and talk tailored to its listeners aged 18-40 across the East Coast in Malaysia.

XFresh FM (later XFM in mid-2009) was launched on 28 September 2004 as a Malay youth-oriented radio station with the latest music for young listeners, but due to a lack of listeners and controversy, this station was discontinued on 9 July 2012 and its FM frequency was taken over by Melody FM which was launched on August 2012. But this station still broadcast online before being completely shut down in 2017.

In September 2010, AMP Radio Networks announced the launch of 3 spin-off stations for Era FM, MY FM and HItz FM in Sabah and Sarawak as well as the opening of a new AMP's headquarters in East Malaysia (Sarawak HQ on Lee Onn Group Building, in front Kuching International Airport, Kuching and Sabah HQ in Wisma Angkatan Hebat, Kota Kinabalu). In addition, AMP launched 2 new digital stations playing music and culture in Sabah and Sarawak, namely Radio Bayu (now SYOK Bayu) and Radio Kenyalang (now SYOK Kenyalang) and also broadcast on Astro Satellite platfrom.

At this time, the three spin-off radio stations in Sabah and Sarawak only broadcast on Kota Kinabalu and Kuching listeners only, before to expand it to Sandakan (for Era Sabah, Hitz Sabah and MY Sabah) in Sabah and Miri and Sibu (for Era Sarawak, Hitz Sarawak, MY Sarawak) in Sarawak on 2013.

In 2012, Airtime Management and Programming Sdn. Bhd. became Astro Radio following the rebranding of Astro Malaysia.

AMP is the sole provider of 19 satellite radio services (which include the nine FM services and are available to all Astro subscribers in Malaysia and Brunei only; but Brunei services called Kristal-Astro is still on until March 31 2022), and is the first South-East Asian broadcaster to utilize LIU (local insertion units) for local or regional advertisers and utilizes Dynamic RDS (Radio Data System) as a commercial tool. Internationally, AMP also had involvement in the growth of radio industries in India, Indonesia and China.

In October 2017, Astro Radio announced to launch of two new radio brands goXuan and Zayan, intended for a new generation of listeners in the digital and social media space. Zayan is the first Malaysian radio brand for modern Muslims, and goXuan follows Gen Z trends. Astro Radio streams live entertainment content via its digital platforms all day. goXuan is visually led.^[2]

On 1 January 2018, Astro Radio dropped the suffix "FM" as part of the rebranding for all its 11 radio stations, to focus on digital platform and "drive talk ability and social engagement".^[3] However, it did not last long when 3 brand radio station, Lite, MY and Gegar was rebranded to their original names before 2018 in mid-2024 to Lite FM, MY FM and THR Gegar. In contrast to THR Gegar which changed its brand logo once, Lite FM and MY FM still retain their 2018 logos even though the jingle and introduction have been changed.

Between October 2023 and January 2024, Astro Radio imposed cuts to local staffing in Sabah and Sarawak. Previously, transmitters carrying Era, Hitz and MY were converted between 2010 and 2017 to full state-based operations, with local presenters and programming originating round-the-clock from Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.

Dedicated state feeds of Hitz and MY were closed permanently that October, and all of its transmitters reverted as relays from Bukit Jalil.^[4][5] The previous day, meanwhile, Era Sabah and Era Sarawak discontinued local continuity, however several local shows were transferred to Astro's HQ in Bukit Jalil for January 2024.^[6]

Other brands

Raku

Astro Radio launched a radio and music streaming service platform known as Raku and then DVR Player in April 2015 through mobile and web. Raku is a short-form for Radio Aku (‘My Radio’ in Malay). Through Raku, Malaysians can stream millions of songs, videos and playlists curated by top local artistes including Yuna, Paper Plane Pursuit, Dasha Logan and many more. Users can also listen to more than 20 live radio stations through the free and premium versions of Raku. The application also provides local community updates such as articles, news, traffic, and sports. Raku is available in English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil. However, Raku services were rebranded into the new Syok platform in 2019.^[7]

SYOK

Astro Radio launched a multilingual entertainment and lifestyle platform known as Syok, stylized as SYOK in July 2019. The platform can allow users to listen to 26 Astro Radio brands (including the Direct-To-Home/DTH stations that are available on Astro TV) via live online streaming, listen to podcasts of all live radio and exclusive content, watch original short-form videos, read current articles, news and traffic updates and participate in contests.^[8]

Stations

Station	Explanation	Language	Year of Launch	Astro Channel
Hitz	The latest English songs, focused on younger listeners. Rebranded, with a dot, in 2001. One of the first radio channels by AMP to be launched in 1996.	English	1996	852
Lite	The oldest and latest songs for mature listeners. It was previously known as Light & Easy. One of the first radio channels by AMP to be launched in 1996.	English	1996	854→
Mix	The station plays adult contemporary music from the 90s and now, targeting listeners between the ages of 25 and 39.	English	1996 (as an Astro-only audio channel), 1997 (as an FM radio station)	855
Era	The latest songs from domestic and international repertoire, focused on younger listeners. This radio station is the first private radio station, to be broadcast completely in Malay, after being dominated by government-owned radio station for years.	Malay	1996 (as an Astro-only audio channel), 1998 (as an FM radio station)	856
My	Chinese songs for all ages. Formerly known as Chuan Zhen Xin Qu Tai (傳真心曲台) during the early years of broadcast.	Chinese	1996 (as an Astro-only audio channel), 1998 (as an FM radio station)	853
Sinar	The oldest and latest songs from domestic and international repertoire, focused on mature listeners. Formerly known as Wirama Melayu during the early years of broadcast.	Malay	1998 (as an Astro-only audio channel) , 2004 (as an FM radio station)	857
THR Gegar	A Malay-language radio station targeting the East Coast area.	Malay	1994 (original, as THR), 2005 (acquisition)	863
Raaga	Astro Audio's only first Tamil-language radio station, targeting the West Coast area.	Tamil	1994 (original, as THR), 2005 (acquisition)	859
Melody	The oldest and latest songs, focused on mature listeners.	Chinese	1998 (as an Astro-only audio channel), 2012 (as an FM radio station)	858
Go Xuan	The latest songs and digital-first Chinese entertainment, focused on young listeners.	Chinese	2017	877
Zayan	The latest songs from domestic and international repertoire, focused on modern and contemporary Muslim listeners.	Malay	2017	876

Defunct radio stations

AMP changed its line-up, swapping two of its English FM brands, namely Classic Rock and TalkRadio, for ERA FM (Bahasa Malaysia) and MY FM (Chinese), respectively. Melody FM was launched on 15 August 2012 to replace XFM on FM and Astro.

Station	Explanation	Language	Year of Launch
Classic Rock	The oldest and latest songs from rock music. However, it continues to be broadcast on Astro and via online only.	English	1997
TalkRadio	News and talk radio show; ceased broadcasting in 1998	English	1997
XFM	Songs from Malaysian artists only, focused on younger listeners. However, it continues to be broadcast as an online station before ceased broadcasting in 2017	Malay	2004
Hitz Sabah	This radio station was discontinued on 1 October 2023 and its frequency was taken over by Hitz.	English	2010
Hitz Sarawak	This radio station was discontinued on 1 October 2023 and its frequency was taken over by Hitz.	English	2010
My Sabah	This radio station was discontinued on 1 October 2023 and its frequency was taken over by My.	Mandarin	2010
My Sarawak	This radio station was discontinued on 1 October 2023 and its frequency was taken over by My.	Mandarin	2010

See also

• List of radio stations in Malaysia
• Media Prima Audio