To herald a new era for local English radio stations, HITZ welcomes household names and local music activists Roshan Jamrock (K- Town Clan), Darren Teh (An Honest Mistake) and Priya Prabakaran from Astro Radio to kick off the Malaysian Music Panel from 1 August 2020.
Prior to this, Malaysian artistes were featured exclusively only over an hour on weekends. But with this new initiative, industry leaders will take turns to serve on the panel, thus ensuring a fair and diverse selection of local music on HITZ daily main playlist on-air and on the SYOK app.
Providing much needed support
The role of the panel will also be to identify and develop local, promising music talents.
“At HITZ, our role goes beyond that of a commercial radio station. HITZ is in a unique position to build and shape the local music scene, and one of our first few initiatives is to introduce more Malaysian English songs in our playlists,” Priya Prabakaran, Network Content Manager, English Radio Brands, Astro Radio, said.
“Previously our playlist was influenced by a system which ranks songs according to their popularity among Malaysian listeners. Unfortunately, this means some songs may not make it to our daily playlist.
"HITZ is committed to showcase more local talents and music by including more quality Malaysian English songs in our active playlist.”
Local artistes featured on HITZ will also be listed in its new digital directory on its website, complete with a profile of the artiste and links to their social pages and music. Apart from that, HITZ will also provide digital support for these local artistes, including an explanation of the hit; a HITZ unplugged session with the artistes for recording of a cover and original track, with professional mentoring; and an on-air interview.
Additionally, Malaysian DJs also stand a chance to have their mixes featured on-air every Saturday on HITZ.
Aspiring local musicians looking to get their tracks produced can also send in their demo recordings to HITZ, who will select one track monthly to be pitched to labels for production. All local musicians and DJs can submit their tracks and mixes from 1 August 2020 via the HITZ website: www.hitz.com.my.
You can also listen to HITZ anytime, anywhere via the free SYOK app.