Cats Radio - Kuching, Malaysian Borneo

Cats Radio, the first ever radio station in Malaysia that has their own 3 storey gated building that also houses a 1000pax seater multi-purpose hall, 2 radio contis, 1 production/voice over room, a fully-equipped professional recording studio facility and ample parking space; that will set the standards of the currently ailing local music industry within the culturally-rich East Malaysian state.

I have been privileged in being awarded the contract to consult, dismantle and de-commission the station from its previous residence since 1996 at the Wisma Hasil, Kuching (also formerly known as Wisma Ting Pek Khiing). An interesting note to add here, was that 11 years ago, I was one of the technicians who at that time was fresh out of college, working for the Singapore-based systems integrator that put together the radio station in record-time, allowing the station to begin broadcast ahead of schedule.

This time around, however, my 6 year old company, Thenexus was chosen directly by the main contractors to be the broadcast as well as audio technical consultant and systems integrator. The building itself took a record-time to build and was almost complete within 7 months. I enlisted Segaran, formerly of Synchrosound Studios and WowFM fame, now our chief technical advisor to oversee wiring and ducting systems within the building, adhering strictly to international broadcasting standards.

Dismantling the equipment in the previous location was a breeze and took us about 3-5 days to carefully remove, perform basic repairs, clean and pack into the moving cartons. All old wiring was discarded to prevent use of carbonized cables and connectors that prevent optimum audio flow-through. As the new building was faced with some unexpected but crucial delays, we only managed to start working on the setup and rewiring of the production studio after 2 days.

Next in line was the internal wiring layouts for the MCR (Machine Control Room) which houses the exciters, stereo encoders and FM codecs before the final link to transmission. While both the stations were playing out synched material to facilitate quick switch-over between the old location and the new building, we then started working on the Main On-Air Conti, which has been designed as Malaysia's biggest ever on-air radio conti, far larger than many radio contis in the region. This room may fit a fully-seated 12-piece orchestra or a large choir effortlessly, and this was the main flexibility that the radio station owners had in mind. The furniture systems were custom designed and the systems were laid out neatly and without clutter.

This is the end of Part 1. I'm heading to Cats again soon and hope to come back with some more great pics and perhaps with more of the real people behind Cats continued success and future plans.