Astro Radio (formerly known as Airtime Management and Programming or simply AMP Radio Networks) is a Malaysian radio network company which operates radio broadcasting services and more since 1996. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad. Astro Radio owns and manages 13 private radio stations which are transmitted through the FM (frequency modulation) radio spectrum. As of November 2021, Astro Radio still remains the number one and largest radio network company in Malaysia, with 77.7% of Peninsular Malaysians and 15.6 million listeners tuning in to its stations weekly, together with its Media Prima counterpart, Media Prima Audio, according to the GfK Radio Audience Measurement (RAM) Wave 1 in October 2021.[1] Era being at top of the list with the most audience reach estimated at 6,000,000 listeners, followed by Sinar and Gegar.
Astro Radio was officially launched on 1 June 1996 as Airtime Management and Programming Sdn. Bhd. with the very first time five opened audio only including Hitz, Mix, Light & Easy, Classic Rock and TalkRadio.
Airtime Management and Programming Sdn. Bhd. (now AMP Radio Networks) operates eight terrestrial FM networks: Era FM, MY FM, Hitz FM, Mix FM, LiteFM, Sinar FM, Melody FM & THR.fm (now THR Raaga and THR Gegar). AMP broadcasts in four languages with 11.5 million Malaysians tuning in weekly.
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), and is the first South-East Asian broadcaster to utilise LIU (local insertion units) for local or regional advertisers and utilises 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.
AMP develops complementary platforms including on-air, on-ground, on-line and mobile technologies.
In 2012, as part of the expansion of its operations, AMP Radio Networks became Astro Radio Sdn. Bhd.
In October 2017, Astro Radio announced the launch of two new radio brands - goXuan FM and Zayan FM 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 talkability and social engagement".[3]
In October 2023, HITZ and MY broadcasts for Sabah and Sarawak were completely stopped by Astro Radio and were later returned to Bukit Jalil.[4][5]
In January 2024, ERA Sabah and ERA Sarawak officially started broadcasting from Bukit Jalil.[6]
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]
Astro Radio launched a multilingual entertainment and lifestyle platform known as Syok, stylised as SYOK in July 2019. The platform can allow users to listen to 26 Astro Radio brands (including online-only stations or, until 2024, some of 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][9]
Syok also provide Featured Radio, which include partnered radio stations such as Rakita, KBS World Radio, SPH Radio and even ABS-CBN.
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.