Best FM is both

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

's first private

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

(not the first commercial station, Time Highway Radio is the first), and the first to be based outside of

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

, in

Johor Bahru Johor Bahru (), colloquially referred to as JB, is the capital city of the state of Johor, Malaysia. It is located at the southern end of Peninsular Malaysia,along the north bank of the Straits of Johor, opposite of the city-state Singapore. T ...

Johor Johor (; ), also spelled as Johore, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. Johor has land borders with the Malaysian states of Pahang to the north and Malacca and Negeri Sembilan ...

. It began transmission in 1988 primarily as a station to suit the listening taste of the then Sultan of Johor, Almarhum Sultan Iskandar. It used to

broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...

in both

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

, but fierce competition with other private stations broadcasting in English forced it to focus on the Malay speaking audience. Its commercialisation began when it extended its broadcast area to outside its native Johor state and the commencement of round-the-clock broadcast in 1996. Best 104 was at one time one of the more popular bilingual stations with listeners in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

and the national capital

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

; stiff competition for the English speaking audience caused the station to stop its English broadcast in 2001. The main station is located in the royal town of

Pasir Pelangi Pasir Pelangi is a royal village in Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia. This royal village was established in the early 1900s (decade) during the reign of Sultan Ibrahim of Johor. The main attractions of Pasir Pelangi are the several palaces situated h ...

. In February 2014, Best 104 has changed its name to Best FM.

Frequency

Facts

* DJ Burhan Mohtaruddin, also known as BBD, held the world record of the longest on-air announcer after conducting the radio station non-stop for 104 hours, from midnight of 2 October 2000 until 8.00 a.m., 6 October 2000.

References

External links

* 1988 establishments in Malaysia Radio stations established in 1988 Radio stations in Malaysia Mass media in Johor Bahru Malay-language radio stations {{Asia-radio-station-stub