News & Events

ANUGERAH SERI ANGKASA 2010: RECOGNITION OF THE BEST IN THE BROADCASTING INDUSTRY

31st January, Kuala Lumpur:- Anugerah Seri Angkasa (ASA) is a prestigious awards event dedicated to recognising the best in the Malaysian broadcasting industry. The awards was introduced in 1972, three years after the merging of Radio Malaysia and TV Malaysia, into Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM).

During its inception, the awards emphasis was more on drama and entertainment productions with award categories like best drama, male and female actor, script, host, radio announcer and documentary. Other categories included were for the supportive roles like audioman, cameraman, visual editor and lighting although back then productions were in black and white.

The awards continued into the era of colour television in 1978 until early 2000, and was open only to RTM staff and productions as the awards was RTM’s initiative. In 2004, it was opened for the first time to private broadcasting stations in order to encourage positive competition in the local broadcasting industry. This effort was once again continued during the ASA 2006.

The upcoming ASA 2010 marks the first time the current leading broadcasting stations – government broadcasting station Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM), private broadcasting station Media Prima Berhad and ASTRO as pay-television broadcasting station – will collaborate together with main organiser, the Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture, in a move to strengthen ties among the broadcasting fraternity.

ASA 2010 is aimed to give government recognition of the nation’s broadcasting industry and to motivate all staff of Government and private broadcasting stations to continue their efforts in the broadcasting arena. The awards event is held over two days, which is on 18th of February (recorded) while the second night on 19th February will be aired live from Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) on TV1 (RTM), TV9 (Media Prima) and Astro Prima (Astro), at 8.30pm.

ASA 2010 is a collaboration among RTM, ASTRO, Suria FM, Sinar FM, and Media Prima Berhad’s broadcasting subsidiaries TV3, TV9, ntv7, 8TV and HotFm.

The awards will recognise the outstanding work of those who have contributed tirelessly in front of the camera and behind-the-scenes such as the directors, script writers, hosts, actors, comedians and many more. ASA 2010 aims to encourage positive competition amongst those in the broadcasting industry and to raise industry standards for more quality, creative, and effective future productions and programmes, which in turn benefit the viewers and listeners as well.

Themed Dunia Penyiaran: Citra Budaya Malaysia (Broadcasting World: A Reflection of Malaysian Culture), ASA 2010 aims to highlight radio and television as the main medium to portray the development of Malaysian culture.

A total of 53 awards will be given out this time comprising 34 TV awards, 16 Radio awards and three special awards including the Special Jury Award for TV, Special Jury Award for Radio and the Tokoh Seri Angkasa award. Award recipients will win a trophy and a certificate each while the two recipients of the main award categories, Best Director and Best Drama awards, will each win a trip to Los Angeles.

The categories are divided into television and radio; there are 521 nominations, comprising 198 for radio categories and 323 for television categories. The nominations were open to all radio and TV programmes produced by RTM, agencies under the Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture, private companies that have supplied content to RTM, and private broadcasting stations in Malaysia with productions between 1st June 2009 until 31st of July 2010.

AirAsia flies over 2k Malaysians from Egypt on rescue flights

AirAsia successfully flew 2,380 Malaysians affected by the situation in Egypt.

AirAsia operated eight rescue flights from the Egyptian cities of Cairo and Alexandria to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The airline also operated one rescue flight from Jeddah to Kuala Lumpur.

The world’s best low-cost airline has been operating the rescue flights from February 3 to today. AirAsia flew 1,200 guests on three flights using its A340 aircraft from Cairo to Jeddah and around 860 guests on five flights using its A320 aircraft from Alexandria to Jeddah. It also flew 320 guests on its A340 aircraft from Jeddah to Kuala Lumpur, the initial batch of guests to be flown to Malaysia.

Dato’ Kamarudin Meranun, Deputy Group CEO of AirAsia, said, “AirAsia shares in the responsibility of seeing to the wellbeing of Malaysia. We are aiding the nation in its time of need, doing our part to ensure the safety of Malaysians. We were especially concerned about the students, who are away from their families. AirAsia is closely watching the situation in Egypt to determine whether to mount more rescue flights.”

AirAsia’s operations was led by Dato’ Kamarudin, who also got on the flight to Jeddah.

AirAsia has actively extended its services to help people and communities in need, especially those in the ASEAN region. It mounted rescue flights from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur in November 2008 to help people stranded by the social unrest in Bangkok. It also mounted rescue flights between Padang and Jakarta in October 2009 to help those affected by the 7.6-magnitude earthquake that hit Sumatra island.

FOO FIGHTERS NEW ALBUM RELEASING APRIL 12!!

FOO FIGHTERS TEASE SECOND SNIPPET OF NEW ALBUM AT http://www.foofighters.fm

With the recently leaked snippet of opener “Bridge Burning” having surpassed 500,000 plays in one week, Foo Fighters have now unleashed a second morsel of hard rock goodness from their upcoming seventh studio album, out April 12 on Roswell/RCA.

FF fans jonesing for another several seconds of new material should head posthaste to http://www.foofighters.fm and move the virtual tuner to 101.5 for this new taste.

The album received its first public airing at a surprise gig Friday, January 28 at the minuscule Velvet Jones club in Santa Barbara, where the band ripped through the entire record from start to finish–and followed up with a crushing live collection of greatest hits and rarely played deep cuts including “Wattershed” from the band’s self-titled 1995 debut.

In other live FF news, the band has announced its first U.S. show (so far) of 2011: a May 21 headlining appearance at the Hangout Festival in Gulf Shores, AL. Tickets go on sale 10 a.m. CST Wednesday, February 2, and will be available via http://Hangoutmusicfest.com or 888-512-SHOW.

The show is the second of many domestic dates to be announced in an upcoming world tour, the first being a May 27 appearance at the Sasquatch! Festival in George, WA. Other recently announced FF dates abroad include headlining appearances at the UK’s Isle of Wight, the Netherlands’ PinkPop, Wulheide Stadium in Berlin, and numerous others across the UK and Europe including an already sold out 130,000 capacity July 2 & 3 headline “weekender” at the Milton Keynes Bowl in the UK.

Foo Fighters’ still untitled seventh album, produced by Butch Vig and mixed by Alan Moulder, was recorded entirely on analog tape in the garage of Dave Grohl’s home in California’s San Fernando Valley.

The new record also marks the Foo Fighters’ first full length effort with legendary producer Butch Vig, who produced new tracks “Wheels” and “Word Forward” on 2009’s Greatest Hits and with whom Dave Grohl (of course) first worked on Nirvana’s classic Nevermind. Nirvana co-founder Krist Novoselic also makes a cameo, contributing bass and accordion to “I Should Have Known,” while former Nirvana touring guitarist and longtime extended FF family member Pat Smear now joins the permanent FF core of Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel and Chris Shiflett.

http://foofighters.com/

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http://twitter.com/foofighters

Tony Fernandes awarded CBE by Queen Elizabeth II

SEPANG, 6 FEBRUARY 2011 – Team Lotus Team Principal, AirAsia Group CEO and Malaysia’s iconic entrepreneur, Tony Fernandes has been awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire honour by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

The citation says the award was conferred “for services to promote commercial and educational links” between the United Kingdom and Malaysia.

Fernandes, together with three partners, took over the loss-making AirAsia from a Malaysian government-linked company in December, 2001. In just over nine years under his leadership, AirAsia has soared to become Asia’s largest Low-Cost Carrier as well as a Truly ASEAN airline that links the Southeast Asian region to the larger world with its low fares, route connectivity and high-quality service.

In 2007, he founded sister airline AirAsia X, the low-cost, long-haul carrier that is often dubbed “AirAsia on steroids.” AirAsia X launched its low-fare route between Kuala Lumpur (LCCT, Sepang) and London (Stansted) in 2009, providing affordable air fares that have spurred travel between the two countries, both in tourism as well as among students.

In Formula One, Fernandes and his partners Kamarudin Meranun and SM Nasarudin have gained huge respect, credibility and an army of fans around the world since launching their team in record time for the start of the 2010 F1 season. Now racing under the iconic Team Lotus banner, they achieved their first year objective of winning the battle of the sport’s new teams and are now taking the fight to the established midfield teams and continuing their march up the grid. Team Lotus is not only a hugely popular with fans, it is also providing motorsport talent from across the ASEAN region and around the world with the chance to join the most high profile sporting championship on the planet.

Not content with changing the aviation industry, Fernandes has also set about innovating the landscape in more terrestrial ventures. He is the founder of the Tune Group of companies, which hosts under its umbrella Tune Hotels (budget hotels, including one located in central London), Tune Talk (pre-paid mobile telephony) and Tune Money (insurance and finance). Fernandes was also the major mover and key partner in the effort to locate a campus of Britain’s prestigious Epsom College in Malaysia. It is a venture close to his heart, as he was once a student at the boarding school in London.

Fernandes expressed delight at the news of the CBE. “I’m grateful to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for the honour. It is a recognition of the hard work, determination and effort on the part of all my partners, colleagues and staff in AirAsia, Tune Group and Team Lotus. We have a terrific bunch of talented people working with us to make things happen in whatever venture we undertake. This is as much their award as it is mine.”

The CBE is the second major award conferred on Fernandes in Europe. In 2010, the French government conferred upon him the title of Officier of the Legion d’honneur, the highest award for a non-French national, for his outstanding contributions to the aviation industry. Fernandes was also recently named “Asia Businessman of the Year 2010″ by the international magazine Forbes, and has gathered a slew of other top awards from private bodies and media organisations for his innovative approach to business.

The man whose personal credo is “Dream the Impossible, Believe the Unbelievable and Never Take No for an Answer” believes deeply in providing opportunities throughout his businesses for talent to flourish, for meritocracy to reign and for helping people realise their dreams. “I realised mine, and I am determined to help others realise theirs, too,” said Fernandes.

His business philosophy is simple: Serve the Underserved. It’s a philosophy encapsulated in AirAsia’s memorable tag line: “Now Everyone Can Fly.” Having democratised air travel by freeing it from the clutches of the elite, Fernandes is determined to break down the affordability barrier in other aspects of daily life – hence Tune Hotels, Tune Money and Tune Talk – and the Epsom College campus in Malaysia.

Baki Zainal

Baki Zainal is a TV/Film actor, stage performer and host. He was a radio DJ from 2003-2004 and started acting in 2005. Joshua’s Tapes, Now and Forever, Lock and Red Street Dinner are among the films he has been involved in. Also an avid theater performer, he has had roles in The System of Prof. Tuko, Habeas Corpus, Epitaph for Wales, Murder Mystery, Tartuffle, Rhinocheros, Lady Swettenham, The Shape of Things and Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa. Baki is very fluent in Mandarin and that makes him a more diversified actor. Baki is currently doing a travel documentary, Step Forward, for 8tv .