Anyone who listened to radio in Malta the late 1980s and early 1990s knows that I dedicated that part of my life to producing innovative and entertaining radio programming. My formal training with the BBC in London and Belfast prepared in me in ways which had been unparalleled for more than a decade in the Maltese radio scene. Before 1991 there was only one FM and one AM radio station for the Maltese Islands: the state-run Radio Malta. This radio station had a long and checkered history which dated back to the colonial days back in the 1930s and saw the first wireless Maltese transmissions in the early 1970s.
For many reasons, some of which will be discussed in a book I’m hoping to write on the history of cable broadcasting in Malta between 1935-1989, the radio experience in the Maltese Islands reflects the history and cultural values of a country which I look forward to study. This is what attracted me to radio, and ironically this is also what makes me say that I am no longer interested in producing traditional radio.
Radio is far from dead. Developments in digital media are creating a new breed of radio formats, and since 1998 I have been exploring some of the new possibilities with MaltaMedia. Over the years we have presented a number of webcasts ranging from the rebroadcasting of radio programmes on demand to the production of original content available exclusively on the MaltaMedia Online Network.
In 2005 I presented the world’s first podcasting series in Maltese: a commemoration of 9/11 from a Maltese Perspective, featuring material previously webcast on the MaltaMedia Online Network. In November 2005, Mużika Mod Ieħor, a weekly Maltese music podcast, marked my return to broadcasting on a regular schedule via the Internet.