(Photo: Borneo Post)

Radio services in the East Malaysian state of Sarawak continue to play an important role in reaching out to the masses, a senior official of the public broadcaster RTM has said.

The RTM Sarawak Radio Section chief assistant director Marrill Chunggat was speaking in an interview with the Borneo Post.

“This is especially in the rural areas that have yet to have digital accessibility, but can be reached through receptions of bands, waves or radio frequency transmissions either via shortwave (SW) or frequency modulation (FM),” he told the newspaper.

He said there were some areas in Sarawak, particularly around the coastal city of Miri, that still used shortwave receiving facilities with transmissions being carried out via the RTM Kajang branch transmitter in peninsular Malaysia.

Sarawak, on the island of Borneo, is the largest of Malaysia’s 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of the 11 states on peninsular Malaysia. It is the fourth most populous state, with a population of more than 3.2 million. Much of its interior is dense rainforest.