Minnal FM is an Indian language radio station in Malaysia. It has one of the oldest histories among all other radio stations in the country. Operated and hosted by RTM (Radio Televisyen Malaysia), the government-owned media station, Minnal FM used to be known as Radio 6 or Radio Malaysia Saluran 6.
The broadcast area for Minnal FM covers mainly Peninsular Malaysia where it can be received in all states here. In Kuala Lumpur, Minnal FM is received through 92.3 MHz. As its target market is mainly the Indian community, Minnal FM has a strong following as there are not man channels that use this language.
In fact, Minnal FM was the first 24-hour Indian language broadcast service in the world when it started airing round-the-clock music and programmes. It started through the Indian language broadcast which was aired in 1938 together with Malay, English and Mandarin. Mr Tanjai Thomas was the man who supervised the Tamil broadcast then before JMPK during the Second World War.
There would be a change of locations for airing of radio programmes in the next few decades before a programme called ‘Kalappadam’ started in 1957 which has continued to the present day. In 1961, the Bahagia India programme started before it was changed to Rankaian Merah before it was changed again to Radio 6 in the mid 1970s.
In 1994, Radio 6 became a full FM transmission and went on air 24-hours a day and continued to grow by leaps and bounds before it became Minnal FM in 2005, attracting high listener rates throughout the day, especially in the early morning segments.
