TWR Affiliates With SE Asian Station to Expand Gospel Outreach

On July 1, BE 107 FM in Batam, Indonesia, became the latest addition to TWR’s (also known as Trans World Radio) network of affiliate stations with a broadcast range spanning Singapore, the southernmost part of peninsular Malaysia and parts of Indonesia. TWR provides the station with daily programming featuring a broad selection of Indonesian- and English-language contemporary music, short features and programs aimed at uplifting listeners during challenging times.

“The Indonesian language, which is a dialect of Standard Malay, is generally understood by Malaysians,” TWR President Lauren Libby said. “And many of the workers in Singapore are from Malaysia. So we want to be able to touch them, particularly late in the evening when they’re listening and have just gotten off work.”

With the new affiliation implemented, TWR has quickly moved to provide programming for prime listening blocks on the station’s broadcast schedule. That content will gradually expand as more cooperating media ministries decide to take advantage of this exciting and unprecedented opportunity and add their programs to the schedule.

Already airing or slated to begin soon are Ron Hutchcraft’s A Word With You, Tony Evans’ The Urban Alternative and David Jeremiah’s Turning Point. They round out a four-hour morning block of English programs and contemporary Christian music hosted by Daren Tan. English is widely spoken in Singapore and many parts of the region.

TWR’s international director for Southeast Asia, Daniel Saputra, said, “When we say we are reaching people in the region, we are not reaching some homogeneous group of people. There are so many different ethnic groups that speak different languages living all over Singapore, Malaysia and the surrounding Indonesian islands.”

TWR had previously collaborated with BE 107 FM to broadcast From Despair to Hope, a TWR-produced radio series that addresses a variety of issues listeners may face as a result of the pandemic. This program, created soon after the outbreak of the pandemic, was distributed in multiple languages, including Indonesian, Tamil, Bengali, Mandarin, Yue (Cantonese), Hakka and Minnan (Hokkien).

Working with ministry partners in the region, TWR staff members are making the necessary arrangements so the station’s broadcasts can be streamed live on the web portal TWR360.