Leonardo at the Radioshow. Courtesy of Dimas Wisnuwardono

It is a perfect example of turning what some view as rubbish into musical gold.

It’s name is Radioshow — a program that gives lesser known, talented bands national exposure, and for it to work, only one simple thing was ever needed: Belief.

When MTV Indonesia bravely gave some space to independent acts in early 2000, the music industry changed.

Independent acts, which at that time were viewed as low quality musicians with weak selling points in the industry, shook the scene. They appeared with out-of-the box videos, low budget but high impact work and an alternative to the Rizal Mantovani or Richard Buntario-esque style of directing.

The wave brought fresh air, something that back then, people had waited so long for.

Just like Greek philosopher Hieroclatus said in ancient times: “The only thing that is constant is change”. History recorded that MTV Indonesia’s contribution at that time was the change a new generation needed.

With the change, people’s eyes were opened. There was a beautiful world outside major label music. Names like Mocca, Koil, Jeruji, Silent Sun and many more were lifted to the real world where television became a good friend.

And of course, life kept on turning. The independent scene slowly became the mainstream. Technology sneaked in and took control; everyone was a recording artist no matter how bad you played your music, and people were able to produce albums. Music again changed.

As a recording artist, you could put your happy face into the country’s biggest music arena and perform lip sync at the same time. Your gear tied to your body, your microphones standing tall and proud, but no electricity plugged in — it was a massive joke, with people faking performances.

But fresh air came to the rescue.

TV One was the messiah the scene had been waiting for. It pulled off an experiment that turned out to be one of the most fresh our music scene has witnessed for the past five years. And that experiment was a program called Radioshow.

“It’s all began with Sulaiman Sakib, our vice chief editor. He came up with idea to air a talk show near midnight. Our first run was 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. the next day. We wanted to be different at first. Then the format we used was mixing old fashioned radio shows by picking old and new bands that had special value in our tastes,” explained Ade Pepe from TVOne.

A simple will found a brilliant response. Radioshow started to gain attention, ratings increased and the music scene was reawakened.

Pepe said they wanted to see Indonesians free of the industry.

“We wanted to see good musicians who were not controlled by the industry, to play on national television and we wanted them to play live. We always said no to those who were willing to play minus one or lip sync. Quality was our first priority,” Pepe says.

Up until today, the show has been home to hundreds of bands that do not meet other TV stations criteria.

But with the program’s survival, it is doing well in terms of ratings, costs versus income and exposure, with hundreds or even thousands of Twitter mentions every day.

“It’s crazy for me. This is the show that we’ve been waiting for, where bands can play their songs live on TV for 2 hours and 7 days a week. I think there’s no TV program like this in the world with that kind of frequency,” said music critic Wendi Putranto, praising Radioshow.

Wendi, one of the program’s hosts, is just another example of how Radioshow placed belief in this new wave, musical revolution. Wendi has no previous experience of hosting TV shows and Radioshow is his first.

“My first episode was doing the show with Deadsquad performing. ‘Are you kidding me?’ I asked myself. Oh come on, seeing a death metal band on national TV was unbelievable. I wasn’t even daring to dream of that 10 years ago,” continued Wendi.

Until today, there have been many memorable performances on Radioshow.

To mention a few, Indonesians have seen legendary Trasher Roxx live on TV, Superman is Dead become a global trending topic on Twitter, Jakarta’s most interesting punk rock band Marjinal, 1990s rock band Voodoo reunited and also Leonardo and the Dancing Kangaroos hit the stage.

“It was my first solo gig on national TV,” remembered Leonardo. “The show’s concept is interesting; it gives room for musicians who never have the chance to be featured on TV.”

He performed with his backing band, The Dancing Kangaroos and his old friend Adrian Adioetomo, a guitarist in Delta Blues.

“The show is different, from the hosts to the bands,” said Leonardo.

Pepe said there were lots of good bands out there but many had not been able to showcase their talents to the wider public.

“There are also bands that have been rejected by major labels or decided to not even try their luck by proposing their material to a label. Music with high levels of idealism, or out-of-the-box thinking only can be heard from these guys,” Pepe said.

Wendi pointed out one thing that bands performing on the show should be thankful for.

“The show is making a real contribution to promoting new artists. It gives these bands chances to play outside their cities,” he said. “I just hope this program lasts and there are enough good bands in Indonesia.”

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