For me I have strong distrust at “Western” radio services in general (that is, US, UK, AU or sometimes NZ) because it doesn’t sound “great” than what I would imagine. What they just have are catchy and ultra-polished jingles, that’s all.
Many would think that Vietnamese radio would need to constantly “renewing themselves” from their antiquated programming structure. But “renewing” doesn’t mean that they must adopt a format consists of 15 songs repeated endlessly and celebrity talking rubbish like they do on television screens. Meanwhile because public service requirements on local radio services are so strong that most are acted just like a community radio station in the West. Some provincial services only (to date) programmed own stuff of maybe half-hour a day of information and current affairs, and the rest is piped in from VOV-1 via satellite.
I have ranted a lot about 91fm and why I still enjoyed that channel. In fact, I’m used to watching TV in the evenings, but as programming started to be rubbish as if all of the world, I switch to radio and found a comfort place.
I listened to 91fm like, almost all day and what I feel is that while it could best fit to be titled as an “AC” station, it seems like radically different to “Mainstream AC” in the West. A full hour of easy-listening and sometimes fully AAA block at midday, a quizzies and regional/folk music in early afternoon. This is not quite fully “AC” nor “Soft AC” for me, but rather a weird hybrid between Double J, Mix and Easy Music Network instead.
The situation of music vs. content at 91fm is quite different. It catered to middle-aged drivers, so in drivetime it’s not talking rubbish but mostly all-traffic information service, while after 8pm they would have more of “content” focus, but this is quite different, they want to have a place to sending love and telling something you’re shy to, so they seems to be very nice, not too loud, and deep, in-depth feeling. And what I feel glad is that they’re really live and always being relatable with ordinary people’s experience. Even their voice is not too loud but rather full of soft emotions too. I feel like the team has done very great to make each presenters’ personality became fully displayed, rather than generic “consulted” and “uniformed” format.
Not sure if anyone would think about US, UK, AU, NZ and Vietnamese radio anyway @myfriend