PAL TV: For and by Palmerah residents

Fikri Zaki Muhammadi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Headlines | Thu, April 25 2013, 9:54 AM

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Behind the scenes: Crew members at work at the PAL TV studio on Jl. H. Rausin, Palmerah, West Jakarta, on Wednesday. A community television station such as this is a novelty in Indonesia. (JP/P.J. Leo)


The community in Palmerah subdistrict in West Jakarta never need miss another neighborhood wedding because — most likely — the ceremony and the after party will be aired on television.

Currently the only community television station in the city, PAL TV is struggling to provide its audience with content that is friendly and related to them on a shoestring budget and with limited infrastructure.

“People here call it ‘wedding television’ because it broadcasts wedding ceremonies for a lot of the time,” said founder and president of the channel, Firmansyah.

“We get orders to record wedding ceremonies and broadcast them. It is from these events that we get most of our funds,” he said.

Established in 2001, the television station started from humble beginnings with only a handy-cam, a computer and a transmitter tower that had a broadcasting radius of only 100 meters. It officially obtained broadcasting rights from the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) in 2006. Other than announcements, local activities and wedding ceremonies, PAL TV broadcasts old Indonesian movies and dangdut music.

Firmansyah said that he established the station as an educational and media source to broadcast the activities of the area’s youth.

“At first, friends called me crazy because they thought I would never have the resources to fulfill my dreams and establish the television station,” the 33-year-old told The Jakarta Post recently.

“But I continued and believed that God would show me the way. My intentions were clear, I wanted to educate the people and prevent the youth from engaging in negative activities.”

Firmansyah started to approach people — from public minivan drivers, mechanics to street musicians — to work with him for free, with very flexible working hours. With almost no knowledge of the field, Firmansyah, a vocational high school graduate of engineering, taught them everything he knew about broadcasting, which he had taught himself — including how to build his first transmitter tower.

“My first transmitter could only cover 10 houses. But I kept learning and saved more money to develop it,” he said. “Now we can cover a radius of five kilometers.”

PAL TV has three house-turned-studios in neighboring Kemanggisan sub-district for their operations.

In 2013, he wants more of Jakarta to enjoy its shows. They are currently in the process of building a 30-
kilometer-radius transmitter tower with a height of 40 meters.

Unlike national television channels that operate on an ultra-high frequency (UHF), PAL TV broadcasts on a very high frequency (VHF) and is aired on channel 11 VHF/220 Megahertz (MHz). Common uses for VHF are radio and television broadcasting, land mobile stations, long range data communication, amateur radio and marine communications.

PAL TV currently has 30 permanent crew members and many more non-permanent employees. However, Firmansyah said that only two people — the operators — were regularly paid for their work.

“The others don’t get paid. They work voluntarily and only want to learn. They could get paid, but depending on the projects they run,” he said.

PAL TV is on air every day usually from 12 p.m until 12 a.m., but Firmansyah said that they could extend these hours.

“As long as the operators don’t fall asleep,” he said laughing.

Although he had received offers to buy the television station, Firmansyah insisted that PAL TV was established for non-commercial purposes.

The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) said the community television station would become integral for broadcasting and communications students who wanted an internship, on-the-job training or research for their theses. The station welcomes no less than three students from universities across Jakarta every week.

PAL TV spokesman Leo Hendrawan lamented that they lacked government support for the station’s development.

Palmerah subdistrict head Syamsudin Noor, also the station’s patron, said that locals enjoyed having their own station to broadcast content familiar to them.

“People can also use the station to ask about residents’ opinions of the topics we are covering, such as the production of electronic IDs [e-KTP], for instance,” he said.

He claimed that his office had supported the development of the station, which serves around 176 neighborhoods in the Palmerah subdistrict.

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