SBS PopAsia

History

SBS PopAsia began as a weekly two-hour segment on the SBS youth radio programme, Alchemy, as the Asian Pop Show. Due to growing popularity and increasing online fan engagement SBS PopAsia was launched as a 24-hour digital radio show in 2010. In late 2011, it debuted on free-to-air Australian TV in a two-hour timeslot on Sunday mornings from 9am. In 2013, the program was extended to three-and-a-half hours of prime-time broadcast across Saturday and Sunday evenings on SBS Viceland (formerly SBS2). In 2014, it reverted to its original 2 hour timeslot at 9am on Sundays. From March 13, 2016, it changed to a one-hour show on Sundays 10am-11am on the SBS Viceland channel.

Radio

SBS PopAsia is also a 24-hour digital radio station, which began in 2010. It is available on DAB digital radio across Australia, 24/7 streaming live online and via iPhone and Android mobile applications. During its weekday show, Hashtag Hits, SBS PopAsia regularly interviews Asian pop artists, reports on the latest Asian pop news and counts down the biggest hits as voted by Australia.

Radio Schedule

SBS PopAsia hosts a variety of segments and shows on digital radio:

Weekday Evening Show

Live@5 Show

Between 2011-2014, fans could tune into the digital radio show between 5-7pm where co-hosts Jamaica dela Cruz and MegaMatt would count down the biggest Asian Pop hits in Australia as voted on Twitter and Facebook. The show was replaced by Hashtag Hits in 2014 which introduced a system of live voting through hashtags on Twitter.

Hashtag Hits

The Hashtag Hits show commenced in 2014. Every weekday, regular votes through Twitter and Facebook finalise the top 8 songs and a challenger. Live voting opens at 4.30pm (AEST) where listeners tweet or post on the Facebook wall the #Hashtag of their favourite song from the top 9. The concept of Titanium Status was introduced in June 2014 where when a song has reached number one for eight consecutive days, it becomes titanium. Despite anticipation that EXO's Overdose would be the first song to reach Titanium Status, in fact label mate Super Junior M succeeded with their song Swing. The other Titanium songs thus far are GOT7's A, Beast's Good Luck (three times), Infinite's Last Romeo, Super Junior's Mamacita (two times) and Infinite's Back. Interestingly, all of the songs that have reached Titanium status are from Korean male groups rather than female groups.

J-Pop Nation

J-Pop music and news is discussed by SBS PopAsia host, Kitty Em, at Wednesday 7pm AEST.

K-Wave

K-Wave commenced on 25 June 2014. It involves the latest news and tracks from Korea. One segment of the show is 'Rome's Week' where Rome details what happened to him in that previous week. For example, in Episode 15, Rome details that he went bungee jumping. Another segment of the show is where Rome reads out questions that audience members tweet in and answers them. Every week, a different K-Pop star often drops in, often featuring artists from Rome's own band, C-Clown, as well as EXID. He translates what the artist is saying from Korean into English.

Eat Your Kimchi

YouTubers, Simon and Martina or Eat Your Kimchi, have a radio show on SBS PopAsia radio every Friday 7-8pm AEST. They talk about K-Pop and more largely Korean culture. Content covered include issues similar to theTL;DR's on their YouTube channel such as plastic surgery and the FIFA World Cup.

Prince Mak Hour

Australian member of K-pop boyband JJCC began hosting his own 1 hour radio show from 2015 on Tuesdays at 8pm. He plays Asian Pop music and talks about his life as an Asian popstar

Television

The SBS PopAsia TV show launched in September 2011 on Australia's SBS1 channel, 8.30am-10.30am (AEST) on Sundays. Growing popularity meant that an additional episode was added - Monday 5pm. With the relaunch of SBS Viceland (formerly SBS2) channel to focus on younger audiences, SBS PopAsia moved to SBS Viceland (formerly SBS2) in 2013 and was broadcast every Sunday afternoon from 4-6pm, but was later changed to 9-11am (AEST). It is now broadcast from 9-10am. The show is rated PG and hence positions the show as an accessible, family-friendly television programme. The previous weekend's episode can be accessed on the PopAsia website or on SBS on Demand for 7 days after the episode has been aired on television.

Audience interaction

The show debuted by displaying tweets and Facebook messages at regular intervals throughout the show. However it has been replaced by exclusively showing displays real-time audience tweets.

Advertisements

Advertisements relevant to those interested in Asian culture are sometimes played in the ad breaks. For example, the Korean Tourism Office aired videos such as PSY's "Wiki Korea" tourism project.

Three-in-a-row

The goal of this game is to guess the common theme between the three Asian Pop videos that are shown. Viewers are encouraged to play along by tweeting or posting their guesses. Previous themes have included the beach, vampires, swirly lollipops and Australian Asian Pop stars. SBS PopAsia also encourages viewers to submit their own three-in-a-row.

Double Play

Every week, the SBS PopAsia give PopAsians the option of choosing which of two artists should have two of their music videos played in the next episode. The winning artist is chosen through voting on Twitter and Facebook.

PopAsia 101

PopAsia 101s used to be broadcast weekly on PopAsia. This involved presenter 'PopAgent' Jay K, presenting a different 'PopAsia 101' - a 'super-fast, pop master class' on an Asian Pop artist. These were short featurettes that provide overviews of artist' careers, songs and trivia. The segment is intended to provide viewers with a gateway to engage with the landscape of Asian pop. Popular 101s include on artists Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, 365daband and EXO. PopAsia 101s can be found on the official YouTube channel.

In addition, there are special PopAsia 101s on topics relevant to Asian Pop such as on Flash Mobs and Australian Asian Pop Tours.

Interviews

SBSPopAsia has hosted interviews with Asian Pop bands and artists such as EXO and Jay Chou and celebrities related to the Asian Pop industry such as YouTube stars Mychonny and Eatyourkimchi.

See Guests and interviewees section.

Video Requests

In 2012, SBS PopAsia took video requests whereby viewers could post videos on YouTube requesting a song to be played on PopAsia. The video request would then be then be played on PopAsia TV preceding the music video it was requesting.

Special episodes

When holidays and special events occur, SBS PopAsia hosts special PopAsia episodes:

Additionally, when the show first started, PopAsia used to have special episodes for certain Asian Pop artists such as SHINee.

Social Media

SBS PopAsia maintains an active presence within social media to take song requests and interact with the viewers.

Facebook

The Facebook page was launched on 1 January 2011 and currently has nearly 1.2 million likes. The Facebook page functions as a vehicle to keep PopAsians up-to-date with PopAsia's TV and radio schedules, Asian pop news and also to take on requests for TV.

Twitter

The SBS PopAsia Twitter account was launched in December 2010 and has over 110,000 followers. It also functions to keep PopAsians up-to-date with the radio and TV schedule and Asian Pop news. Throughout the TV show, SBS PopAsia live-tweets and chats with PopAsians on its Twitter page. Official Twitter accounts for SBS PopAsia staff also exist.

YouTube

SBSPopAsia joined YouTube on 26 April 2011. It has over 900 videos, 50,000 subscribers and 14 million views. Their channel consists of content including:

Instagram

The SBS PopAsia Instagram has over 45 400 followers. It is often used to post short videos and memes.

Kakaotalk

SBS PopAsia has KakaoTalk account, a popular mobile messaging app in Korea.

Mobile

SBS PopAsia also has an official mobile application for both Apple iPhone and Android which can be downloaded for free from the respective platforms. The app's primary feature is the 24/7 streaming of PopAsia's digital radio station and beside each track has a track purchase button. There is a button that allows Also, it allows voting for the top Asian Pop songs and includes podcasts and Asian Pop news.

Podcast

PopAsia podcasts can be downloaded off the Apple iTunes store. and primarily compromises of interviews such as regular chats with blog MyKoreanHusband. Also, there is some non-Asian pop related content such as 'Top 3 movies not to miss in 2014'.

Guests and interviewees

SBS PopAsia regularly features guests on its TV, Radio and YouTube platforms. The date is in accordance to the date that the interview was uploaded onto SBS PopAsia's YouTube platform and hence may not reflect the original date of broadcast on SBS PopAsia's TV or radio platforms. Where there is not a specific interviewee, SBS PopAsia in general is specified as the interviewee.

Crayon Pop Block B
JJCC's Prince Mak

Prizes and Competitions

SBSPopAsia regularly hosts competitions which can be found on their website. Competitions can be won through entering on their website or through phoning their radio show. More popular prizes have included:

Concerts and events

SBS PopAsia continues to be involved in the promotion of Asian acts coming to Australia. In 2011 SBS PopAsia was the official Australian media partner of the 2011 Sydney K-Pop Music Fest which features artists such as SHINee, Girls' Generation and TVXQ. PopAsia has gone on to support acts such as CNBLUE, 4Minute and J-Pop star Kyary Pamyu Pamyu.

Coverage of concerts

SBS PopAsia has provided coverage and interviews for the following Asian Pop concerts in Australia:

Events

SBS PopAsia have participated in events such as the Campsie Food Festival in 2011 and 2012. Also, they are regularly involved in events relevant to Asian culture.

Lunar New Year

Moon Festival

SBS PopAsia Awards

SBS PopAsia has been giving awards yearly since 2012.

Impact

The show is a mainstream acknowledgement of Asian popular music which was previously marginal in Australia due to an emphasis on Western music. (Campbell 2010). Furthermore, it has opened up SBS as a channel that caters for not only older multicultural audiences but Australian youth.

The show has impacted the accessibility of Asian Pop in Australia. Australia is seen as a small market to consume Asian pop but the program has been able to prove the growing demand for Asian Pop in Australia. This is evident through the increasing number of Asian pop concerts, especially K-Pop concerts in Australia.

As of March 2016, SBS PopAsia has over:

These platforms have also become an avenue for Australian Asian Pop fans to interact with each other.

SBS PopAsia triggered the creation of the radio apps, SBSDesi and SBSPopAraby.

Controversy

Despite promoting itself as an Asian Pop TV and radio show, the majority of music played is from South Korea and specifically from male groups. PopAsia has responded by stating that Korean pop is the most requested genre of music.

Awards