Raymond Chin, Managing Director of CHM Group, tells Business Advantage PNG that when he started two businesses, one was a hobby and the other ‘real’. He was in for a surprise.

CHM head office staff (Raymond Chin left). Source: CHM

The ‘hobby’ business became something much more serious. It was music, which Chin describes as his passion. ‘It turned into a massive business for me. I opened up a small studio and started recording.’

Chin says he started working with a number of bands, including the Paramana Strangers. ‘All the groups within the Central region were under my record label. It started to evolve in time, and it was really interesting seeing the music being created and becoming big hits.

‘It developed into Panasonic and it became a massive business for us.’

‘We started recording artists in every province from Central, Gulf, Madang, Sepik, Rabaul and the Highlands.’

Electronics retailing

The other business Chin had was anelectronics retail operation, which he says was acquired from Matsushita in 1984. The brand was then called National.

CHM staff participating in the Biggest Tea Break for the PNG Cancer Foundation. Source: PNG.

‘It developed into Panasonic and it became a massive business for us, he says. ‘That was the hardware and the music was the software.

‘We got the tiger by the tail – we didn’t realize how big the requirement was and we rode on the tiger. We managed to be successful; it took us to the next level and started to expand very fast.’

The CHM Group now has five divisions: retail electronics, with six outlets; a commercial division that operates as a distributor and agent for consumer electronic and home products; the music recording label and radio station; property leasing and an energy technology/air conditioning business.

Innovation

The history of CHM is one of innovation, according to Chin. He says in 1983, when local radio stations were refusing to play PNG music, he set up a PNG Top 20 and paid the stations to play it.

In 1995, the company began exporting PNG-made radio music programs to Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Thursday Island and Australia.

In 1984, he says, he started a music TV show for PNG under the name ‘Pepsi Fizz’. ‘It was so popular; it was huge. When Pepsi left, that program evolved into CHM Supersound, which ran for about 20 years and was rated in the top three programs on MTV.’

Staff at CHM Group. Source: CHM.

In 1993, says Chin, he hosted PNG’s first open air concert for the Red Cross at the Sir John Guise stadium for about 50,000 people. ‘After that, we found the rock concerts a lot tougher to do, because of disturbances.’

In 1995, the company began exporting PNG-made radio music programs to Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Thursday Island and Australia (Townsville and Cairns).

In 1996 and 1997 the company launched PNG’s first music internet website and hosted the first South Pacific music festival in Port Moresby, bringing artists from all over the region. In 2004 CHM acquired Pacific Gold Studio, the other big recording studio in Port Moresby.

Technological change

By 2008 conditions in the music industry had worsened, however. ‘The way we did business 30 years ago worked very well for those years, but technology has changed the way we do business. The music industry was suffering, and declining very fast due to rampant piracy through the China trade stores who were also selling audio products using SD and USB drives.

‘We could feel it, seeing our sales dropping very rapidly each year. So I tried to get help from the government—I wrote letters but didn’t get any response.

‘We don’t borrow from other studios or people, we create our own hits and share the music with other stations.’

‘I brought in some copyright lawyers and did a workshop with the public and with some of the government sector, to educate them on copyright and what they could do. But not a lot of people understood copyright at this stage. Even the lawyers didn’t understand it.

‘We really had a hard time. I was watching the music business nosedive and there was nothing I could do. But I thought I’d have a last try: find out what was the best way to keep the music industry going.’

A new era

99.5 Rait FM staff. Source: CHM

‘I started a radio station, called ‘Rait FM 99.5’ (after the current slang, Right man) in the Central Province only. It plays 100 per cent Papua New Guinean and South Pacific music. It forced all the other radio stations to play PNG music.

‘We were the only station to create music as well as play it. We don’t borrow from other studios or people, we create our own hits and share the music with other stations.’

Chin is also now working with other Pacific producers to create international hits.

Chin believes it is a ‘very exciting era’ in the music industry. ‘We have really exciting plans on the move this year for what I will call a new superhighway built for PNG music; a new platform that will cover not only Papua New Guinea but the whole world.

‘We’ll be working with big international technology companies. It will change the way PNG music will reach the people. We are also working with all the mobile phone companies.

‘We have to build a totally new platform to drive PNG music to a higher level.’