By Badrolhisham Bidin

I started my career in journalism at the tail-end of the typewriter era. I love to write, and I envied my school senior who had his letter to the editor published in Utusan Malaysia when we were in school. Then his cerpen (short story) also appeared in the Berita Harian.

Taking the cue from this writer, I wrote a poem, and it was read by a radio DJ on air.

The house phone did not stop ringing, relatives and friends conveyed their congratulations. The poem was typed on a Brother typewriter, a gift from my late father.

The newsroom of Harian Nasional, started by the late Khalid Jafri in the mid-80s was filled with the noisy clicking sound when reporters came back from their assignments, rushing to meet the deadline. It was also as noisy at Harian Kota office as we furiously typed our stories before the news editor bared his fangs.

When I joined the NST Melaka branch as a stringer in 1988, the small newsroom suddenly was quieter, there were several PCs, the typewriter was tucked somewhere at home. The PC keyboard was smoother, a soft push and the letter appeared on screen.

But we had to practically fight to get to a PC as they were shared by reporters from NST, BH and the Malay Mail. Sportswriter, the late Kartar Singh would type slowly on the keyboard that we had to get one of us to lure him for a cuppa while we quickly took control of the PC.

After a while, he got wind of our tactic and whenever he was in the office, there would be one PC short.

The main newsdesk at the Kuala Lumpur headquarters however had PCs on almost all the desks and many more big ones they called Atex, usually used by the editors.

Typewriters were already unheard of and not too long after, the laptops made their appearance, mainly for reporters on outstation or overseas assignments.

Soon, the company provided some of the reporters with pagers where messages can be sent via a small equipment usually clipped on to your waist, the message was usually “call office”, or cover this and that. It was a curse because the holders would be the first to be contacted in case there were major and urgent assignments to be covered.

When pager service was extended, longer messages could be delivered. One night, we send a lengthy message for an editor to buy a long list of groceries, purportedly from his wife, much to the dismay of the telephone operator who had to jot down every word. But imagine, how the wife had reacted when the editor came home with a bonnet full of groceries!

Night shift reporters were also equipped with an ATUR Phone, a large boxy thing with a handset, it looked like a house phone, bigger and bulkier. It also worked like a car phone. When talking on a phone while driving was still allowed, you could see people using the phone on the road.

It had a large battery set but after a full charge, it could be used for less than 30 minutes.

When mobile phones finally made their presence in Malaysia in the mid-90s, the NSTP was kind enough to loan us analogue handphones which could only make and receive calls, plus send and receive SMS messages.

Then the Internet came, we had smartphones and the rest is history. Stories are sent via phones; you don’t even need a laptop. The mantra was digital first, print later. Reporters are supposed to send briefs for the social media, then a longer story for the portal.

A full story is expected for the print version. All typed on the smartphone.