Icing on The Cake @ Singapore Radio Awards 2010

THANK YOU
if you're among the million people (guess-timate)
who voted for Pam and/or myself!

Up until yesterday, we were in the running for the Singapore Radio Awards 2010's "Most Popular Radio Personality on 938LIVE" award. This blog, yes, the one you're reading right now, was also up against stiff competition in the new 'Best Personality Blog' category.

The Living Roomers clinched one of the two categories we were nominated for! Thanks to our listeners, studio guests and friends in public relations agencies and corporate communications departments across the island who cast generous votes for us.

We're only as good as how impressed and appreciative you are with our 'work' (if we can even call it that). The award is a stamp of affirmation that we're doing something that's not only right, but doing something well and deserving of recognition. We're honoured and humbled.

Pam had suggested I blog about the win after clinching the Most Popular Radio Personality Award for 938LIVE. I was initially unsure. Would I be misconstrued as being self-indulgent? Self-effacement would be more appropriate, no? But after some thought, it'd firstly be polite and proper to thank listeners for their support. Pam also had these two questions for me:
1. How do you feel?
2. What do you see this award representing after almost a decade in the business?

So let me tackle the questions like a studio guest would on our couch...

1. It took me by surprise! And Pam and Melanie Oliveiro (of F-Cube fame) can vouch for that. I was happily snapping photos with my Canon 80IS right up to the moment I thought I heard my name being called. The screen projection below was the last shot I snapped before I slapped myself and leapt out of my seat to receive the trophy from Irene Ang.

In fact, I was so unprepared to give a thank you speech, I vaguely remember thanking listeners for their votes. Threw in mention of my parents after Irene had teased that radio ran in the family,(my brother had clinched the award for LUSH 99.5FM minutes earlier!), acknowledged a most supportive boss and saying something along the lines of the award being really received on behalf of all the fabulous presenters we had on 938LIVE!

2. The award's like the icing on a cake. The intrinsic value of the conversations Pam and I brew from The Living Room and what we distill from the hearts and minds of our guests is rewarding in itself. Every weekday, we take pride in knowing that our programme is like balm for the soul and knowledge for the mind. Beyond information and entertainment, we know The Living Room interviews are powerfully stirring, arousing, stimulating - words that all mean 'evocative'. That listeners don't just say to themselves, "Oh I see" but "Looks like I must do something about this then".

There's something else to be said about awards. Notice that the word 'war' appears smack in the middle of the word 'Award'? But instead of pitting one over the other, I say the award is really the pride and ownership of every presenter on 938LIVE, especially my dear Pamela, Bharati Jagdish & Keith De Souza (the morning's FRESH team), Melanie Oliveiro & Eugene Loh (your lunchtime companions on F-Cube), Daniel Martin, Janice Teo & Joel Chua (Body & Soul) and Michelle Martin & Will Xavier (your evening drive home on EXPRESS). The amount of dedication each one exudes and the long hours put in often goes unseen, but these go into making magic on 938LIVE every single day! Everyone's a winner! A round of applause for all please.

(Above: With winners from 938LIVE's sister stations - Gold 90FM (Brian Richmond), Class 95 (Jean Danker), LUSH 99.5FM (Hossan Leong) and Sin Yee (Symphony 92.4FM).