It’s eighth time lucky for radio veteran Hafeez Glamour as he picks up the Most Popular Radio Personality (Ria 89.7FM) award at the recent MediaCorp Radio Awards.
This marks his eighth win since the inception of the awards by the terrestrial broadcaster.
When Popspoken asked him after his win if he ever feels he is too old for a radio station that targets the young like Ria 89.7FM, he denied feeling so.
“I always feel like age is just a number. Whenever you think you are old, you cannot do a lot of things. At a young station, you have to be young-at-heart so you can keep things young for the young listeners,” said Hafeez.
He shared the secret of his success: staying relevant in a field that is constantly changing and an audience that experiences new things and develops fresh opinions.
“To be successful is to stay relevant and know what the young people want. Keep on your toes, keep abreast with the latest things. You cannot keep on doing the old stuff. The world is running very fast,” he said.
In staying relevant, Hafeez said that radio now as opposed to radio before demands more interaction with listeners and fans. He stands by the mantra of “listening to our listeners” in his dealings now as a deejay.
Would he then consider a change of pace and move to the more adult-oriented Warna 94.2FM should he feel his time is up at Ria? Hafeez laughed when we broached the suggestion.
“It’s just a job, you know? As long as they pay me, why not?” he quipped.
In the field of Malay radio, A B Shaik picked up two awards for Most Popular Radio Personality (Warna 94.2FM) and Radio Personality of the Year — Media’s Choice (Malay Programming). The Lifetime Achievement award was given to Warna 94.2FM’s Suharti Ali, who has spent 36 years in the industry as radio deejay, TV host, scriptwriter and songwriter.
Photo: MediaCorp
