And you thought the short film Candle was just a one-off thing.
987FM DJ Divian Nair shocked radio listeners by announcing last Thursday that he was leaving radio the following day, after four years behind the mic. His departure adds to that of the old guard at the radio station, which has seen a bumper crop of new talent such as Sonia Chew and Kimberly Wang replace past DJs such as Jacqui Thibodeaux and Rozz. Justin Ang and Vernon A of the Muttons are the only remaining DJs left from the previous batch.
In a phone interview Sunday with Popspoken, Divian was calm as he spoke about his departure. Nope, he was not fired from the radio station — he tendered in his resignation at quite a late juncture.
“It was a very quick announcement because I handed in my resignation in on Tuesday and made the decision to leave effective immediately. I chose to stay on for the rest of the week in good faith,” Divian said.
He said that he wanted to leave to “take a break for now”, spend more time with his family and to pursue other passions.
“No matter how good I am at work, work is work. Family is family. Life is life. They are all separate things,” said Divian.
Many listeners went on Twitter and Facebook to show their appreciation with the hashtag #GoodbyeDoubleDs and with messages of support and thanks. They have also asked Divian about his future plans.
Well, you can look towards Divian and Dee Kosh’s recent short film Candle for the answer.
“I found something really close to my heart when I directed and produced Candle with Dee (Kosh). I know it wasn’t perfect but it felt right. It it something I would do out of passion,” Divian spoke about a possible career in filmmaking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgRP_rfS9MA
Will he pull a Shan Wee and come back to radio after pursuing other ventures? Divian says his options are wide open, although he has “no decision on which radio station to go to, so (he) won’t be thinking of that for the next five years”.
He does, however, have great things to say about the new crop of DJs taking over the radio station, namedropping talents such as Sonia Chew, recent 987 Radio Star winner Tabitha Nauser as well as Naomi Yeo, a newly-signed DJ who finished in the Top 5 in the radio talent contest.
“The good thing about 987 is that it’s a young station and it targets the youth. It’s good that from time to time, it changes itself so that it stays current. The new guys are all really talented and I have nothing but the best wishes for all of them,” said Divian
Although his Double Ds radio show partner Dee Kosh was shocked when Divian broke the news to him, Divian said Dee Kosh saw it coming — “maybe subconsciously, not intentionally” — due to the closeness of their friendship outside of work.
“I had a couple of shows — I started out with Vanessa Fernandez, Jacqui, Shan Wee, Bobby Tonelli and then I finally had a chance to work with Dee Kosh. Before the first week of the Double Ds, people were already trending our radio show name on Twitter even when the show hadn’t even started yet.”
“By the end of the week, it had converted to 5,000 Twitter followers in a week. The chemistry with me and Dee works. We’re just being us as we are in real life. When you find a great person to work with, it’s a bond you have for the rest of your life. It’s very hard to find that in the industry,” Divian praised his radio show partner.
Divian says that he is likely to collaborate with Dee Kosh on his YouTube channel for talkset videos and short films. Dee Kosh’s future at the radio station is up in the air: no announcement has been made if he is staying at the night timeslot or if he is moving elsewhere within or away from 987.
Photo: Divian/Facebook
