I bushwhacked Icky on the last track of his board-work yesterday and it turns out, we had quite an entertaining and weighty conversation…
As I walked into the booth to chat with John M’s “proxy” for the day while he recovers from his knee injury, to my surprise, Icky was playing I’m In Love With A Monster by the American girl group Fifth Harmony, famous for X Factor. Off-topic, it’s a track which I confess would fall under one of my favorite pop tunes of 2015 – not because it’s an exceptional masterpiece but clearly because of its spot-on, hunky-dory lyrics, which is something I’m sure almost every person in this planet can relate to.
The sophisticated sovereign that he is, the boundless passion for announcing that he possesses and the peerless intelligence that he has in business enthused Icky to converse with me even if he was waylaid! Naturally, the first question I asked him was about his time slot to which he replied “it’s the most loaded stretch in terms of commercial traffic” to which I also added “and road traffic as well, I’m guessing!”
Undeniably a fact – it is, indeed satiated with listeners, advertisers all hustling and buzzling through the thoroughfare madness and all that jazz! Online we have listeners from the most far-flung places – from Dubai to New Zealand and many other countries as they listen to home-grown Cebu harvests. Amazingly we have listeners from Lanao del Norte that miss us as well requesting tracks to reminisce on and of course we have Imperial Manila locked into us with the many Visayans out there.
Once again veering a little off the subject, we went on schmoozing about traffic given that the Afternoon Drive runs from 2 to 6. “Drive-time has increased tremendously in Cebu” asserts Icky as he explained proficiently that traffic has started earlier nowadays. “On good days it begins as early as 3pm and on bad days such as weekends, paydays and holiday seasons, it kicks off at 1 all the way to the evening!” In spite of the frustrations it generates though, from a business angle for Y101, it’s great for radio!
Moving on to the slot, he confirmed that he will be doing the afternoons alternating it with Mike Solo until John M returns. And when will that be? Rumor has it that he’ll be back on board next week so brace yourselves for the Kahuna’s return!
As for his favorite track of the year he quickly responded Adventure Of A Lifetime without batting an eyelash – an eye-popping track in my opinion as well, for different reasons though! Amen to Coldplay for this one, btw – the first single out of their new album A Head Full Of Dreams is a powerhouse! “It’s meaningful for my wife and I as it’s all about my personal goals, a lifestyle change, and basically it sums up the whole year for me ending it on a high note” he adds as he talked of his future based on his family objectives.
Lastly, I asked him to give me his 5 favorite female music icons to which he answered: Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul, Madonna, Alanis Morissette and Pat Benetar and his 5 current female idols to which he replied Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, Gwen Stephani, Ellie Goulding and Little Mix (all of them!). Great lookin’ chics, I’d say!
Well here you have it – the very straight forward, nonchalant wingman sitting in for John M behind the board on the Afternoon Drive at Y101 Always First from Mondays through to Thursdays from 2 PM to 6 PM, and on Friday’s Gold Rush… so keep it cuffed!
#y101fm #alwaysfirst #afternoondrive