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Tv & Radio > News & Features Sunday February 26, 2006
Grammy glory
AIR RAVES
By ANTHONY THANASAYAN
DID you tune in to TV that morning when Irish rock band U2 “stole the glory” – as BBC World Service radio put it – from pop diva Mariah Carey and other artistes to grab a total of five major musical awards, among them for best song, album of the year and best rock album?
I’m talking about the 48th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony that was beamed out of Los Angeles on Feb 8. Over here, we caught the live telecast on Feb 9 about 9am on Astro’s Star World Channel 70.
However, unlike the 63rd Golden Globe Awards that was also aired live from California on the same Astro channel on Jan 17, good weather conditions here enabled the Grammys to be screened uninterrupted.
Viewers may recall how heavy rainfall in certain parts of the country during the Globes telecast caused the satellite signal to break down.
Although there was no rain to spoil the Grammys, Astro’s Channel 70 nonetheless suffered a break in transmission for a full half hour from 10am.
However, the glitch didn’t seem to affect local radio stations like Red 104.9 and Hitz.fm, which did a good job keeping listeners on the road updated on what was happening at the Grammys.
The various stations did not only keep listeners abreast of what was transpiring at the music industry’s biggest night but also took pains to outdo each other in being the first to bring the action to listeners.
Hitz.fm was my pick as the best station for Grammy coverage. Morning DJs JJ and Rudy presented their updates at lightning speed. They even replayed clips of Grammy songs and acceptance speeches soon after they were aired on TV.
However, they made a gaffe when they mistook Jennifer Nettles of the country group Sugarland first for Sheryl Crow and then Faith Hill.
The Grammys update dropped a notch after Serena C took over at 10am. Her updates weren’t as prompt.
Red fm got my No.2 spot for the more consistent lowdown on the Grammys, the best of which came when the TV transmission failed.
Another strong point was that Red chose to play a number of Grammy-nominated songs even before the ceremony began in LA.
AM jocks Tim and Shareena’s showcase included Gold Digger (Kanye West), Since U Been Gone (Kelly Clarkson) and Good is Good by Sheryl Crow.
Fly.fm also focused on the Grammys by talking about some of the winners and giving out Grammy compilation albums to listeners.
TraxxFM’s hourly news updates on the Grammys weren’t comprehensive, and an interview that ran on the same morning featured a topic on business with a local guest rather than a local music critic to talk about the LA awards night.
When the Academy Awards comes round on March 6, it would be interesting to have a movie aficionado on air to comment on the nominees and the results.
Anthony Thanasayan, who was born disabled, is an avid radio listener. His work, training special dogs for the physically handicapped, has been featured on local and international radio. His dogs, he says, help him ‘stay in tune with life’. E-mail him at athanasayan@hotmail.com.
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