No-nonsense morning show rocks local FM radio

JAM 88.3 DJs Scotty and Hilary (who’s due to give birth soon) wake up sleepyheads on their radio show.

THE WILDLY popular morning talk shows on local FM radio tend to go extreme: either they court controversy (Magic 89’s “Good Times with Mo”) or they resort to silly jokes (Love Radio’s “Tambalang Balasubas at Balahura”).

Most of the other stations try hard to follow this trend.

But there’s one program, “The Hilary & Scotty Show” on Jam 88.3, which takes the no-nonsense route to entertain, inform and enlighten listeners. It doesn’t mean, though, that the hosts take themselves too seriously—in fact they’re quite fun to listen to.
Hilary and Scotty perk up sleepyheads when they open their show with the greeting: “Top of the morning, six to niners!” (The show is on from 6-9 a.m., Mondays to Thursdays.)

What follows is a fast-paced commentary on the day’s news and events, interspersed by some of the most refreshing pop and rock music not heard since the demise of NU 107.

Scotty, who is from Scotland (hence the moniker), seems to have adapted well to local culture because he sounds like the neighborhood buddy when he says the last Manny Pacquiao fight “was boring.” He’s hilarious when he opines, “I don’t understand why people dress uncomfortably”—referring to Beyonce’s impossibly tight outfit which forced the singer to walk away from photographers at a recent event.

Hilary, meanwhile, asks, “Would you walk around with a P6 million bag?” She’s referring to Pacquiao’s latest gift to mom Dionisia.

The hosts go on talking about anything that would interest people: wage hikes, fast taxi meters (including their own experiences), surviving in freak accidents, and then proceed to involve listeners by soliciting their opinions.

But if other stations might claim that they, too, have that sort of lively exchange in their respective morning shows, not one of them could top the kind of music that Hilary and Scotty play: Airborne Toxic Event, Manic Street Preachers, Broken Bells, Tahiti 80, Architecture in Helsinki, Linkin Park, Steel Dragon, Beastie Boys, Rage Against the Machine, White Stripes, whew, it’s so much a revelation.

What’s more, they do something other DJs rarely bother to, these days—give the song’s title and the artist, plus a bit of info on the musicians. Now that’s a real radio show.

New music club

More clubs have been opening of late, which only validates the view that the live music scene is flourishing. Joey San Andres, vocalist of The Music Making Company, has put up his own resto-bar, JSA, at the Harbor Square across the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila.

The Inquirer dropped in one night and caught Arthur Manuntag, Girl Valencia and Egay Gonzalez jamming with San Andres.