There’s a new sound in the morning on Guardian Media Ltd’s urban radio station Slam 100.5 FM as the hugely popular radio presenters JW and Blaze take over the station’s morning drive-time slot. Jason “JW” Williams and Ancil “Blaze” Isaacs along with their mixer Selector Miles, joined Slam from Red 96.7 FM where they hosted The Red Hot Morning Show, the nation’s top urban radio morning show, for eight years. Their new programme, The Grand Slam Morning Show, will air on weekdays from 6 am to 9 am.
The move by GML to bring Williams and Isaacs to Slam has been viewed by many in the industry as audacious and ambitious, but Slam’s programming consultant Joel Morris said once they started speaking with the DJs, they realised both sides were on the same page. “We realised that we both wanted to do the same kinds of things in the future, both sides met each other’s expectations and all we had to do was resolve some small issues before reaching an agreement,” Morris said. Isaacs told the Guardian’s sister publication Metro Magazine they saw the move to Slam as a “great opportunity. “Opportunity is the mainstay, when it comes, it’s either you go or you stay.
“This is a golden opportunity for us, because Slam 100.5 is young and vibrant. It’s part of a new generation and it will allow us to connect with more people. I’ve always been impressed with the programming at Slam,” Isaacs added. At the last radio survey, published at the end of 2013, The Red Hot Morning Show was the third most popular morning show in the urban radio market. Urban radio is mainly aimed at the 18-25 age group. “They bring their entire huge fan base and the top morning show in the youth market to Slam,” Morris said.
On January 13th, 2014 for their first programme, soca star Destra Garcia was the featured guest. The new Slam presenters will also feature across the GML group and will be seen on CNC3 in a number of Slam’s upcoming Carnival specials. With the introduction of the new morning show, there has been a revamp of the station’s schedule. Former morning presenters Sunny Bling, Lurbz and Situation will be on the afternoon drive, in a programme called The Road Block from 3 pm – 6 pm. Soca singer 5 Star Akil will now move to the 6 pm—9 pm slot.
Published in the Trinidad Guardian:
Tuesday 14th January, 2014
