Tambayan tandem 'going strong'

MANILA, Philippines - “Seven months and going strong.”

That’s how Tambayan 101.9’s resident wake-uppers Arnold Rei and Bea sum up their tandem on the airwaves. They are the deejays of the 8 to 11 a.m. morning slot.

If they are “Gigilicious” (as fans put it) on air, prone to laughter and playful exchanges, they aren’t much different off-air.

Fully aware that the morning slot is one very competitive field, as it is already saturated with teamups, who cook up a smorgasbord of gimmicks (including chaotic chatter, naughty questions, romantic undertones and whatnots), they said that to have lasted for seven months now, they feel that they’re doing something right.

While the chemistry came naturally to them since they started in November of last year, both said that they don’t need to play up any romantic angle between them to tease the imagination of listeners. Well, they both insist that there’s none to begin with, and it’s working to their advantage, said Bea, as it “brings in both the female and male listeners.”

A broadcast communication graduate of Trinity University of Asia (formerly Trinity College of Quezon City), Arnold Rei has been a radio jock for seven years now. On the other hand, Bea is a 2010 journalism grad of the University of Sto. Tomas, who has just been a deejay for a little over a year, after a couple of months of pounding the news beat for print. 

Arnold Rei, who gives in requests to sing on-air, said that his foray to the FM radio scene somehow coincided with the onset of the trend of radio jocks delivering spiels in Taglish. He said he is fortunate to have witnessed how it all began — how the FM radio landscape was changing dramatically in an effort to reach out to the masses.

When he was also starting out, he said he had some ideas as to how a deejay should be — that, for one, he has to have a modulated voice. But he was told to retain his normal speaking voice, which he said was another trend introduced in FM radio in recent years, as the medium was no longer confined to its music-centric template and was adapting the “Talk Radio” format. “I think because of that, listeners are able to relate to us more,” he said. 

They have also embraced social media as a complement to radio as a medium of communication. “We are not afraid of social media. We acknowledge its importance and we maximize it as an extension of radio,” said Arnold Rei.

Aside from maintaining a very active social media presence to interact with fans, they have also tapped Internet live streaming, which goes to say, that the age has indeed come when deejays are no longer hiding behind their microphones. 

It helps that these two have what it takes to be on-cam talents as well. But for now, they said they’re happy living it up on-air with Tambayan as their playground.