While most believe that good things come in three, five is the best for these radio DJs.
Cheers erupted from the audience when Love 972’s morning show The Breakfast Quintet, hosted by Marcus Chin, Mark Lee, Dennis Chew, Chen Biyu and Joe Tsoi, won Best Radio Programme at Star Awards 2024 Gala Night last evening (April 15) at Zouk.
This is the show’s fourth consecutive win in this category at the awards.
In their winning speech, Marcus, 70, said: “We were also unsure about winning this award before, so my mentality was, if we don’t get the award today, let’s presume that we have already ‘gone to the altar’.
“If we get the award today, it is not something to be taken for granted. We work very hard for our show. It can be quite challenging to host a morning show, but we persevere to bring happiness and joy to our listeners, so we feel very happy to receive this award.”
The phrase “gone to the altar” is commonly used by local artistes to refer to having received the Star Awards All-Time Favourite Artiste honours, after bagging the Top 10 Most Popular Artiste award 10 times.
Marcus was probably referring to having won the Best Radio Programme so many times that they are “promoted” to the next level.
Mark, 55, added that they don’t host the show with the intention to win, but just want to bring happiness and positivity to their listeners, and thanked the judging panel and their listeners for their support.
Dennis, 50, expressed: “We want to tell our colleagues (at the other radio stations), initially we said that if our programme wins, it would be enough for us to have four wins. But this year with the addition of Joe into the hosting team, we also have to win next year. We will continue to work hard, thank you everyone!”
In a previous interview with AsiaOne, Dennis shared that each member keeps a trophy.
So who would be keeping it this year?
“It would most likely be Biyu because Mark, Dennis and I kept the trophies from the last three years,” Marcus told us in an interview backstage.
He added, while the others laughed: “If Joe wants to keep it, he would have to wait for next year.”
Mark also told us that even though they have received the award for the past three years, they still felt nervous.
“Every time during this period, we always feel that it’s the time to get our report cards. The Breakfast Quintet brings new concepts to our listeners every year. For last year’s concept to be liked by the judging panel, we really feel it’s a huge comfort for us.”
Dennis added: “We were especially nervous this year because in previous years, we had votes from our listeners and decisions from the judges. But this year, the winners were decided entirely by the panel.”
When asked how they would celebrate with their listeners, Mark said they would have a Facebook livestream to share the award with them.
“In the past three years, we also conducted a livestream the next day, placing the trophy in front of the camera to share our happiness with them,” he said.
Marcus added: “We wouldn’t be here if not for our listeners, so our award is jointly owned with them.”
“Every day when we livestream on Facebook, there will be thousands of listeners sharing their joy and feelings with us and giving their support to us. Such a figure for a radio programme is not to be taken lightly,” Dennis said.
Other programmes that bagged awards last night included #JustSwipeLah for Best Short-form Entertainment Programme, Inside Crime Scene S2 for Best Infotainment Programme and Foodie Trio for Best Entertainment Programme.
The biggest winner was drama series All That Glitters, which starred Desmond Tan, Jeremy Chan and Ayden Sng. It won Best Drama Serial, Best Screenplay (Drama) and Best Director (Drama).
Selected segments of the Gala Night will be made available on mewatch, Mediacorp Entertainment’s YouTube channel, Mediacorp’s social media platforms and the official Star Awards website.
On April 21, the Backstage Live Show will be telecast from 3.30pm to 10.30pm, the Walk of Fame from 5pm to 6.30pm and the awards show from 7pm to 10pm.
The awards show and Walk of Fame will air on Channel 8 and U with simulcast on mewatch and Mediacorp Entertainment’s YouTube channel, while Backstage Live will air exclusively on the latter two platforms.
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