POP 88 aims to deliver Asian pop culture in a way that is fun, informative and entertaining through news, music, games and even a lesson in language every so often.
… Asian Pop Culture Remixed …
POP 88 is in association with 8Asians.com
Background
In all honesty, I would like to say the show was borne out of a need for a diversity of voices and a new way of how our community of Asian North Americans should start seeing itself … but that isn’t the complete complicated story.
The POP 88 true story is …
For the past 5 years, we (DJ SanFran and I) produced a fairly popular Asian music, news and entertainment show/ podcast on CKLN and had shared the timeslot with another team of hosts alternating weeks. Both shows were Asian-centric but with very different focuses - theirs was more artsy, ours was pop culture oriented. They came to us with a plan in an attempt to ‘unify’ the two shows.
For reasons, both professional and creative, both DJ SanFran and I felt that it was not in both ours and the shows best interest to accept their offer. They then decided that they wanted the produce the show ‘full time’ (ie: every week). The station manager of CKLN became involved and due to the politics of managing a volunteer-run radio station, had to side with the founder of the show - the other team.
After talking with my dear friend Poonstar for about 4 hours after the meeting, an idea I had been toying with for years was starting to take shape.
When I was a child, I remember my mom asking me at the kitchen table over the plastic table wrap what I wanted to do when I grew up. “A DJ,” I said with a smile recalling with great fondness the music coming out of the box with numerous dials and switches on it, my mother dancing to old records my dad brought over from the Philippines and the wonderment of both information and entertainment that came from one place. Of course, this did not go over well and she tried to steer me to the more stable professions - which was all futile as I ended up going to college for Broadcasting for Radio and Television where I focused on Television Production.
It’s probably here where I should say that DJ SanFran was more of an influence on me than he thinks. Both him and I have known each other since we were 3 and I remember always looking forward to seeing him because we would always have a good time together. He is 1 of 2 guys I remember with great fondness from my childhood. The other guy went to school for IT, DJ SanFran went to Radio Broadcasting and Production - I always say that I think I subconsciously followed in his footsteps.
There was a lot I wasn’t able to do when I worked with DJ SanFran at CKLN - this was due to many different factors including show focus, ownership, the large gap of time between shows etc. However, with the wave of podcasts - anyone could literally put on a show - why not me?
The idea both excited and frightened me. You know the moment when you are about to actually realize a pipe dream but haven’t done any of the work and yet still dream of the possibilities? - I was there, overwhelmed with the amount of work and re-learning of skills I had long forgotten (HTML Coding, anyone?). Often I felt like running away, wanting to snap myself out its possibility, but then still propelled myself forward with the next step in completing the project.
I was fortunate over the past 6 or so years, I had developed good relationships with people from all over Asian America and Canada and had just recently signed on as one of 8Asians.com contributors. Ernie was already a fan of the show DJ SanFran and I produced, so pitching a show to him was perhaps one of those moments of destiny and fate - eventhough that idea came to me while in the shower.
And so within a month, I organized myself so I could start producing whenever I wanted to … and here we are today.
For anyone who knows me, I’m a HUGE fan of 채연 (Chae Yeon), so I’m currently holding myself back from screaming like a 12 year old fan girl - (because it’s unbecoming for a woman of my age to do such a thing) - now that I’m one of the first to actually have some of the tracks from her brand spanking new 4th Album - ‘My Love’ - due to release April 1st (April 4th at YesAsia.com).
