Local Radio DJs Give Free Car Washes
Recently, three of our local radio stations, MY FM, MIX FM and ERA, pitted their own morning and afternoon crews against each other in a contest called the Battle of the Shifts. During the contest period, the crews conducted live quizzes for call-in listeners to answer questions. The shift which accumulated the greatest number of correct answers from the callers over the period is deemed the winning shift.
Battle of the Shifts
The Chinese-language channel MY FM pitted the morning crew consisting of Jack Lim, Gan Mei Yan and Nicholas Ong against their afternoon counterparts Royce Tan and Wan Wai Fun, with the afternoon crew emerging victorious. In the MIX FM edition, Sham just about triumphed over Pietro in the battle between “The Bald” and “The Big One”. Finally, for Malay-language station ERA, Adi & Burn of Petang Era triumphed over Din & Aznil Nawawi of Riuh Pagi.
Cruisers of the various radio stations. MIX FM among early buyers of the Proton Exora.
While phone-in listeners have prizes up for grabs, the DJs have bigger concerns at stake: the losing teams were to wash cars as punishment for their defeat, as the victors goad them at it. They were due to receive their punishment on Saturday, 25 April 2009, at Jusco Bukit Tinggi, Klang from 9:00am to 1:00pm. Perfect. My car needed a wash. A bunch of celebrities were doing it for free. I set off from PJ in the morning.
A preview of the task that was awaiting the DJs
It was about 9:00am when I reached the parking lot of Jusco Bukit Tinggi. The respective DJs took their time to arrive, but the organisers and support crew were already in hand to set things up and organise the crowd into queues to get their cars registered for the wash. Members of the public could also specifically request for which of the radio crews to wash their rides.
Early birds get the DJs.
My car was placed in the hands of the MY FM team, but despite arriving early the sheer numbers meant that my car was only washed by 11:00am. Things only really got going an hour earlier, at 10:00am, when all the DJs arrived and began whipping the crowd into something of a mini-frenzy. As the DJs took turns yelling at the mike, the voices on the speakers were speaking Cantonese, English, and Malay in random order.
Fans taking pictures with their favourite DJs.
Sham & Pietro of MIX FM
From MY FM (L-R): Gan Mei Yan, Wan Wai Fun, Jack Lim, Royce Tan & Nicholas Ong.
Din & Aznil of ERA
The organisers did well in keeping all the crowd and their cars in order, but I suspect they were a little negligent in planning the layout as there was precious little room to maneuver the cars in the washing area – particularly for the MY FM area, which saw Jack Lim took up the role of a car jockey as well for some of the crowd. The DJs themselves did a respectable job washing the cars, complete with vacuum cleaning of the interiors.
Cars queueing up for a celebrity wash.
Maneuvering space was at a premium
Jack Lim adds car jockeying to his resume
For my car, they did a reasonably good job, though they were definitely struggling with the brake dust on my rims. Despite not being the best car wash job I’ve had, free car washes by celebrities don’t happen every day. I’m not complaining.
Gan Mei Yan struggles to clean off the brake dust…
… with limited success.
Are they washing the car or the floor?
Take it easy man, don’t shoot the car.
Aznil has fun in the ERA tent.
A loyal listener helps Mei Yan out.
Royce & Wai Fun of MY FM are spared of the car washing.
Sponsors Shell making their presence felt.
