Loqie, Didi and Elton from 99.5 Rait FM, based in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea have released a song and a video.
The station’s popular breakfast hosts got the idea to release a song after co-host Didi found a 10 year old video clip on YouTube of an original song from Loqie and Elton when they were in a band called ‘Scholastic’.
The clip had received 22,000 views and the songs had some popularity back 10 years earlier.
When Didi played some of the audio on air, and the original clip was shared on the stations Facebook page, it was suggested by some of the listeners that they audition for the TV Show ‘Vocal Fusion’ (PNG’s version of Idol) that was about to run auditions in Port Moresby.
At the audition, one of the Judges, Eli Webb fell in love with their original and suggested that they re-release the track.
99.5 Rait FM is owned by the CHM Supersound Record label and Recording studios, so the team went about asking the label boss, Braden Chin, if this could be a possibility, based on Eli’s comment on National TV.
Braden gave the team 3 days to get 3000 likes to show him that the listeners really wanted to hear the song.
The facebook page for 99.5 Rait FM was launched eight months ago and has over 45,000 fans already, so getting the 3000 likes was quite easy.
The song has gone on to become a big hit, but the fans of the show wanted to see a video clip of the song.
So the CHM Supersound Digital department went about creating something unique for PNG that had elements of humor, wasn’t too cheesy and would showcase the team and station.
The clip was launched on National TV on July 8 and then a high quality, but low resolution version was posted to the stations Facebook page (data is expensive in PNG).
In seven days, the clip attracted over 20,000 views, over 300 shares and 3,400 likes.
Program Director Ryan Khay says that the team has kept their egos in check since this boost in popularity from the clip and have not yet asked for a rider, or to upgrade from the jocks room to dressing rooms with their names on the door.