I thought this was a rather candid and enlightening letter from DJ Chew Soo Wei (she hosted Live and Loaded on Channel 5 and a late night radio show called "Pillowfight with Soo").
I don't know the circumstances surrounding her departure beyond her letter to her fans but my favourite bit of the letter was the part where she was advised to "listen to American Radios Jocks and learn an American accent".
I think I speak for many when I say one of the reasons people stopped listening to local radio was precisely because of the fake American accents.
In this day and age when you can turn to the internet and listen to any radio podcast from any where in the world, why would you want to listen to a local DJ trying to sound like an American?
If I wanted to listen to an American DJ, I'd listen to an American program online. If I wanted a British accent, I'd listen to the BBC.
Maybe there is a market for Singaporean American Accents I am not aware of.
Excerpt from letter by Chew Soo Wei, ex-98.7FM DJ:
Dear friends,I wish I had told it to you in person but I wasn’t given the chance to.
My final show “Pillowfight with Soo” concluded Sat July 12 at 3.00am on 987fm.
Why? I’ve had a few people message me on Facebook asking me why I am not part of the new schedule out on 987FM. Let me give you the short version of the story.
The Monday after the July 12th episode of “Pillowfight With Soo”, first day of my annual leave, I received a phone call stating that I’d been taken off air and when I do come back from my leave I was coming back to a work situation where I was basically just “Helping Out/Subbing Others” around the office. The main reason as it was given to me for being taken off was that my English Language isn’t proficient enough and my hosting is and I quote “Just like I learnt it from the Outdoor emcees in Orchard Road”.
In the last year I was in and out of the office, been constantly told that there were really bad grammatical errors with my language and yet so many times when I asked for an example and help it couldn’t be produced. One of the few times it was produced, he had to call a fellow colleague to confirm the error because he didn’t know what was really truly wrong with me saying: “If only Shan sings as well as his cousin.” Out of these times, my favorite one would be an email stating that my diction was really bad and I should listen to American Radios Jocks and learn an American accent.
