Are you one of those people who, after a nice weekend, have a
stressful Monday and just start waiting for the next weekend? I have a suggestion on how
tobrighten up your day and get rid of "Monday Syndrome." Every Monday, two funny
men, the HitWatchers, are waiting for you to turn on the radio and listen to this planet's
funniest program on Radio Bilkent! I'm sure most of you have already heard them, but this
week you can get to know them better. This new Bilkent News feature,
Voices ın Campus, gives readers the opportunity to see what they hear on Radio Bilkent,
with photos and stories about the station's announcers.
The three-year-old drive-time program "HitWatchers" has become one of the
listeners' favorites. At 6 p.m. on an ordinary stressful Monday, when you're on your way
back home from work or school and surfing the radio channels to find something worth
listening to, suddenly you come across this program and just can't change the station.
When these two men sit in the studio, they become totally different people than they are
in real life, the listeners' comic heroes. They're university students, but their audience
members range from teenagers to housewives. During their three years on the air they've
gained really faithful listeners: women want to bring them home-cooked meals, while young
girls even send flowers to the station.
The show's senior DJ, Görkem Özer, is a fourth-year Tourism and Hotel Management
student. Before coming to Bilkent, he worked for two years at one of the most important
radio stations in Cyprus. After entering Bilkent, he began to work at Radio Bilkent and
has hosted "HitWatchers" for three years. Görkem says that being a DJ is very
popular these days. For aspiring DJs, he suggests that even if you have the talent and
desire to become a DJ, you also need to work very hard. If you're prepared to do that,
then you're welcome to apply for an interview with Radio Bilkent. The next step is to
spend time working at the station and learning from experienced announcers in order to
reach your goal of becoming a Radio Bilkent DJ. Görkem says that he was inspired by
Beyaz, Okan Bayülgen and Cenk Erdem. Now he himself is a person who can inspire others.
"HitWatchers" other comic hero, who received RAYAD's "Best DJ in
Ankara" award for 2004, is third-year Communications and Design student Özgür Abacı.
His road to becoming a DJ was very interesting. In 2000 Özgür applied to Radio Bilkent
but was not selected. After two years he again applied to work for the station, this time
in public relations, but was told that he would be more successful as a DJ. After a
training period, he appeared in his first program, “Sabah Şerifleri,” and
then created his legendary "Özgürce Sabahlar" program, which has
aired every weekday morning at 8 o'clock for about two years.
For their program, Görkem and Özgür let things happen spontaneously. They simply pick
the topic for the day, and then sit in front of the microphone and begin to talk and never
ever stop. Neither of them hesitates to tell the audience if one of them crashes his head
into the microphone or something like that during the program. The two make fun of each
other on the air, but outside the studio, they're really good friends. Maybe acting like
their program is just part of their everyday lives makes them that much more loveable.
Gülay
Acar (COMD/II)
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