Arts & Communications: Disc Jockey, On-Air Personality
Arts & Communications
Disc Jockey: Sam The Man
By Mike Yoshiura
There is so much more to being a disc jockey (DJ) than going to parties and meeting famous celebrities. As Sam The Man likes to put it, you’re the voice of the people.
“You need to connect to your audience. They’re like my people out there. The key factor is having the relationship with your listeners,” said Sam The Man. “You may meet a lot of weirdos and piss off a lot of people, but I’ll take all that. I like them all.”
Sam can be heard over the airwaves hosting the Da Bomb morning show, weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. He is the only remaining DJ from the Da Bomb’s original crew, when the station first made its debut in November 2000. “I guess you could say I’m driving the bus.”
The 30-year-old on-air personality grew up in Ewa Beach and went on to attend Campbell High School, where he was originally dubbed Sam The Man. “This girl I used to go to high school with started calling me that, and when yearbook time came around she signed it Sam The Man. It just so happened to be around the time when I was getting interested in radio so I ran with it.”
Inspirations
“I don’t have a Lance Arms t rong s tory, but…” When Sam was 17-years-old, he got his first taste of the communications industry interning at I-94 under the tutelage of Rory Wild. During his senior year of high school, Sam got hired to do I-94’s graveyard shift (midnight to 5:30 a.m. show). It was demanding juggling the late-night shift with the last two classes he needed to graduate, but Sam got through it with support from his parents. “My parents were cool because they always let me do what I wanted to do. They weren’t too happy about the hours I was working, but they never stuck their hands in my Kool-Aid. It inspired me in a sense because they trusted my decisions.”
Do Your Research
In the ninth grade, Sam thought about pursuing an acting career after taking a few drama classes. Like every other teenager he liked the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, but he soon came to a realization. “I attended this career fair in high school, and I just started thinking about how I liked music, and radio seemed a lot more do-able.”
Sam knew attending college on a full-time basis wasn’t for him so he started doing his research to see where he could get his start in the radio industry. “The seed was planted freshman year. I started listening to the radio more, and I tried to get that vibe,” he said, as he kicks his black Air Jordan’s on top the desk. “When I started interning I was interested in characters on-air and off-air. I was interested in how they interacted between songs so I just sat back, and I watched how it happened and how things worked.”
Career Highlight
Growing up Sam was a huge wrestling fan so it came as no surprise that the highlight of his career was getting to hangout with his childhood hero, Hulk Hogan. The semi-retired professional wrestler and his family currently featured in the VH1 reality show “Hogan Knows Best,” was on O‘ahu for the Da Bomb’s annual birthday celebration. “I loved watching wrestling as a kid. I had dinner with him, I asked him questions about his wrestling career and the steroids scandal, and we went to Pipeline [Café] and I partied with him for hours.”
Challenges
“You have to learn the technical side, running the board and operating the equipment. Other than that you need to learn what to say and what to talk about. You can’t teach that. If you’ve been doing it for a while you get better at it. You just need to stay relevant in the game with the iPods, mp3 and satellite radio. You need to stay in the mix. Not too many people can stay in the game for a long period of time, and there’s a lot of competition out there. It’s all part of the challenge. There’s always something new coming out.
With today’s technology Sam admits that anyone can be a DJ. With that being said, Sam has found a way to stay on top of his game. “I was never big on the whole ego thing. I’m still auditioning for the job, it could all end tomorrow.”
