Glenn Ong: ‘I don’t see me as anything but a DJ”

SINGAPORE — It’s official: After weeks of speculation, radio DJ Glenn Ong has confirmed rumours that he is leaving MediaCorp. The DJ has been “on indefinite leave”, as his on-air partner, Joe Augustin, put it.

Yesterday, Ong sent a statement about his departure. “After 20 years ... it’s time for me to take a break!” he said in his typical tongue-in-cheek manner. “I’d like to pursue more sleep, travel and go for MMA (mixed martial arts) workouts every day! I’ve never liked saying goodbye so I won’t! But rest assured, to the millions of Egomaniacs who have followed my radio shows all these years, when I feel like waking up early and working again, I’ll be back on air, bigger and better than ever! Much stronger, with bigger muscles and much more flexible!”

When TODAY contacted Ong on the phone, he took a more serious tone. “It was actually very sad for me to make this decision, I actually cried. I will miss MediaCorp and my family there,” he said.

Arguably one of the most familiar faces of radio today, Ong started his radio career 20 years ago with the then-Radio Corporation of Singapore in January 1995 with the radio station Perfect 10 (now 987FM). “It was a great time for me, with Florence Lian, Bernard Lim, Mark Richmond and Phillip Chew as my mentors,” he recalled. “Those four trained and guided me. Whoever I am today, it’s because of those four musketeers, who are my friends for life.”

He was later partnered with Rod Monteiro on the morning show Five Guys And A Girl. In all, he spent eight years with 987FM before moving to Class 95FM in 2003 to work with The Flying Dutchman, Mark van Cuylenburg.

“My partnership with FD was really long. It was easily the best 10 years of my life on radio,” Ong said. “The chemistry was there, we didn’t have to think too much or second-guess each other. For 10 years, no one came close.

“Did we have friction? No, never. FD was the easiest person to work with, although I’m not really the easiest person to work with. He turned me into someone different ... I loved him so much as a partner, I saw where he was coming from most of the time. Of course, once in a while, we’d have our little disagreements, mostly about football, because he’s a Liverpool supporter. But other than that, it was fine. He brought out the best in me.”

However, Ong said his early years in radio weren’t easy. “My image was very nerdy at the time and I would always get ragged. ‘Are you sure you’re a 987 DJ? You don’t look like one. You should look like Mark Richmond or Bernard Lim’. I actually went to Projectshop Blood Brothers to buy clothes to help me look more like Mark.”

He felt so disheartened, he was ready to resign. “It was very hard to keep up with giants such as Mark, Bernard and Aloysius Lim — all these radio superstars. And there I was, this nobody trying to break in. I had no personality, nothing,” he said.

However, Lim told him not to quit and asked him to produce the radio shows. “In return, he taught me how to be cool and present in a cooler way. Bernard told me, ‘You must always feel like a star. If you don’t feel like a star, you will never project that on air. You’re not just a radio DJ, you’re more than that. But let it be a persona. When you’re with your friends and all that, be normal’. That’s what I did.

“I’ve taken what he said to heart all these years. I really owe everything to him,” he added.

Through the years, Ong earned a reputation for being the bad boy of radio who shoots his mouth off. However, he said that image couldn’t be further from the truth. “I’m the b****** of radio. You’re absolutely right. That’s what people think of me. There are people who’ve wanted to get me off the air. But I’m really a people person. I think of myself as the people’s DJ. People who have never met me will be wary of me. But I’m really quite friendly once you get to know me.

“I think the biggest misconception about Glenn Ong is that I don’t care, that I think only about myself. But that’s not true. I do care. Hopefully, if I go back on radio, I can live up to that title of the people’s DJ.”

This dichotomy perhaps was best exemplified online, where netizens were in two minds about his departure on Facebook. “Thanks for the entertaining morning shows, Glenn,” posted Annastasia Lee; while Lenny Ong wrote: “I thought he’s (a) DJ only? What’s (the) big deal ...”

Ong, however, said he could make a return to radio. “I’m not writing it off. I’m just taking a break right now. And I will be back,” he said, before adding one of his typical quips: “I don’t see Glenn Ong as anything but a DJ and I hope to go down in history as one of the best — if not the best!”