The Vibe DJs on the road for the “Beres Island Tour” with Cable & Wireless.

Vibe 98.9 FM says it had an explosive two weeks as part of the promotional team for both the Beres Hammond concert and Cayman Carnival Batabano.

“We were delighted to have been involved with these very successful promotions,” Vibe FM Managing Director Kenny Rankin said. “The events coincided with a very exciting expansion of live talent on Vibe and this was a great way for us to introduce the new members of the Vibe family.”

Paramount Media has recently introduced an arsenal of new live talent including Gizzy on Vibe’s midday show, DJ XS on both Vibe and Spin, Wes Dennis on Spin’s AM show and hype man 4D on Spin’s weekday evenings.

New programming features including a new Hip Hop and R&B show on Vibe entitled Urban Essentials, Spin’s weekday night show with 4D, a Spin daily sports segment and Gizzy’s midday show on Vibe round out the new sound.

“We continue to invest in live talent on our stations, because we feel it is absolutely necessary,” Mr Rankin said. “We have several big surprises in the coming weeks and participating in these live appearances was a great change for our new talent to meet their listeners.”

Vibe FM was commissioned by Cable & Wireless to produce a series of live “road” appearances for each of the events, in efforts to further bring the promotional messages to the ideal demographic. What resulted was an intense two-week schedule of live DJ appearances, on-air contests and venue features.

First on the list was the “Beres Island Tour”. The “tour” took Vibe’s DJs and the teams of Cable & Wireless and Heineken on the road to spots including The South Coast Bar in Bodden Town; Country & Western Bar; Welly’s Cool Spot; Mango Tree and Helium Bar. There, DJs such as Glen Soul and Banny the Conoisseur got patrons to interact on live radio; singing songs, playing games and guessing trivia to win tickets to the well-attended concert.

“The bar events were a fantastic success,” said Julie Hutton, Events Manager, Cable & Wireless. It allowed us to interact with our customers and have some fun. We were delighted when Beres Hammond joined us at the last event at Helium. He was happy to meet his fans, sign autographs, have photos taken and finally to sit down and enjoy a game of dominoes.”

Next up, was Cayman Carnival Batabano for which Vibe was deemed “official station” of the pre-concert live appearances.

“Cable & Wireless was looking for a partner to help them spread the energy of carnival and build the momentum of the Machel Montano concert; they as a company are such an important part of the event,” Mr Rankin said. “To take a place with them and their supporting sponsor Appleton in promoting carnival was an honour.”

The tour of nightspots – entitled the “Radio Road March” – took C&W, Appleton Rum and Vibe to The Wharf; Coconut Joe’s; and Singh’s Roti Shop. There, parties sipped on one of four designated “Batabano cocktails” and were entertained with games and the Vibe DJs.

Ms Hutton said:

“The Radio Road March was a great success for Cable & Wireless, many of our customers walked away winning not just mobile phones and Appleton Rum but also tickets to the Machel concert. The final event at Singh’s Roti shop was huge, partnering with Appleton and Vibe was a great success”.

Vibe wrapped up the two weeks with not only a big presence at the Batabano Friday fete but by bagging the “Spirit of Batabano” award in the adult street parade with its band “The Caybrew Vibe Tribe”. According to station reps, superstar Machel Montano even capped his visit to Cayman with an hour’s appearance on the Vibe music truck.

“This is Vibe. Listeners can get used to this. We plan on taking Cayman by storm in 2008 with more road presence, huge giveaways, even more live DJs and tons of surprises.” Mr Rankin said.
“It’s going to be a busy year.”