Hwang Jung-min Reflects on Radio Career Ahead of 5,000th Show

Published on 2012/06/19 | Source

One of KBS Radio's hottest show hosts is set to celebrate the 5,000th edition of her radio program "Hwang Jung-min's FM Parade" on Tuesday, 14 years after she began playing songs and delivering news to people's digital doorsteps every morning on Oct. 12, 1998.

In celebration of this remarkable milestone, Hwang will meet fans of the program on Wednesday. And testament to her uncompromisingly strict work ethic, she has almost never missed a day's work -- with the exception of maternity leave.

"I started the show when I was a single, but since then, I've become a married woman and a mother of two children", she said. "This show feels like it's been with me all my life. I also sometimes feel like I'm running a little neighborhood café that opens early in the morning for people who are on the way to work, as my show starts at 7 a.m. every day.

What's the most difficult part of her job? "Most people would presume it's getting up at 5 a.m. But it's having to go to bed at 10 p.m. everyday. That's the real killer. I feel a pang of jealousy when people tell me they read a book until late at night, or watched movies all night".

Hwang also talked about how her show has changed over the last decade or so due to technological advances.

"In the past, when the listeners sent their stories in on postcards, it took about two weeks until they reached the studio. The Internet brought this down to two or three days, after we had time to sort through all the posts. But nowadays, real time communication is possible with text messages", she said. "This has made it possible to share [a larger group of] listeners' stories and even their mood instantly, to the point where I feel as if they're with me in the studio".

Hwang said she would love to try hosting an interview program. "I tried this before on TV", she said. "At the time, it was hard to fit my program around interviewees' schedules. But that was a long time ago and I'm much more experienced now, so it's easier for me to accommodate and meet different people", she said.