Online radio DJ hosts live show dedicated to Aidonia

Music fans can rest thankful that even with the requirement of social distancing, they can still stay connected with their favourite artistes. On Monday night, emerging deejay Matt Camps executed his first, self-branded online radio show, dedicated to 4th Genna boss Aidonia.

When planning Aidonia Testimonial, Matts Camp Radio’s first live-stream event, the disc jockey didn’t anticipate dancehall star Aidonia would actually tune in. More than that, he didn’t expect the star would offer up a brand new track to premiere, much to the young deejay’s excitement. “That was something I did not imagine. And he sent some jingles. My mind is still blown,” Matt Camps told The Gleaner.

Most of the action went down between social-media platforms Twitter and Mixlr, where Matt Camps Radio aired for the first time. Even Govana tuned in to the Testimonial, adding his own hyped-up commentary to the Twitter feed – a reality that Matt Camps experienced as ‘definitely overwhelming’.

“I saw [Aidonia] post of a video of himself singing along to his own song. That was just a surreal moment for me. To give him a throwback in his own career and him enjoy it, that was great,” Matt said.

Taking the excitement up some more notches, with some tweets expressing that the deejay and accompanying fans ‘draw him out’, Aidonia also posted clips revealing a tracklist, purportedly a mixtape ready to be released at the touch of a button.

Emerging though he may be, Matt Camps Radio is not Matt Camps’ actual first time around the block.

Experienced with past soca booking, he executed the first instalment of Soca Camp Live last Thursday, with intent to reproduce the high-energy online programme each week. “Next week, I’m going to try Matt Camps Radio again. I wouldn’t do the same kind of idea again. I want to give people some entertainment while everybody is at home,” he said.

So far, Matt’s efforts seem successful. In addition to pulling Aidonia’s attention enough to secure an exclusive, his numbers were good. Matt Camps’ Aidonia Testimonial Live peaked at approximately 400 concurrent listeners. But during the four-hour-long programme, a total of 5,500 people tuned in.

“That’s really good for any radio show. I really did not expect it to be like that peak. I expected maybe 100 people or so to listen one time, and maybe some people would tweet about it. Sometimes I do have streams and they go well, but last night was over the top,” he said.

Though still reeling from all the positive energy his first show produced, Matt is ready and raring to go head first into growing both programmes into notoriety, with steady listenership.

“Next week, I might do a girls’ night. Another week, I might pay my respects to another artiste. And Soca Camp is every Thursday night. Last Thursday was the first time. This Thursday, we’ll invite a guest deejay,” Matt revealed.

With many different concepts in the works, Matts Camps Radio is just getting started.

kimberley.small@gleanerjm.com