Incirlik’s radio show wins DoD award

  • Published
  • By Lori Burling Alves
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  Good Morning Incirlik! You're listening to the Morning Wakeup with Jeff and Mike on 1590-AM. Today's top news -- Incirlik's Air Force News Service, Detachment 7 has won the best morning radio show in all of the Department of Defense. 

Staff Sgt. Michael Jackson and Senior Airman Jeff St. Sauveur were the co-hosts of the former Morning Wakeup with Jeff and Mike morning show at Incirlik. The two teamed up last November and launched the show -- one of the few morning shows in the Air Force hosted by two DJs. 

"Personally, I think a radio show is more dynamic with two hosts," said Sergeant Jackson, who just recently cross-trained into the career field. "I think it's more entertaining for the listener. It's more like a natural conversation. I think that's why we had an edge against a lot of the other stations." 

The show ran from the end of November through the first of March, Monday through Friday, from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. In the three short months the duo performed they built a huge audience base. 

"We received immediate feedback once we started the show together," said Airman St. Sauveur, who was part of a two-host show at Aviano Air Base prior to Incirlik. 

The morning show can be somewhat of a challenge for the DJs, said Sergeant Jackson. The news-based show included command information, community information, a Turkish news story, local news, sports, weather, and sometimes a story out of Iraq. Meanwhile, the DJs are not allowed to play back-to-back music unlike other daily shows later in the day. 

"We had what we called the weird news, kind of off-beat news stories that allowed us to be a little more entertaining with the news. It also helped to fill in during the breaks," said Sergeant Jackson. 

One off beat news story the two reported included a man in Arizona who dressed in a cape and invaded schoolyards -- causing schools to be temporarily shut down. The morning team was able to pull sounds, teasers and music from the "Batman" movies to help in cleverly reporting the tale. 

"The weird news was a lot of fun to report," said Sergeant Jackson.
Both Airmen started their shifts around 4:30 in the morning. In that hour before they were on the air, the two pulled news stories, sports stats and weather reports, while bouncing around ideas. 

"We didn't script the show," said Airman St. Sauveur. "I guess you could call it a roadmap. We put together a roadmap of what we were going to discuss and report, and where it might lead us on the radio. You want it to sound conversational, not scripted."
"A good show should sound off-the-cuff," agreed Sergeant Jackson. 

The morning show first won at the Air Force level. A one-hour snippet of the show was then submitted to the DoD to compete against Army and Navy morning shows in the radio entertainment category. 

"Michael and Jeff were perfect for this," said Master Sgt. Bobby Herron, Detachment 7 superintendent. "The two really gelled well. Their personalities worked perfect with each other on the radio." 

Incirlik's morning show is now a one-host operation because of manning issues. However, you can still hear Airman St. Sauveur in the mornings and Sergeant Jackson in the afternoons. 

"They're both really new Airmen to their career fields, but they love it," said Sergeant Herron. "They don't do it to win the awards, they do it because they enjoy it. They take pride in their work."