Sam & Omah
Words & Photography: Owen James Vincent
Kiss FM presenters, Sam & Omah have teamed up together to create a podcast called 'Saturday Survey' where they have special guests to discuss random topics such as "What colour is a mirror?". We chatted to the boys about their podcast, celebrities that gave them starstruck and their embarrassing stories while being on air!
Hey Sam & Omah. Thanks for chatting with us! How did your podcast 'Saturday Survey' come together?
Sam: It's based on a game we play every week on Kiss FM called the 'Saturday Survey' . Where we just ask questions that everyone has an opinion on, so orange juice with bits or no bits?
Omah: Or do you turn off a plug socket if you walk passed it? It all started when we made our demo to put on our show on Kiss and our first question was "What colour is a mirror?" and we were just chatting for ages and debating. So we thought we would put it on to the show and put it as a feature, it became one of the longest running features of our show.
Sam: We've been on air for a year and it hasn't left. With other features we've dropped down in certain weeks but 'Saturday Survey' has been with us since our very first show. We have so much to say on it, we knew we had to turn this in to a podcast. So we had a chat with our bosses and asked if it was ok to put it on streaming platforms and they said Yes!
So, we know you've interviewed so many talents, was there a talent that you were starstruck by?
S: Daniel Radcliffe! When I first started at Kiss, they sent me to New York, I was on my own and I thought why do they trust me with this? [laughs]. So I was put with the international journalists because I'm British and not American, I was the only British person that day, Daniel memorised my name. So when I went in, he said "Oh it's Sam from London!" and I was like "Oh my god! Harry Potter just said my name" [laughs]. He is the nicest guy!
O: I would say mine would be with an afro-beat artist called Famous Bobson. This was as soon as a I started Kiss, no experience on how to interact with anyone and didn't really know what to expect, it just came with the confidence to do it again! That was when I was most starstruck because I see him as massive afro-beats artist.
You both work at Kiss FM. Do you remember the first day on the job?
S: So we actually both came in through the same process. We both won 'Kiss Chosen One' which was a nationwide presenter search. My first day on the job was weird because you've come through such a way that the whole team know you already because you won this competition but you don't know who they are. So you're just memorising names which I'm terrible at [laughs]. They plonked me in one of the booths which was Kiss Fresh and I did a demo on it and stayed there for about two weeks.
O: When I was ready for the 'Kiss Chosen One' I did some research. I knew Sam was a previous winner, so I messaged him to see if he would give me some advice. I DM'd him on Instagram and I told him I was going up for the competition and he told me to be myself, be unique and I got there on the day and met Sam and said "Hey you alright?" and he said "Oh hi what's your name?" and I told him I messaged him and he didn't remember [laughs]. So, then a year later we're on a show together. My first day was like Sam's, plonked in a booth and playing with some links.
Have you got any funny stories from working at Kiss that you can tell your readers?
S: I've took the show off air once! Kiss will sometimes put you on overnights shifts which is 2 till 6am, I don't sleep in the day, so I was exhausted by the second day. The first time it was just me, there was an old software where you would link the songs together by merging them, so you make sure you don't go off air. It was around 4am and I was flagging, so I needed to go and make myself a coffee and head to the bathroom. On the way back I could hear a really slow Sam Smith tune just coming through the hallways and I found it very weird. What I noticed was the backup tapes were playing and I taken the entire station off air. When you take it off air it starts playing really old slow music and every producer and boss gets a text, so I accidentally woke my boss up at 4am and I got a message saying "Not good!"
O: I haven't really had anything like that as I haven't been in the game for that long but I nearly said "Can't be arsed" on air but luckily a producer edited that out.
If you weren't radio hosts & podcasters what would you be doing instead?
O: I think I would be pushed in to acting. I really like causing the drama! I've always been good with my accents and cracking jokes.
S: Your accents are terrible! [laughs]
O: [speaks in Australian accent] I can do Australian mate...
S: [laughs] You're lucky that this is a magazine interview! My job would be to test all the cereal in the world. Being a cereal tester!
Are there any celebrities that you would love to interview?
O: Kevin Hart, Ice Cube...I'm jealous Sam interviewed Daniel Radcliffe as I love Harry Potter!
S: Mine would be the entire cast of New Girl, Kendrick Lamar, Lana Del Rey and Phil Mitchell from EastEnders.
Lastly, what's the future looking like for Sam & Omah? Have you got any exciting projects coming up?
O: I definitely think expanding our podcast. Once the first seasons done, it's back to the drawing board and build our brand together.
S: I would rather just stay as a duo now. We're very lucky that we just got put in to this, like our boss asked us to do a demo, we didn't know each other and we suddenly just became good mates! Maybe some visual work and TV work. I would love to do some wildlife show and with Kiss do some more cover work and do more weekday shows!
O: I could definitely see us do kids TV!