“But there was this ad in the paper. It said pilot of the airwaves,” Lance said, adding that a friend working at then-Singapore Broadcasting Corporation – an earlier iteration of Mediacorp – urged him to give it a try.
Lance described the Perfect 10 audition process, where he was in an office packed with hundreds of hopefuls. “They give you a number and you go into a room and read a script. They can’t see you but if they like your voice, someone comes out from another door and says, ‘Okay we’d like to get more details from you’.”
He aced the interview and the written test and with “no experience, nothing” and a little training, was given the 2-5pm time slot.
It was an exciting first job for sure. He was paid to play music, which he loved anyway. He got to meet and interview popular singers and bands; he recounted a story where he pushed open the studio door not realising Seal was behind it and dinged the Kiss From A Rose singer’s guitar, and how Jon Bon Jovi “was a bit of a diva”.
Lance’s life could have taken a completely different path. Around the same time, he was offered another job – with the National Productivity Board. There were also several moments during his career where he could have dropped out of broadcasting entirely, but somehow, he always found a way back.
After his 18-month stint at Perfect 10, he moved to television, initially to be an entertainment producer for AM Singapore, Singapore’s first ever English-language morning show on Channel 5 that launched in 1994. However, when one of the presenters couldn’t continue, he was asked to co-anchor the show instead – without any TV experience.
“You’re nervous, but you were given an opportunity, and you take it. And that’s what I did,” Lance said.
He didn’t fully give up on radio though – he was still producing alternative music segments for Perfect 10 for the next three years.
