Shock ME staff, who worked closely with Plant during his tenure at the radio station, commented that "the radio industry has lost a very valuable person".
Cameron Plant, a well-known radio professional, who served as Group Managing Director of Dubai-based radio station Shock Middle East from December 31, 2018 to November 2019 and has previously worked with ARN, was found dead at a hotel room in Melbourne on Sunday, April 11. His death comes as a shock to the industry and his ex-colleagues at Shock ME.
Staff at Shock ME, who worked closely with Plant during his tenure at the radio station, commented that “the radio industry has lost a very valuable person”.
“Cameron was a wonderful man and a great radio professional. He worked wonders for Shock ME and he was a great friend; I miss him very much,” an ex-colleague, who didn’t want to be named, said.
Plant was instrumental in launching ‘the two ads only per commercial break’ campaign at Shock ME. He also announced soon after his arrival that Shock ME would look at launching more radio stations to address different groups of listeners in the UAE.
Johny Giacaman, CEO of Shock ME told BroadcastPro that the team was devastated by the news but clarified that Plant had left the company last November. Last year, Shock ME reported a couple of unfortunate deaths in the company. James Aramouni, Drive Time Show presenter, died in January 2019 when he was visiting his family in Lebanon while DJ Lucy Stone, also a presenter for the same show, died in the UK in September last year.
Giacaman also confirmed that Shock Middle East, which operates three radio channels – Hala 97.6, Dance 97.8 and Heart 107.1 and expanded its studios in November last year, has had to make some tough decisions including axing some of the network’s staff owing to the lockdown.
He confirmed that studio operations were temporarily suspended. Shock ME’s radio stations are currently being run with a skeleton staff, who are working remotely.
