There aren’t many radio shows that feature movie characters such as Captain Jack Sparrow, Darth Vader or Gollum, but on Matthew Massengale’s radio show, it’s all about the movies.
Massengale hosts “M.H.M,” which airs on Carrboro-based station WCOM. Massengale, who goes by DJ Max during the show, broadcasts every Monday from noon to 2 p.m.
Massengale started the show in September with a theme of movie soundtracks. The show reflects his love for this genre of music and movies in general.
“When I was a kid, I always wanted to work at the movies,” Massengale said. “For the second ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movie, I dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow and was talking like him to the customers.”
“Both movie theaters in Raleigh hired me to greet people as they came in. A month later, I was hired to work at one of them part-time.”
According to his brother, William Massengale, he always mimicked the voices of famous characters.
“Growing up, he was always doing impersonations of the Harry Potter characters or Gollum or something else,” William said.
Massengale used this talent for recreating voices and a vast knowledge of music made for movies to start his show.
“This is a show that hasn’t been done before,” Massengale said. “You have stations such as rock, country, top 40 and so forth but nothing for the people who want to listen to John Williams or Hans Zimmer.”
“I don’t understand why it hasn’t been done before, it’s such a huge genre.”
Each week has a theme that pertains to a specific movie genre, like Disney, or a movie, such as the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
The show begins with an introduction, which includes the theme music from a certain movie company such as Paramount or Universal Studios. Then an upcoming trailer is played followed by the reveal of the show’s theme.
“I work hard to make the reveal suspenseful,” said Massangle, “I imagine little kids sitting on the edge of their seats going: ‘What’s the theme? What’s the theme? Oh, “Lord of the Rings?” Yay!’”
He plays songs pertaining to the theme and in between plays “Movie-Casters,” the show within the show.
This segment has famous movie characters talk about community events, weather and movie news.
The characters range from Chewbacca to Harry Potter. There are also skits performed where there is interaction between two characters such as Captain Jack Sparrow trying to find a key in Carrboro with the help of the Grim Grinning Ghosts, an undead singing quartet from the Disney movie “The Haunted Mansion.”
This segment lasts for about 8 minutes, but takes hours to create.
“I have to do the voices, the sound effects, the mixing and everything else every week for ‘Movie-Casters’ and the rest of the show.” Massengale said. “It is a second part-time job for me, I easily spend about 20 to 30 hours working on this show.”
For this week’s theme, Massengale chose Halloween.
“I like all kinds of movies except for horror ones,” Massengale said. “I don’t like the thrasher, creepy movies, so I chose ‘Phantom of the Opera’ as the underlying theme.”
“I think spooky organs are the second coolest instrument. ‘Phantom’ is sinister, romantic music of the darkness and as far as music goes, I think it is one of the best in the horror genre.”
Music from “Ghostbusters,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” and more was also played.
Massengale has other themes planned out, for the fourth of July, he plans to have an “Independence Day” show and his show lies on the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. That day will be
dedicated to the James Cameron film.
“I do not lack in music for my shows. I have around 150 hours on my laptop which is about 3 years of music for the show. So I don’t worry about running out of ideas.”
He will also be receiving help from William Massengale who will voice Forrest Gump in future “Movie-Casters” and his co-worker at Whole Foods Market, Dan Westerlund, who will co-DJ some shows with Massengale.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” Westerlund said. ”Matt is very energetic and positive thinking so I’m happy to work with him.”
For the future of the show Massengale says he hopes to expand into video game soundtracks but will continue to stick to movies.
“I love the layout I have right now and see myself doing this show for a while, I have shows planned until June,” he said.
“Technically, this is considered community service since the show is public and non-profit and I think this is the best community service I could participate in.”
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