*WORLD RADIO DAY: FACTORS KILLING RADIO BUSINESS IN BA.*
(By King Solomon, a Radio practitioner, blogger)
Shout-out to all the gallant soldiers in the radio business in my region, in Ghana and all over the world as we celebrate yet another World Radio Day, which includes our Radio directors, managers and the broadcasters. We have been very instrumental in the development of Ghana and Africa.
One area I would like to talk about is the factors which has hindered the growth of the business in the old Brong Ahafo Region. Over the years there have been a lot of media gurus coming out of this region to deliver accros the nation, especially in Kumasi and Accra. We can talk about some few senior colleagues such as Agya Kwabena of UTV, Kwame Tanko - Angel FM-Kumasi, Kofi Adoma Nwanwani, Saddick Adams - Sports Obama, King Eben and his son Abou Diaby, the list goes on.
So one may ask if a region could produce such people, why can't the Radio industry be booming in that area.
There are so many factors accounting to this but I would love to talk about a few of them.
Among such factors could be Affiliation with the stations in Accra and Kumasi. Affiliating with other stations is not a problem but it becomes problematic when you depend everything on them. It's very supprise that a whole commercial station in BA may pick all News bulletin (6AM, 12PM and 6PM), Political Shows, Sports and others from an affiliate.
Among the numerous stations in BA, about only 35% make their own news and morning shows.
Do you know why it's a worry? It doesn't help commercially. These stations in Accra or Kumasi may use the huge number of affiliates to secure sponsorships for such programs whereby the radio stations in BA doesn't benefit. Even acknowledging the stations down here is a problem.
Again, it make productions very difficult here, ask why? When an issue pops up and decide to have an interview with the people involved, they may reject to speak on radio stations here because they believe when they Grant an interview with the Accra based, the affiliates will also broadcast to their listeners.
Another important disease here is backbiting and the pull him down syndrome. Radio presenters in BA we destroy and diss ourselves too much, either for an advert or securing new Jobs.
I was very shocked to hear that a commercial I was running had to terminated because one radio station in Sunyani has promised to charge three times what I was charging monthly to run it for a whole year? Some media personalities even say "Oh this people don't have listeners so give your advert to us" Ah, so we can't sell our stations customers without destroying other brands?
Let's all unite and grow the industry and we can enjoy as stations enyoing somewhere.
The issues of mismanagement, cheap labor and lack of resources shall be discussed later.
Happy World Radio Day 📻📻📻📻📻📻
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