Wednesday 12 December 2018

TALKING DRUM: The radio gem redefining Accra’s late afternoon

MC Bobby is host of Easy Stream on 3FM (92.7)

“I started school at Bible Faith Experimental School, Anyaano-Kumasi but completed my basic education at Rockanje Presbyterian Experimental School, 4 Miles, Tafo-Kumasi, all in the Ashanti Region,” says one of Ghana’s finest radio presenters.

He is stoutly built, dark skinned and a fashionista with an addictive style of fedora-wearing which is almost becoming his trademark. Nonetheless, you may probably not make him out in town with any of these attributes in mind. Trust me! The first day I saw him in person was at the Agape Seventh Day Adventist Church in Sunyani. It was not after he had spoken that I told a friend of mine that “That’s him!”

Born Owusu Amponsah Bobby Manfred and famed in the media circles as simply MC Bobby, he is the kind of broadcaster every serious media house would want to keep any day. His deep baritone voice commands his teeming listeners to stick to their radio sets. He exudes some overwhelming magic!

Back in the Brong Ahafo region, MC Bobby took the media landscape by storm as he succeeded in consolidating the numerous radio stations there into two whenever it was time for the late afternoon show. Indeed, it was his late afternoon show on Sky FM (96.7) dubbed Buzzy Drive and the rest of the other stations.

Whoever has followed the evolution of radio in the Brong Ahafo region would attest that there cannot be a shortlist of 10 all-time best in that industry without mentioning MC Bobby’s name.  

In a country where identifying talent in our children is as rare as a hen’s teeth, I am not totally surprised that the broadcaster actually has a background in Accounting. After his secondary education at the then Abuakwa State College, he proceeded to the then Sunyani Polytechnic, now Sunyani Technical University.

In a WhatsApp chat with MC Bobby, I asked why he spent three years at the polytechnic studying HND Accountancy when he was all into broadcasting even as a student.

“That’s how interesting life could be at times,” he told me. “For real, Sunyani Polytechnic was my next stop after secondary school where I pursued HND Accountancy and afterwards, to the Catholic University, at Fiapre, also in the Brong Ahafo Region to pursue BSC in Business Management. Can you imagine?” he said.

Shelving his business laurels of certificates, MC Bobby became a household name in the Brong Ahafo region through the power of radio.

MC Bobby

“They used to call me Sunyani Bola Ray. I was that huge and celebrated there. They likened me to Bola Ray probably because of my baritone voice on air and definitely because I was hosting the late afternoon show there and arguably their finest,” he recounts.

Having conquered the Brong Ahafo Region, he decided to make a great decision. He would move to Accra. Here, his aim was to challenge himself even more in the media space.

“I moved to Accra simply because I felt I had outgrown Sunyani's media space or probably that of the entire region. I needed a bit of competition since I was growing complacent. I love new challenges. I love to be challenged any day. So, I said to myself, ‘Why not try Accra? If people are doing it big there, why can't I?’”

As Sam Levenson advises that “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going,” the young man poised to be in Accra to make a difference held his vision tightly like a relay button. He kept going. Having settled in Accra eventually, he got himself the opportunity to host the late afternoon show on 3FM (92.7) – a sister station of TV3. He would host a show dubbed Easy Stream from 4-8pm on Mondays-Thursdays and from 4-6pm on Fridays.

MC Bobby is not the usual broadcaster who does the ‘copy and paste’ that dominates our media industry. Is it not so annoying that every television station now has a show of food cooking just because one started it? Are you not worried that from Paga to Axim, almost every television/radio station has the same format of a morning show? And have you not been malnourished by most of the country’s late afternoon shows where the presenter will read or have in-studio actors on a conversation of a grudge between two lovers so listeners call in to discuss such?

I do media monitoring very much. And if I compare even the ‘known names’ of late afternoon presenters in the capital city, I can say without fear of contradiction that MC Bobby is redefining Accra’s late afternoon show.

Working with a well-coordinated content on his show, Easy Stream, such as Poll Mondays, Easy Talk, Smart or Dumb among others, his teeming listeners hardly flick their dial. It is, therefore, not surprising to hear his listeners almost always requesting to meet their rising star in person to know who he really is.

On Sunday, November 25, 2018, MC Bobby acted as a TV host to Ohema, Brong Ahafo Region’s representative for the just ended Ghana’s Most Beautiful [GMB] on TV3.
If you watched the said show, you saw the face behind that voice on 3FM and you would agree his dexterity in broadcasting is exceptionally unmatched. Many have called for MC Bobby to combine radio with television.  

Indeed, few years in Accra I am not surprised to see attempts by equally renowned media houses in the capital that want to poach him. As a close friend of MC Bobby, I get the opportunity to see a flood of emails to this effect. Nonetheless, what he keeps telling me is that he will not rush into taking a decision. He still considers himself as studying the Accra terrain despite his enviable track record of his broadcasting prowess.  

“The competition here [Accra] is serious and makes me sit up any time I'm on air. I mean I'm still a work in progress but I love what I'm building here. So far, Accra has received me well and I know it will get better with time since consistency counts a lot in our line of work,” he tells me.

When asked his worst moment in his radio journey, MC Bobby said that people so close to him he thought could understood his moving to Accra rather narrowly got him giving up.

“My family and ex-girlfriend didn't see the logic in my resolve to move to Accra. To them, ‘Who leaves his job, position and reputation to go start all over again somewhere?’ They not seeing the bigger picture I envisaged and that nearly broke me down. This, perhaps, has been the most difficult moment that I have had to battle in my broadcasting career,” he said.

Well, with his past behind him, MC Bobby is soldiering on now in glory and Accra and Ghana can only wait in the next few years ahead to see him ‘explode.’ If you were not the type that listened to radio because of the overdose of junk content, you now have a great broadcaster in the making to listen to. Yes, a broadcaster assisting us distinguish between wheat and chaff!

“May you live as long as you like and have all you like as long as you live. And always thank God for radio,” is MC Bobby’s closing remarks on radio and also my prayer for you for choosing him.   

The writer, Solomon Mensah, is a broadcast journalist with Media General (TV3/3FM). Views expressed here are solely his and do not, in anyway, reflect the editorial policy of his organisation.
Twitter: @aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: The girl who turned her lemon into lemonade

Small as the campus of the Ghana Institute of Journalism [GIJ] is, the bearers of the rumor succeeded spreading it across all corners the way a smothering fire does on a refuse dump. Trust me, it was a big news! When journalists – people trained to be professional gossipers – get hold of your secret information, you are better a dead person.
“She is pregnant!” was the infectious chorus. It was on every lip.
The girl who received the torrential blows, the way falling mangoes hit the ground in a windstorm, was Auguster Asantewa Boateng.
A very beautiful girl and the crush of many guys on campus, Auguster came to school after the rumor mongering with a protruding stomach. She was indeed pregnant. For those guys who dreamt of dating her, she had not only disappointed them but herself.
“How could she get pregnant? Who scored that goal [impregnated her]?” were but few of the questions that followed after the rumor was confirmed.
Auguster was not that a close friend of mine. We only exchanged pleasantries whenever we met. This account happened during our days at GIJ while studying Diploma in Communication Studies. Five years later after surviving the silent but loud troll for being pregnant, I have always wanted to tell her how brave she was.
This was a young lady who braved the bulging eyes of gossipers to sit in the lecture halls to complete her course. Many of us wouldn’t have been able to survive such an unwanted attention.
Auguster, a professionally trained journalist, holds a mini MBA (Leadership Development) from the Accra Business School. I am convinced that it will interest you to know she has an initiative dubbed SHERecovered and also the founder of the Butterfly Effect.
SHERecovered seeks to mentor teen mothers by providing them capacity training, skill acquisition, vocational training, counselling and financial empowerment,” she tells me in a WhatsApp chat.
Auguster says SHERecovered empowers these teen mothers discover their self-worth, self-esteem and confidence and also to make something out of themselves. Our elders say, “We do not tell the child to go play on the refuse but when they do and get themselves injured, we do not leave them to their fate.”
Auguster and her son, Nana Yaw

SHERecovered has been Auguster’s support to teen mothers after they went ‘playing on the refuse’. She understands them better after going through the ‘ordeal’ herself though she was not a teenager when she conceived.
For young children, especially girls who have not gotten pregnant, Auguster’s Butterfly Effect comes in handy to assist them progress steadily in life.
The Butterfly Effect, Auguster tells me, is a registered not-for-profit organization and human rights advocacy initiative. It was founded with the aim of using effective and sustainable strategies to promote and protect the rights of the African child/youth. It focuses on their health, education and self-empowerment.
Nana Yaw smiles to the camera

Auguster says, “The Butterfly Effect aims at creating an environment that supports children/youth and increases educational and health opportunities for the vulnerable in rural communities. This is done through viable social schemes and an informed knowledge that contributes to a higher standard of living.”
Today, Auguster Asantewa Boateng has been mounting one platform after the other telling not only young girls but women how she turned her lemons into lemonade.
I have for some time now monitored Auguster’s exploits on social media, specifically Facebook. Like Qatar Airways, Auguster is going places together with her empowered youth.
On March 20, 2018, Starrfmonline.com carried a thrilling story with the headline: “Butterfly Effect founder adjudged ‘Most Outstanding Female Personality in Education.’ Auguster won that award at the 4th Feminine Ghana Achievement Awards.
The award-winning social entrepreneur is also a teen personal development counselor and life coach. She is a teen mom mentor and child health and education advocate.
Auguster is also the Executive Secretary at the International Youth Parliament and the country representative of Youth Volunteering for Sustainable Development Goals. She also volunteers for several other organizations and recently volunteered as a rapporteur and protocol for the 2nd National Adolescent Reproductive Health Summit held in Accra, Ghana.
“I believe that there is enough hidden inside everyone and it is important that we find that unique thing, work on it to become better people and also inspire others to do same,” Auguster says.
She has an upcoming program dubbed Power House Series that looks at inspiring the next generation of girls through the lens of outstanding women in society.
Indeed, Abraham Lincoln was right when he opined that, “My great concern is not whether you have failed but whether you are content with your failure.” Auguster might have failed along the line but she was not content with her failure.
She had lemons but was creative enough to turn them into lemonade that, today, hundreds of children across the country are enjoying a sip of that juicy ‘drink’.
If you thought of giving the fast-rising young lady a present for this Christmas, Auguster says that what she will appreciate most from you is telling her you are determined to also turn your lemons into lemonade for it is possible.
The writer, Solomon Mensah, is a broadcast journalist with Media General [TV3/3FM]. Views expressed here are solely his and do not, in anyway, reflect the editorial policy of The Probe/his organisation.
Twitter: @Aniwaba