Why the stars at ‘Starr FM’ may not shine

• Posted on September 1, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

A DJ friend called me up to enquire if I had any serious contact at newly opened Starr fm here in Accra? To his disappointment, I said No and proceeded to act like the typical Ghanaian and asked ‘why’? For the 98^th time, he recounted how much he badly needed to be on radio to boost his profile, bla bla bla 4x… but this time, he added it was ‘Starr fm’ he really wanted.

The ‘Amissah-Arthur’ look on my face was almost instant and stern that even without me asking, he immediately went on to explain that the station was well on its way to be the next big thing in Ghana. Well, I must admit I haven’t followed the station nor listened to it since it started transmission but looks like ‘their social media campaign seem way better than their test transmission,’ (in Hannah Tetteh’s voice). Often I am accosted on my social media pages with the latest unsolicited filla about who has been added to the fold and who in their Starr team is celebrating a birthday.

Yes, if you thought I am referring to Kafui Dey’s birthday, ‘Aki, you are right’….. and oh, on new faces added to the team, #JonCanFind Germain is there, Naa Ashorkor and most recently, dethroned (or should I say ‘slapped’) favorite Ghanaian comedian, Funny face too; To do what? Is that what I hear you ask, errm well, I am not the manager so I cant tell but lets see if like lawyer Phillip Addison’s reliance on precedent cases in court, we can also learn from a few past cases in Ghana.

I cringe anytime ‘celebrities’ are hand picked and fixed in other areas with the assumption that they will automatically succeed because they are popular. Let me make myself clear before my whining and winding makes anyone think I am jealous or a hater – far from that.

Examples of TV celebrities failing on radio abound in Ghana’s short media history. Did you know KSM ever hosted a radio show some years back; of course you wont know because it was nothing close to the ‘saga of the returnee’ and ‘Afia Serebour’ performances we had grown to love and admire him for. KSM was hosting a monologue civic education programme on the Vibe Fm. Yh right, I tuned in a couple of times but almost always, it was my scanning device which connived with some forces to make a stop there.

Fast forward…. and Xfm came in with a bang. They came after Yfm, but just before Radio XYZ.

What was the X-factor about X fm? Well, they made the skies go dim. All the stars were on radio now, name them… Chris Atoh, Jon Germain, Confidence Haugen etc.

Did they make any impact? I dare you to tell me off the cuff, the frequency of XFm and the name a single programme and I will know they won at least one soul.

Allo Tigo’s Jon Germain provided no competition to ‘super soul sister’ Doreen Andoh or even to ‘Ghana’s first facebook-verified female celebrity’ (She was celebrated on Citi Fm as such), Jessica Saforo – Jon was just there some. Infact, no high profile person made much impact and like the name of the show Chris Attoh hosted was; – ‘F what you heard’ – about why the station failed, I can bet you, others would have succeeded under those same circumstances.

A little ‘Snowden’ keeps whispering to me and asking about ‘Live Fm’ and why I won’t cite them. Well, that review will be for another day. At least they went in for some known radio personalities. Why is their impact still low?? Errmm, I said another day.

To make sense out of the almost six hundred letters I have typed so far, all I am saying is, fact that people are successful in some entertainment fields doesn’t make them automatic fits in other areas. Its akin to thinking that every radio presenter can be a very good MC for every programme. Try it.

To Starr fm, it’s obvious ‘money no be problem’ but I wish to caution that we have seen some before oooo. Please give the unchallenged market leaders competition but mind you, names don’t automatically do that.

I sit here, combing through the small mind in my big head and trying to really understand what at all must have informed the employment of some of these celebrities but wait ooo, there’s this green frog called ‘kermit’ all over social media and it reminds me, ‘its non of my business.’

@Pasinoman

Blog: [email protected]