I’ve spent my adult life studying and working in media indsutry; I can easily tell when a radio or TV station “dey miss yarn”.

There’s a radio station in Enugu that whenever we need to put clients’ jingles on air, the station is the first that I strike out of the options.

Six (6) Reasons inform my negative perception of the broadcast outlet:

1. I struggle to understand their programming strategy.

Digital media have put traditional media in a hard place. So, it’s crazy for a Broadcast outlet to have programming that audience can hardly figure out its pattern.

2. They are Aloof:
The station seems to be unconscious of its environment. Enugu is the heart 💙 of Igbo land. This station seems to not care about its location. No Igbo language programmes. Their Pidgin English programmes are “foreign”. Yes, it’s Nigerian Pidgin but even non-linguistics scholars can easily tell the differences in the versions of Pidgin spoken in Nigeria.
3. Their schedule:

Knowing the right time to play a content on air matters as much as the quality of the content. The particular station places programmes anytime they want. This leads to the next thing I noticed that’s wrong with their programming; and probably drive away advertisers and agents.

I hope someone

from the station

reads 📚 this my post.

4. Insensitive to mood and time:

Radio is a mood medium. It clocks the time. It reminds listeners about events and time. This can be achieved through news, music, and talks. Radio programmes reflect the time of the day, the day of the week, and the season of the year.
The radio station on focus breaks all the above. How can i wake up in the morning 🌄 to “Baby Calm Down” by Rema? Afrobeats and songs with gingering beats have their times. Mid-morning would be right. Dawn comes with inspiring songs.

On Sundays, their programmes don’t reflect the day. They jam Afrobeats all through.

5. Cut and Join programming: mood swing

The first programming problem I had with the station is how they abruptly changed my mood. One minute, I’m enjoying the song “Mona Lisa”, next they switch to “Diamond” by Rihanna and then to highlife “Osondi Owendi” by Osadebe, and so on.

6. Language: pace, clarity

I notice the presenters rap their words as if they are competing with Eminem. Aside the unnecessarily high speed, they try as much as possible to sound non-Nigerian. British and American accents are okay. That’s if they come naturally to the speaker.
But listeners know when a speaker is trying hard to force an accent. One day, I laughed when a presenter sounded more Scottish than English in their struggle to stay away from Nigerian accent.
In doing all these, they sacrifice clarity. They also slaughter the drive for quality content at the altar of “having accent”.

I hope someone from the station reads 📚 this my post. It’s an honest and candid observation informed by my personal experiences and training.

#radio #broadcast #jingles #programming #content #enugu