It’s been ages since I discovered OGBC2 while fiddling with our old “grandfather” radio in the early 90s’ and I’ve been a massive fan ever since. Well today, the old “grandfather” radio is no more and a state-of-the-art home theatre sound system sits in its place; but that has done nothing to dampen my appetite.
The advent of RAYPOWER with their self acclaimed “world famous” duo of Ke-ke and D1, Steve “the sleek” Kadiri, Dennis “the menace”, the gorgeous Jumobi Adegbesan, “Shy Shy” Shyllon and the rest of the Alagbado crew ensured that I fell deeper in love with this medium of communication. My favorite shows then were “Sax & Jazz”, “Rock Radio” and “Soul Serenade”. All these, sadly, are no more. Though now, the demands and pressures of adulthood has ensured that there is little or no time to be spent mulling over a radio set, reliving all the pleasant memories from my teenage and early youth years; radio still appeals and captivates me in a way TV, with all the variety satellite streams, has never been and probably never will be able to (or maybe if they stopped all those pointless “reality” shows like BBA , Kendra, Playboy Mansion, and the Kardashians; and showed more live football, it eventually would).
Radio has sure come a long way from what I remember as a kid… the evolution is nothing short of astonishing – especially on the FM band. There’s now radio stations that don’t sleep – operating twenty-four hours, round the clock, sun up to sun down and running seamlessly too; no breaks in transmission or power cuts… absolutely impressive! Years ago, this was like something illusory and unattainable, but here we are, living it. (But I have to admit, I do somehow miss the early morning and late night national anthem rendition). I remember a certain time when one required the SW-short wave type radios (popularly called Mallam radio) that had to have antennas that threatened to dwarf the Eiffel tower, to literally reach into the skies and pluck static-filled signals to be able to put the radio to use. Even then, you’d be extremely lucky to get a station that speaks the language you understand; except, of course, you are very well versed in Fulani, Hausa, Arabic or some strange “Swahili-ic” sounding tongue. Much of the hardware then didn’t even come equipped with the FM band; those that did, well, were just for window dressing – FM was as barren as a wasteland back in the day. But not anymore… it began from a miserly spattering of state-run establishments to the glut of today – an array of mind-boggling options that is now available to all and sundry on the FM band. Nobody even bothers to check if there are other bands on a radio or stereo set anymore, as long as it’s got FM and it works fine; end of discussion!
I dare say, before the plentiful of today… were the good old days of radio, when everything was as plain, simple and straightforward as could be. You just knew which station to tune to at a certain time to catch the program you wanted. Nowadays, it seems you’ll need a guide bigger than the old, new and unwritten testaments combined to accomplish this… utter chaos!
Enter the “new generation” radio stations – the likes of “Rhythm”, “Cool”, “Beat”, “Classic”, “Top”, “Inspiration”… who have totally revolution-alized the Nigerian radio industry in more ways than one. Actually, flipped it upside down would be more apt. Is it just me or most of the new breed radio stations of today have totally cast a “western” or rather “American” face to our radio experience!? The airwaves are filled with voices that do not sound Nigerian, even though the people that own them are supposed to be Nigerians. It is as if the major prerequisite for being a radio presenter is simply just the ability to speak passable Americans – almost every major radio station in the country now has at least one individual in their employ that can do that. I am beginning to get the impression that some of these stations are not for your ears if you cannot grasp the inflexions and prosodies of the American slang to certain extents (a demographic that is highly likely to exclude a huge chunk of the population's over forties). To further aggravate matters, the information content is predominantly entertainment-based and as foreign as a martian in the midst of humans. You can get more Jay & Beyonce news, on Nigerian radio, than you can get our own T.W.O… ludicrous! Gone are the days of radio programming that the man on the street, young or old, can relate to. Where are the live commentaries of football!? The tales by moonlight-like stories in our local dialects, news documentaries, shows that highlights difficulties in our streets and neighborhoods, school debates, current affairs, quizzes and so on!?
I turn on the radio every morning, flip through stations (there are now more stations on the radio than the number of channels on the standard HITV bouquet) and finding a station where the presenters speak English in the manner the average Nigerian would understand is unbelievably tedious. Save for the commercials and the spattering of music from our vastly improving indigenous artistes; there is little else to remind us that we are still listening to Nigerian radio on Nigerian soil. I wouldn’t blame a blind man who wakes up in the morning thinking that he has somehow been magically “radio-ported” to God’s own country overnight because, seriously, if you are only relying on your sense of hearing to get by, over-exposure to some of these radio stations is strongly not advised.
While not overlooking or belittling the positive impact and considerable influence that many of these “new generation” radio stations have in the development of our great nation however, we need to acknowledge that in the process, we are losing a bit of our identity.
Thankfully there are still a handful of stations out there that have a fair amount of local content in their programming, some even presented in our local lingua by “Nigerian-sounding” presenters for the benefit of the rest of us who are yet to be swept off by the wave of “American-ization” of our radio. The likes of WAZOBIA, Radio Lagos, Radio Nigeria, PARAMOUNT, BRILA, STAR etc. to mention a few; but for these stations, many people would have lost interest in listening to the radio. They might not be the public favorites or stations off the highest broadcast quality, but they do speak the language we understand and pass on whatever message in that way in which even the most illiterate listener can grasp - at the very least, they give us a much more “Nigerian” option!
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