Ayoba 95.1FM in Ado Ekiti is at the verge of commencing a 24 Hours Transmission to enable it serve the good people of Ekiti State better, efficiently and productively in the new year 2020 just as the new generation Radio Station clocks one year in the State.
The General Manager (GM) of the Station, Mr. Adewale Ojo made the above information known while responding to questions from Parrot Xtra/PMParrotng in Ado Ekiti on Sunday.
Adewale Ojo said it is interesting and full of experience. He noted that when the station started transmission, it was with different odds.
His words “Then, we had two staffs at the beginning and we entered the market with different strategies alien to the existing Radio Stations and kind of broadcast pattern that existed in the State”.
The GM reiterated his commitment to ensure that more professionals are brought on board at the radio station to complement the efforts of the regular presenters.
In his words “we brought in young people and pushed them into limelight and we fused them together. Though we had problems making the new staffs employed to adopt the concepts of the station, it took the leadership of the station a long time to achieve”.
He mentioned some of the popular programmes being aired on the station to include ‘Feyikogbon’, ‘Ajaabale’, and ‘Oro To Nlo'”
Adewale Ojo also stressed that Ayoba 95.1FM is a lifestyle radio station. “There was a time the station had problems with the transmitter six months after the commencement of operations”. He expressed his gratitude to God who helped him to weather the storm at the time.
He also recounted how he drove the branded Company’s hilux bus to ‘Bisi’ Market in Ado Ekiti and was shocked how the market women normally tagged as illiterates were hailing and shouting ‘Gbe Body E, Gbe Body E’, which is actually the popular slogan of the radio station.
“Even the elderly women in the market were not exempted from the act. They were able to identify that cliché ‘Gbe Body E’ to be the brand of Ayoba 95.1FM. It came to me as a rude shock and a surprise that old market women too could actually be listening to a contemporary programme like ‘Drive Time Belt’ which holds every evening time and runs basically on hip-hop music. This in the real sense of it shows how much we have been able to be accepted by what we were pushing out to the public and meeting up with the people’s demands like the old market women and others”.
Continuing, the GM said it is not true that those in Ekiti are illiterates. He said research has shown that over 95% of people who live in Ekiti can actually operate a telephone.
“They understand the principles behind it. When many of them hear ‘Gbe Body E’, they know where it is coming from. They know who Naira Marley is. We make sure that our morning belt is the strongest. We introduced morning belt programmes that will help attract the public. We do surprise birthday shout outs to people. We even help people to call those celebrating their special days at no cost as far as outside the country”.
Adewale Ojo said to reach out better, what the leadership of the radio station plans to do is not to serve people what they don’t like. “We will consider the public interest first. We will bring to the kitchen and ask the type and quantity of ingredients they want and we shall provide such for them. We will then use our professional expertise to cook and serve them what they want”.
He pledged that the leadership of the radio station will not remove programmes that are seen to be below standard or not good enough but will make them better. “We will fashion out means and make the programmes not good enough more stronger. We will introduce the use of models and set machinery in motion to increase the hours of broadcast of the radio to 24hours.
“We are going to increase our broadcast period. We plan to roll out our programmes into 24 hours soonest. Though we know it is difficult running on diesel. We are considering other options to have stable power supply for the station to be able to serve the public better. We are no doubt capable of doing that. We are looking at the expenses and the percentage of those who will embrace the idea”.
He enjoined the residents of Ado Ekiti to work hard to make it a metropolitan city like Lagos. He decried the poor level of night life in Ado Ekiti, the capital of Ekiti State. He expressed his hope that the city will soon become a place like Lagos where people don’t sleep and are always very busy with their businesses for 24 hours.
In addition, as part of the arrangements for the one year anniversary of Ayoba 95.1FM; a Thanksgiving Service has been held on the first day at the premises of the station located at Fajuyi in Ado Ekiti. Rev. Tunde Afe was on ground to encourage and pray for the staffs and management team of the station.
The management of the station has also approved a 50% reduction of advert rates to last throughout the period of the anniversary events which will be held from the 14th of January to the 28th of January, 2020.
The General Manager of the station, Mr. Adewale Ojo also revealed that free recharge cards will be given to callers on the station’s pragrammes from 9:00am to 6:00pm from January 14th to 28th, 2020.
Packaged by Emmanuel Adeniran
