Can XYZ’s Jesse Agyepong succeed morning radio?

The media seem to be under siege from the issues of galamsey that has bedeviled the country lately.  There is a daily conversation across the media landscape about the subject and how it has the potential to jeopardise our waterbodies, etc.

Over the last one week the conversation has been about a supposed video of a Chinese woman who has been blackmailing some very important members of the society to ensure that the business of galamsey would continue.

That video has been like the Loch Ness Monster, rumoured to exist but many are yet to see it. It is our hope though that this would not be a smokescreen to thwart efforts and that this talk about galamsey and how to stop it would not be another effort in vain, but that its devastating tendencies would be stopped forever!

What I really want to talk about this morning is the morning show on Radio XYZ and its new host, Jesse Agyepong. Oh that name sounds familiar? It sure does sound familiar, but you probably heard it somewhere and not in the circles of radio.

The closest Jesse has come to working in broadcasting must be when he worked at Charterhouse as Business Development Manager in the mid-2000s and was responsible for such programmes as Miss Malaika and Stars of the Future.

Where you may have heard the name therefore would be in the corporate world where he has worked over the last decade with some of the leading companies and brands since he left Charterhouse in 2008 to join brewer Diageo (Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited) as Senior Brands Manager.

From GGBL, Agyepong joined Airtel as Senior Marketing Manager before moving on to join Philips’ Lumileds as Business Developing Manager for West Africa in 2013. He then moved on to Vodafone as Head of Consumer Marketing and then to Tigo as Marketing Directing. He resigned from Tigo last year.

Still not convinced about why the name sounds familiar? Well, as someone in marketing, he had a fair amount of interaction with the media. I have heard his name mentioned many times on radio and TV, he has appeared to give interviews on radio and TV and yes I was with him on Pundits recently. So there you have it, that’s the closest Agyepong has been involved in  broadcasting.

So it would appear on the evidence of this that Agyepong lack radio experience and even more, he has no track record of hosting a morning show. Question is, why would the people whose job it is at Radio XYZ   throw in a “novice” into the middle of the sea where there are big sharks to compete.

The morning show, as you may know, is not a place to push people who are there to try their luck. It is too competitive to even consider that. Peace FM, Adom FM, Joy FM, Citi FM and all the others have over the years ensured that they would build strong brands in the morning to help them compete well and to get the biggest chunk of the advertising money.

Thus any player in that segment needs to come very strong. XYZ has been around for a while, but it has been on and off as issues of ownership and management crippled its efforts in the past. There seem to be a new verve which is ensuring that the station would revive its fortunes on the market across day-parts once again.

Enter Jesse Agyepong. He is not a radio person but he is a marketing and brands person. He understands what brands want and how to respond to them and so perhaps his employers are banking on the hope that his strength of years of experience in marketing and brands would out compete his lack of experience in broadcasting and morning radio.

Over the last few days since he’s been on, I have been listening to his show on Radio XYZ 93.1FM just to assess his abilities and look at his strengths and weaknesses and I think there is a massive potential but a few things ought to be done to push that up.

First of all, he needs to jettison talking too much. If you knew Jesse, you’d know he is the one who leads the conversation in any gathering. That however is a put off for many who can’t wait to tune to the next station to listen to other things being discussed. He should involve his guests more and talk less in the conversation periods.

I also think the music part of the show is a bit weak. There is the need for Jesse to own the music and be a lot more catholic in that regard. His audience are diverse and he needs to come from the point of the audience than his own point always. Yes, he has his preferences in music and artistes, but what about his audience? You cannot please all of your audience, but you aim to please most.

I also think Jesse overelaborates on issues that need quick discussion and moving on. Too many repetitions again will push the audience to switch as fast as they came. In the current morning radio competitive landscape, the attention span of audience has grown shorter and any long talk would push them away. Brevity becomes a good policy.

Another point that the producers at the station ought to help Jesse Agyepong and the morning show team with is to get them quality panelists for their discussions. I listen to all morning shows and I think they can improve on the people they present to audience as their guests in the morning.

Finally, there is the need to be a bit more gun-ho on topics for discussion. Yes we are all doing about the same thing across different morning shows, but if you are coming in late you ought to find another route to market to ensure that you play well. I think the producers at the station together with Agyepong and the team ought to crack it a bit more.

So here we have Jesse Agyepong as the new host of the morning show on a very competitive segment of the day. He has no background in broadcasting yet has been entrusted with this big job. What would you do if you were him?

Well, in 2016 he was named by the CIMG as the Marketing Man of the Year; that means he has enough in him to bring out the best. This may be a different terrain, new for him and all, but if he does the right things: read, learn and practice, he would be able to overcome.

My hope is that he would stay on for the long haul. My fear is that as brands boy, he may jump ship when the next big brand comes calling.

My expectation is that he will prove me wrong and stay to conquer the morning radio in Accra with his Morning Express on Radio XYZ.