Francis Doku: Jessica to whip Obour to shape
Citi FM’s late afternoon show host, Jessica Opare-Saforo, has the toughest job in the world over the next six months. Her job is to beat Obour back to the shape he was many years before he became MUSIGA president or maybe something close enough to that.
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Jessica, who recently transformed herself from an almost plus size to size 12 through healthy dieting and a stringent exercising regime, took on the challenge to save Obour from the public opprobrium that arose from a recent photo of his that got shared on social media.
As though you don’t know, this week has been one terrible one for the president of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Bice Osei Kuffour or Obour as he is popularly known. Trolls on social media took the rapper to the cleaners regarding the increasing size of his midriff and body.
Obour’s increasing size after taking over the MUSIGA job has been a subject of discussion in many circles, especially on social media.
However, the slander took a different form this week when people on social media platforms such as Facebook and (especially) Twitter as well as Whatsapp upped the ante and went full throttle at Obour.
A photo of him donning football kits and, obviously, playing a football at a charity match went viral with many different accompanying internet memes, quotes and tweets.
Obour’s response to the taunts was very swift. He said he would trim down and gave himself up to six months to get to shape. Jessica was then enlisted by him to see to it that he keeps to the fitness regime to ensure he makes the grade to be set by his trainer.
Obour, who announced at the last Vodafone Ghana Music Awards that he would seek reelection as president in the upcoming MUSIGA elections gave a promise: “More soccer… more jogging… no late night meals… effective dieting… following the Jessica routine, my new answer to weight loss,” he wrote.
That was how Obour turned what was meant to be and indeed was a social media slander into a PR coup for himself. The big question, however, is this: can and will he subject himself to the fitness regime that Jessica is sure to propose and ultimately be in shape in six months?
Not everyone is willing to buy into what they think is PR gimmick.
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So the challenge is on. Jessica has taken on the tough job of whipping Obour to size. Obour has no doubt at all that he would be in shape in six months.
KUDOS TO SHOWBIZ MORNING SHOW ON PLUZZ
For a long time now morning shows on Accra radio have taken on political colour and all discussions on most stations are looked at from the viewpoint of politics. It doesn’t matter if the issue is social or legal, it would have political relevance. Okay, make that from the viewpoint of the NDC and NPP.
At some point in time, Asempa FM attempted to change this monotony by establishing a morning show that talked only about sports.
There were major doubts about the sustainability of that show However, those in charge of Asempa at the time, especially Claus Von Buckustein, Cox Tamakloe and McBen Owusu-Asamoah were resolute in their mind that it would work.
They got Christopher Opoku from Metro TV to be the founding host of the show and it worked perfectly to plan. There were initial challenges which they got over with time. The listeners bought into it and then other stations realised its value and as Porter’s Five Forces suggests, competition copied it and the rest is history.
Enter Pluzz, the station located on 89.9 on the FM dial and at Santa Maria in Accra. The station decided to introduce a different morning show concept from others in the market. They chose the showbiz way with the view to dissecting issues that have to do with entertainment, arts and the like.
The station in collaboration with Flex Newspaper had been doing a weekly entertainment show on Sundays and hosted by the editor of the paper, Samuel Baah. The morning show was going to take the same form as the weekly one with Sammy Flex, as he is known, as host.
From the onset, it looked like it was always going to be very tough because getting authentic showbiz news every single day wasn’t going to be a walk in RattRay Park. They knew what the challenge was and yet decided to go ahead with it.
The show got underway and in no time, it caught on. I think the production was done well and the fact that they managed to bring in the crème of the usual suspect when it comes to entertainment punditry helped a great deal.
Nana Turkson, Bulldog, Mic Yamoah, Johnnie Hughes, Socrates Sarfo, Ricky Anokye and a host of other such pundits have had their day on the show and have brought their understanding of the showbiz issues to the listeners of Pluzz FM in the morning.
To ensure that the three-hour show would be good on the ear and to generate the needed listenership, I guess, the show was properly segmented into parts that ensured that different issues were treated on any given show day. There was news and then interviews and the famous Music Board where a particular song is reviewed on the show.
Talking about the Music Board, and why I described it as famous, brings one to the subject of alleged copying of the concept for Peace FM’s Entertainment Review hosted by Kwesi Aboagye. The guys at Santa Maria were of the view that it was after they had introduced that on to their show that the Abeka Junction guys started doing it too. Be that as it may, both continued with theirs.
On the Pluzz FM one, there is the panel made of pundits, a sound engineer and an artiste (most of the time) to listen to the song of the day and give their opinion on everything from composition through arrangement to engineering.
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Of course, it has come with some unpalatable response from artistes who did not like what they consider as ignorant assessment from some members of the panels.
Over all though, I am of the view that just as Asempa FM’s morning show on sports came to fill a certain vacuum which was not obvious until its coming, the AM Showbiz Morning Show on Pluzz 89.9 FM has also done same for showbiz. It is a show that the industry is giving a lot of attention to and considering it as a good alternative to the weekly shows on many radio stations.
The chink in the armour of this show is the host and this is my candid criticism. I liked to make room to listen to Sammy Flex as a panel member on his other jaunts with Nana Turkson, et al on Happy FM and XYZ, but putting him on a show as the host was a whole new ball game.
I think his questioning style needs improving. His expression, construction and structuring of the language of use on the show needs improving, in my humble view. I have not written about the show for this much because I was hoping all that would improve before I do it.
In spite of these, as someone in entertainment, I believe that this show is good for the industry and if for nothing at all, has made nonsense the view that showbiz would be a hard sell as the only subject for a morning show. Sammy Flex and his team with the able support of the head of the station, the legendary Nana Otu Gyandoh have made that possible.
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It must be said that in the end, the only thing that would ensure that the show remains on air for a long time is the listenership. Advertisers will demand that and it better be good. Sentiments alone don’t keep show on radio running for long. That is why I hope that as the show grows, it will have listeners from the broad society than just from the industry.
Let me end with a special commendation to Mr. Magic, the man they say produces the show, for it is indeed a well-produced show.
@TheGHMediaGuru