Thus we were left at late afternoon show where I said a lot of activities took place that need to be mentioned. Citi FM, for example, had a major replacement on the late afternoon show when Nii Kpakpo Thompson took over to host the show. He was new to urban radio and definitely new to drive time presenting and was coming up at the time that competition was going to be keener.

It was a daunting task for the man who brought the terminology “e dey be keke” to Ghanaians, but he managed to hold his own against the opposition he got and though his performance needs a bit of improving if he is going to compete very strongly, he definitely did well as a first time presenter.

Bola Ray was the same presenter we have known for a decade now without much change to his style or structure – and I don’t mean he should – as he continued to play the songs he loves, hype shows and people as he is known to and give as many shout outs as can be done within a programme that runs for three hours on Joy FM.

However, the real “action drama” on the drive time shows was at two places Peace FM and Okay FM. Firstly, Fiifi Banson’s show on Peace FM have for some time now been evolved from a one-man show to one that involves other people to create a dramatic scenario with protagonists on either side who act as actors cum debators in a radio courtroom kind of way with the audience determining who won at the end of the day.

Over the last couple of years, Odiahenkan Kwame Yeboah one of the discussants on the show had been the star boy of the show as his witty comments had resonated very well with the audience who couldn’t have enough of him. In the year 2012 however, Odiahenkan met his match in Kwabena Marfo whose ignorantly laced witticism got him a lot of admirers.

Kwabena Marfo brought another dimension to the show that wasn’t there previously and I can say for a fact that many people who would ordinarily not listen to Peace FM or the drive show for that matter found themselves tuning in around 5pm to get a feel of Banson and his motley of funny men on Ekwanso Brebre.

Just across the room to the next studio was a programme that gave Ekwanso Brebre a good run and indeed was the leader on the overall late afternoon show league table, in terms of listenership, for most part of the year according to the monthly Ipsos diaries. Abieku Santana’s drive time show on Okay FM is what I am talking about.

The segment that got the attention of many listeners was Akeka Akeka where Santana and Ohene Nana Kwame Amo delved into gossips and unconfirmed allegations about people and organisations. It confirmed the fact that people like to listen to things said about other people. That apart, it would seem his personal style, praying, preaching and music selection could well be the other reasons why the drive on Okay FM got so many listeners.

It remains to be seen though if Abeiku’s foray into partisan politics where he stuck his neck out for the NDC’s John Mahama would have any impact on his ratings. I really hope it does not but that is something we can always look at in future media consumption studies.

The year in review saw the biggest comeback by a radio presenter when Mikki Osei-Berko returned to radio and to late afternoon show, for that matter, on Adom FM. It is a known fact that since he moved to Okay FM, Abeiku Santana had been giving his former show a good beating and over the period several presenters including Asanka, Prekese and Eddie K had been tried and sacrificed. The return of Osei-Berko was therefore meant to stabilize the rimming and position the show for competition.

However, as to whether this was a good decision – bringing an old presenter down from London instead of someone on the scene – would be known in later months. Mikki tried a new approach by introducing a very slow style and throwing in some witticism that he was known for when he walked the radio turf in the early to mid-2000s.

YFM again had things going for them on the drive and in 2012 it would seem Joel Orleans got a good thing going for him personally on the drive. It appeared that Nana Kwame Osei Sarpong did not have much time on air and Joel and Giovanni stood in perfectly for him.

There were other drive time shows on radio in Accra which all had the audience they appealed to and I was disappointed that yet again, another year has ended without Atlantis Radio finding a good solution to the vacuum created by Kwame Farkye when he left the drive a few years ago.

The after drive wasn’t pretty much different from what pertained in the previous years as slow music, hiphop and R&B featured as equally well as our local music. The fact that hiplife (and the variant azonto) is on the rise saw a low of manifestation in the after drive where presenters ensured that they gave a good dose to listeners.

It could be due to my recently found penchant to listen to YFM most often, but it would seem to be the case that YFM’s Jeremie Van Gershon stood out in the after drive with her show. Her jingle seeks to portray the fact that her show is listened to by all the 24million citizens, which is the biggest farce anyone can pull, but she came across as a worthy representative of urban youth culture and many products that target youthful audience found her useful to engage their target.

One of my new year wishes is that Jeremie would talk a lot less and play a lot more music (I mean DJ Kess would play a lot more music), but I also know that would be asking too much from one who makes her money from talking so I won’t be too hopeful.

Weekend radio was not too different from what we have known it to be in previous years. Morning entertainment and goofiness, mid-morning political talk shows and sports, afternoon and late afternoon sports and then evening music show characterized Saturday radio programming.

Sports featured prominently on the weekend menu of most stations and I should at this point single out Citi FM for their tenacity to broadcast the live commentary of the English Premier League so those who would not be able to watch on DStv for one reason or the other could hear it. Gary Al-Smith who joined the station close to end of the year, Godfred Akoto Boafo and Nathan Quao and others were apt for the live broadcast.

With regards to local sports commentary and information, the usual suspects were in full force to bring to us what they knew (and sometimes what they don’t even know). Happy FM kept its sports mojo, Asempa FM was up there too, Hot FM kept up appearance, Adom FM remained competitive despite losing Asare Brako at the end of the year (he went to compete for parliament and lost) and Peace FM maintained a strong team of the quartet: Dan Kweku Yeboah, Osagyefo Anaman, Smith and Anim Addo to deliver sports to their cherished listeners.

Entertainment review and discussion shows had become prevalent in previous years and it seems almost all stations woke up to the realization that weekend entertainment shows were worth pursuing. One would add though that Akwasi Aboagye’s Entertainment Review on Peace FM stood out among the plethora we had in the year.

With regards to music shows on weekend nights – Friday and Saturday nights especially – there were four main shows that I found myself shuffling between whenever ever I take those evening drives and they were on Citi FM, Joy FM, YFM and Hitz FM.

DJ Black had strong competition from DJ Armani at Citi FM, DJ Kwame “Killer Fingers” and posse at YFM and to an extent DJ Hagla. Of course the latter can be left out and competition would be between the first three between whom you got the best of hiphop, hiplife and R&B to keep your night going.

As usual, Sunday programming remained religious with music in the mornings and talk related in evenings and in between that you had a lot of sports and other entertainment fodder to chew on. Thus it anyhow it was looked at there was something for everyone on a Sunday.

Generally news sourcing and delivery was not bad across the radio landscape. The problem I continue to have which didn’t look like reducing in 2012 was the fact that news presenters, especially on the local language stations, like to add a lot more to the news and embellish or rather exaggerate it than it actually is. That is another wish I have that in 2013 the news and only the news would be presented by presenters on Adom FM, Peace FM, Radio Gold, Hot FM, Oman FM and others. I know, I should rather dream of having tea with the Queen of England on my birthday than getting this wish fulfilled.

In a year that saw major news related fortunes and misfortunes happening, such as the death of the sitting president, the death of the former vice president and an election that saw many plots and sub-plots unfolding under our very eyes, it is important to underscore the fact that the radio stations did well to deliver on their mandate. Of course the exaggeration could be minimized but I will take that over a silent and docile media any day.

I wish you a happy festive season once again and I can assure you that come next week, God willing, we shall do something more avant-garde and daring than we have done these last two weeks.  Now go finish that left over Christmas chicken before it gets cold!

By Francis Doku/Graphic Showbiz