“Operation Vanguard”, a very good move

There was a news item on the front pages of all the papers, TV, radio and on the Internet. On graphic.com.gh last Tuesday, the story came with the headlined “‘Operation Vanguard’ launched to wipe out galamsey”.

Parts of the story read “the government’s resolve to end illegal mining has been given further impetus with the deployment of the first batch of security men to three regions considered to be the most affected areas.

“Dubbed “Operation Vanguard”, the 400 security men made up of personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and the Police Service have been divided into three groups to cover the Ashanti, Eastern and Western regions.

“The teams have been tasked to stay at their assigned regions until all forms of illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, have been stopped and unauthorised mining pits permanently destroyed.” The story was accompanied by the photo of the Ministers for the Interior and Defence respectively who were interacting with the security forces at the launch of the operations in Accra.

If this isn’t a huge impetus for the fight against galamsey then I don’t know what it is. Many citizens have complained extensively about the devastation galamsey had been causing at many places. For years we only could raise our hands in despair and yet looked on as this activity that benefitted only a few continued to destroy our beautiful country.

However, the inauguration of the new government saw a new drive and demand by the citizens to end it. There has been a coalition against galamsey since the beginning of this year, which has the media very strongly involved. The President and his government were petitioned and encouraged to take this fight against galamsey seriously before it destroys the nation, its waterbodies and its future.

The President in turn assured the nation that he would make sure this menace of galamsey is brought to an end under his watch. He is even reported to have said that he would do it even if it would cost him the presidency. That was a bold thing to do and this is where we are now.

It is important to pat the backs of all Ghanaians for the united voice against the devastating effects of galamsey, but we should even show more gratitude to the coalition of media and civil society organisations, to the Ministers of Lands and Natural Resources, Defence and the Interior for damning the consequences and most importantly to His Excellency the President for living to his promise.

Like many Ghanaians, I really hope that this new verve dubbed “Operation Vanguard” would yield the desired results and the hazardous effects of galamsey would be a thing of the past. However, even if it doesn’t end as we hope it would, we know that the citizens, led by their government put in an effort!
 
As DJ Blow celebrates 50 years

Today marks the 50th birthday of DJ Blow. Oh and DJ Blow is a very well known bloke in the radio and event space. He is a jolly good fellow who for years has been a big part of organisers of the monthly club party, Mirror Ball and also currently serves as the Programmes Director at Starr FM.

DJ Blow is just one of the many monikers the host of Weekend Groove on Starr FM is known for. For example, while he is officially known as William Nanka-Bruce III (the 3rd, of course) he has acquired a few more since becoming a radio presenter, the last two of which are The Grandmaster and The Authority. There is a third one I cannot readily recollect.

DJ Blow’s expertise is music from the past known as Old School. I should say that if there is someone who comes anywhere close to Ken Addy of Joy FM where playing old school music, at least over the last decade, is concerned no one will beat DJ Blow to it.

From his days as DJ at the Impulse Night Club at Osu where the likes of my editor Adwoa Serwaa Bonsu, Maurice Quansah of Graphic Sports and PaJohn Bentsifi Dadson  showed up not just to dance to his sleek selections, but to also eat midnight kenkey, DJ Blow has done it all.

One could say that Impulse was the precursor to the much more chic, hotel ambience enabled and dress code defined The Mirror Ball, if you discount the fact that the latter was targeted at the same age group, but attracted a lot younger audience.

Anyway, DJ Blow, from where I sit, came into the radio Djing limelight during his days at Atlantis Radio. He brought the Old School feel to that station during Saturday afternoons when his collection ensued that people of that taste would continue to listen to the late James Appiah’s station.

When he was at Vibe FM his show was the one that reached out to an older audience for a station that target “the young and young at heart.” In 2015 he left for Starr FM and with him went the Weekend Groove, a show he has been hosting till date.

Fifty is an awesome age to clock as it shows longevity and the fact that the celebrant had seen it all in a chosen field. DJ Blow has indeed done what he knows best and had in the process contributed to the radio broadcast and event environments in Ghana. I think it’s in order to wish him a happy birthday.
 
Vander-Pallen hits 20 years on radio

That Felix Vander-Pallen, the host of The Cocktail (post drive show) on Radio XYZ has one of the most unique voices on radio is a 20-year old news. Over the period that I have been listening to radio there are a few people whose voices have been different in like manner: James Amartey, Tommy Annan-Forson, Charlie Sam, Godwin Avenorgbor, John Hammond and Komla Dumor. There could be others, but these ones readily come to memory.

When Vander-Pallen started at Radio Gold in 1997, it was an instant surprise that it had taken someone with such a voice so long to find radio. He then joined Joy FM a year after and for the five years that he worked there he hosted different programmes, it was always a joy to have him on air just to listen to his voice.

Indeed it was during his stay at Joy FM that Country Land, the Sunday morning country music show on the station became a big thing. Sometime in 2003 he left Joy FM for Sunny FM where he worked for about two years before leaving to go into events, mobile content and others.

Radio found him again when he joined XYZ in 2013. Throughout the troubles of the station he was around until this new face started a few months ago. Felix Vanderpallen hosts The Cocktail, a weekday evening show on which he brings all his twenty years of experience, his unique voice and his classy selection of music to make it a show worth listening to.

You probably want to check him out on Radio XYZ 93.1FM from Monday to Friday after the late afternoon show.@TheGHMediaGuru