Citi Fm’s Director of News Programming and Host of the Citi Breakfast Show, Bernardino Koku Avle has observed that three things are needed for the survival of radio stations in Ghana in the next decade.
He itemized them as:
- Strategic media alliances,
- Sharing of resources
- And Support
[contextly_sidebar id=”fWiYpwzxyrXK9N5kF0ky3Y1G4XP80iWW”]Mr Avle in arguing his case said though media houses are usually commercial in nature, the issue is not about profitability but liaising with other media houses and civil society organizations to develop innovative ideas that can change society.
Strategic alliance
Using the Citi Fm news-programming module, Mr Avle explained that “the challenge of radio and media in the 21st century will mean that we must find a middle way between profitability and social conscience.”
And he said “to address the higher cost of news production in an era where listeners demand more, we’ve come up with three things, the first one I call strategic alliances” adding that “we’ve managed to deal with the art of resources not by getting more money but by getting alliances and partners.”
Support
Speaking at the TEDxAccra programme held in Accra on Saturday, the astute broadcaster said Citi Fm also receive continuous support from companies like STAR-Ghana, IMANI Ghana, Voto, CDD, among others adding that such support enable the company deliver quality programmes to its numerous listeners.
“They [STAR-Ghana] believe in doing stories not just for doing sake but tracking results, looking at impact. So they gave us money to train 30 citizen journalists, send them back to their communities to do stories that we can track.”
“So when STAR-Ghana gives you money, you are to report results, you are track changes and you must let them see outcomes. It changes the way we see our work. We are thinking like CSOs.”
Sharing of resources
On sharing of resources, Mr Avle said Citi Fm joins forces with other media houses of which some include Radio Gold and Graphic Business.
He said Citi Fm and Radio Gold have on three occasions jointly interviewed the Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper.
Such platforms he said helped the minister to explain government policies to the citizenry.
“Over 70% of Ghanaians get their information from radio and because it is the cheapest medium to use, we cannot afford to let radio die because commercial radio stations can’t pay bills. What we need to learn to do as radio managers is to rethink what we are in the business for, instead of simply competing and looking for the big story and getting the credit from other networks, what we need to do is to pull resources with other radio stations and media houses and get an impact made.”
Radio’s future he said “is not just about asking questions, it’s not just about interviews, it’s not just about the platform to bloviate and talk, it’s about following the story and getting to its logical conclusions.”
“What will radio look like in the next 50 years? A lot of the things you know about radio are not going to be the same, but one thing I can assure you is that if this kind of strategic alliances, this kind of support, and this kind of resources sharing that I’m talking about, even if internet comes and take over, radio will still survive because we would have found new ways of telling stories and changing lives without all the money people thought we should have.”
Watch Bernard’s presentation below:
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By: Godwin Allotey Akwiteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana