Is Adakabre headed for the Ship House?

You missed having me around last week all due to a little malady that knocked me out a teeny weeny bit. Thankfully, the bosses here allowed me to take the column off (that’s my own coinage for the expression “taking the day off” hence my absence. Thanks for having me back.

In the same week was the famous Adom Praiz that I spoke about three weeks earlier and so much noise was made about it in a way that parried attention from a very important change that  took place at Adom FM.

The presenter of Dwaso Nsem, the morning show on the station over the last couple of years or so was moved off the show and replaced with a new one who had been brought down from Kumasi. Sources at the station said Captain Smart was brought to host the show so Adakabre Frimpong Manso would take up the hosting of a show on sister television station Multi TV.

As host of the morning show on Fox FM for a while now, Captain Smart had been the star boy of morning show in Kumasi. He had done a lot for himself to the extent that he was even rated by some to be ahead of his predecessor and Kumasi’s darling boy Kwame Adinkra.

For Adom FM to have courted and brought him over from Kumasi to Accra meant they needed him and wanted him to drive their morning show and to pursue the ultimate goal of trumping Kwami Sefa Kayi and his Kokrokoo off the top of the log.

But does Captain Smart have the ability to do that? Can he do what many have tried in many years, weeks, months and a decade to do without fail? These are the questions we shall be asking of Captain Smart in the days to come as he continues this journey on Accra radio.

In the meantime though what are the options available to Adakabre? He has been moved to another show on television and that should come as promotion, right? Well, if you are a marquee morning show host and you are yanked off (for whatever reason) and sent to show on one of the channels of a subscribed multi-channel station, you have been demoted.

It is different if you remain the morning show host and have the other show added to your portfolio or I dare say if it was the other way round then you are definitely going to feel every bit as though you have been promoted.

I am sure you are aware of (if you have been reading this column you should be) the brouhaha that ensued when Adakabre returned from Hot FM to take over hosting of the morning show on Adom FM after they had sent Ekourba Gyasi packing.

It was said that some of the people who work at the station didn’t want an Adakabre return to the morning show and made it known to the brass at the station, but Adakabre was retained and so was Akosua Safoa-Kantimpo with whom he left with from Adom FM to Hot FM.

The point being here is that Adakabre is a journey man (I have written more about Adakabre leaving one station to another than I have about many other presenters) and making a decision that he thinks goes against him would give him a nudge to walk than present a show on Multi TV.

It was therefore not surprising to me at all when I started picking up information that Adakabre may well be on his way from the Multimedia Group to another station down the road at the Abeka Junction to take up a new role.

Wait, he is neither going to Peace FM nor Okay FM if my information is right. I have written in this column before that the Despite Group had been test transmitting another station on 100.9FM.

A frequency they had purchased from a group of Ghanaians.

My information is that the station is ready and about to roll and they need a marquee signing to give them that needed impetus and who is best to grab than a man who has done it over and again in Accra and the one who just lost his marquee status at the competitor’s station.

I would not be surprised if this whole Captain Smart move was in part instigated from the Ship House (as the building that house Peace FM, Okay FM, Peacefmonline, UTV and the new radio station is called) so Adakabre would be free and they’ll get him.

Look at it this way, Adakabre has had many years’ experience as morning show host in Accra at Adom FM then Hot FM and then Adom FM again. Captain Smart does not have any experience at all in Accra and therefore would start on a clean slate.

Don’t forget also that for many years this was the guy who was on the tails of Sefa Kayi and in the minds of many he is number the two person when it comes to local language morning show programming in the capital. Who do you go for if you have the opportunity to pick one of the two?

When they were about to launch Okay FM, the guys at Adom FM made a little mistake that saw Abeiku Santana resigning and immediately the Despite guys swooped and got him and he virtually crippled the late afternoon show on Adom FM and shot Okay FM to the top echelons of the log. I was the first to tell you about a possible Abeiku Santana move to Okay FM, right?

They are about to launch a new station (which is yet to be christened) and here is another opportunity to get another possible Adom FM former presenter to be the star boy. Adakabre may not be an Abeiku Santana, but he sure would be the best signing for the new station if my information is right that he is being courted by the people at the Ship House!

BBA The Chase: Is Elikem getting the money?

The hearing of the presidential election petition which has been going on for over three months now is near completion and very soon we shall get to know decision made one way or the other by the judges sitting on the case in the Supreme Court.

That judgment will be for better or for worse either of which would depend on how Ghanaians decide to react to it when it is announced. I stand for peace pray for better!

Meanwhile, about six hours of flying time from Accra to Johannesburg, things are getting hot in the Big Brother Africa reality show as the eighth season of the continental reality show gradually glides to the denouement. The panel judges of Big Brother Africa, the viewers, would be called to give a judgment on who to go home with the USD300,000 on offer as prize money.

There will be an eviction this Sunday and then another eviction the following Sunday and that would be it. Our only remaining housemate Elikem Kumordji is not up for eviction this Sunday and we pray and hope he won’t come up the following Sunday or even if he comes up Africa would save him the third time and put him in a position to win it.

He gave many Ghanaian followers of the show some anxious moments in the early part of the season when they thought his style won’t take him far; but since getting close to evicted Zimbabwean housemate Pokelo his fortunes kind of changed and he has since become one of the strong candidates for the money.                 

Over the past seasons of the Big Brother Africa reality show Ghanaian housemates have never been on till the very day the winner is chosen. This means that if he should avoid eviction in the next two Sunday’s eviction, Elikem would have that historic honour as the last Ghanaian standing.

Meanwhile, there was another party for the housemates last Saturday and the DJ on hand to deliver the music was YFM’s DJ Vision who I thought was very outstanding in the one hour long show. His selection of songs resonated well with the housemates and they all enjoyed the music as well as danced to them.

STOP PRESS: While putting this piece together I saw a story online about the fact that Herbert Malm of TV3 had been sacked from the station after a misunderstanding with his boss Mary-Ann Acolatse. I intend to seek some clarification on that and other matters at TV3 to talk about in the coming weeks.

Written by Francis Doku