By By Muritala Sule
It’s been 30years of Nigeria’s First Privately-owned Broadcasting Station, RAYPOWER 100FM.
It was at the end of August 1994. Nigeria’s first privately-run, commercial radio station was officially launching on air. And I was the only industry reporter present that midnight at the station in Ilapo village, off the old Lagos Abeokuta old road.
The entire neighbourhood was in total darkness, except for the bright pocket of light that was the new station. I had been sent there by the industry journal, MEDIA REVIEW, to witness and report the event.
At the reception were children in gay dresses, carrying plates of rice and chicken the size of an LP vinyl record and bottles of soda drinks underarm. Adults working through chicken parts washed down with beer or spirit. Young ladies in tight-fitting trousers or skimpy skirts and inviting blouses. Young men of varied dress tastes and older women in boubous or iro and buba. Laughter. Music from Raypower 100 FM sifting down from loud speakers in the ceiling.
Beyond the reception area, Bayo Fabiyi, Commercial and Sales Director, with his team, is handling cheques from advertisers for commercials to be played on the station’s first day of broadcasting, after a two-week all-music test transmission.
In the Newsroom, CNN is on the tube. Typewriting going on. Ladi Lawal, president of the Nigeria Union of Journalists at the time, who is the Director of News and Current Affairs, is busy preparing news bulletins. Tony Akiotu, top sports reporter, pulled away from Radio Nigeria, is on Lawal’s team. There are also drinks and it feels comfortable to let the feet breathe while shoes lie here and there on the woolly carpet.
The main continuity studio is the centre of events tonight. The pioneer General Manager, Olusesan Ekisola, formerly Controller of Programmes at OGBC 2, Abeokuta, is in charge.
00.00 hours, the end of August, 1994, a Wednesday, soon showed on the clock. On the dot of T-time, Ekisola, in a simple dress of a T-shirt and a pair of blue denim trousers, announces:
“And, so, this is the moment. It’s zero-zero hours…Thursday…The first day of commercial broadcasting on Ray Power 100FM, Nigeria’s first independent radio station. But, let’s begin properly.”
Then, he plays the National Anthem and the pledge. This is followed by a brief jittery moment – not for Ekisola, a master of the Art, though – for the anxious staff, as the tape of recorded prayer by a pastor wobbles when Ambrose Somide switches it on. But, that only lasts for a second or two. And the station is smoothly on air, Ekisola playing his favourite piece of music: “This is The Lord’s Doing, And It’s Marvellous In Our Eyes” by Andrea Crouch.
The small crowd in the studio breaks out in cheers and claps and screams as soon as Ekisola closes the voice pot. Congratulations, handshakes and backslapping! The first commercial to air on the station comes up at 00.30am.
What is left of the morning is prayerful. The presenters take turns: Ambrose Somide, Kenny Ogungbe, Yemi Adenuga, Segun “Shy-Shy” Shylon, Oluwabusola Fayiga, and others.
The children have begun to yawn at the reception by 1.00am. They have witnessed a historic moment. Thirteen-year old Charity Ugwi, of the Dokpesi extended family, sums it up for the children:
“We just thought here was the best place to spend this morning.”
Thirty years on, that pioneer team has dispersed and its oldest members who remained with the family just got retired a few weeks ago, Ambrose Somide and Tony Akiotu included. Others have gone on to prosper elsewhere, locally or abroad. Some have transitioned to higher realms, including Lawal and the engine house of the establishment, High Chief Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi. But, the Raypower Radio Station and its twin Television Channel, AIT, are testimonies to their legacy, as the business has been taken over by another generation of captains.
This abridged edition of this report was first published by MEDIA REVIEW in its August 1994 edition.
