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COO SEUN AWODELE Reveals 1st Yr Anniversary Plans
Comrade Seun Awodele, aka Sam Awo, is the Chief Operating Officer of Honor 103.5 FM Ibadan. He’s one of the major stakeholders in the broadcast industry of Oyo State. He has paid his dues in the industry with over 3 decades of experience as a broadcaster on both radio and television. He’s the former Chairman of the Oyo State chapter of the Freelance and Independent Broadcasters’ Association of Nigeria (FIBAN).
In this interview with City People’s Dare Adeniran (08057639079), Awodele shared the success story of Honor FM within one year. How he has been able to drive the vision of the station to become one of the most listened to radio stations in Oyo State.
The one year anniversary celebration of the radio station, according to Awodele, comes in the month of June. He said there will be Summit/Lecture as well as awards for some personalities who have distinguished themselves and have also positively impacted the society.
Awodele also spoke about the many challenges facing the industry and possible solutions to the problems. Of course, his success story won’t be completed without talking his journey into the broadcast world. Read the excerpts of the interesting interview…..
Honor 103.5 FM Ibadan is one, tell us about your experience running the station?
Let me first of all appreciate you for this courtesy visit. I really appreciate the support you have given us on your reputable platform in the past. I also want to appreciate the veterans in the broadcast industry. I always honor them anytime I want to discuss about the industry. The likes of Baba Yemi Farohunbi laid the foundation that we are building on today.
I must also let you know that I’m not the owner of Honor 103.5 FM. Reverend (Dr) Philips Bukola Oyewale is my principal. He’s based in Liverpool. To the glory of God, he shared the vision of having a radio station with me which I encouraged him. So after getting the license he decided to have me in charge as the Chief Operating Officer (COO).
Of course, he’s aware of my capability to deliver on the tasks. This is about 33 years of my life a broadcaster. Some years back, I used to cover six states in the South West including Lagos and Abuja with 10 live programs on both radio and television. The experience was what actually prepared me for the new responsibilities.
However, when we came on board the first thing we looked into was content. There are several radio stations in the South West Nigeria. So the major question was, what can we introduce that will stand us out? The second area of focus was the targeted audience. In the end we were able to master the contents that can drive the vision and the targeted audience. That has actually given us an edge above other stations, and we are really doing things differently.
We have various quality programs that cuts across our listeners. Those in Nigeria, those in the diaspora, the elites, the aged, children, youths and family. We also focus on ICT, Entrepreneurship, Agriculture, Security what have you.
Another thing is that we have successfully customized these programs and made them our identity. So our listeners know which station to tune to when it comes to quality programs that suite their demand at any particular point in time. This shows that even if there are 100 radio stations in Oyo State or Ibadan, we’ll still have our heads up because we are fully prepared.
Thank God we are marking a year of excellent broadcast services. I can tell you with all sense of humility that Honor 103.5 FM is between 15 and 17 out of about 500 radio stations in South West. And I’m sure that if some stations that are no longer functional are to be removed from the list, our position should move up. We should be in the first 10 by the next rating.
I thank God for the success recorded so far. I appreciate my dear team for their unflinching commitments towards the growth of the station.
Would you say the turnout has been encouraging with the a number of innovations you have brought on the table?
To the Glory of God. You know training and retraining add value in every endeavor. We have made it a point of utmost importance to adhere strictly to the ethics of the job. The rules and regulations by the NBC, the code. And through the platform we have consistently orientating and training all presenters working with us. Especially about their comportment, presentation, what to say and what not to say on Air
What about the revenue generation and running cost aspect of the business?
Those are part of the major challenges we have to deal with. You know the economic situation of the country is not friendly with anyone. The exchange rate, the issue of power supply and all that.
Nevertheless, one of the core area of our strengths is that we don’t rely on IBDEC. Even if there is no power from them we are on air.
We have deployed another source of power generation through inverter as backup. It saves us cost of diesel. But irrespective of the challenges we are coping and managing. We are open for more business opportunities.
Having said that, I want to appeal to the federal government to look into how they can encourage the investors in the media industry. Even if it’s a waiver of the charges radio stations pay to NBC.
Apart from power supply, what are the other challenges facing your industry and how can they be addressed?
That is a very interesting question. But before I answer the question let me first commend all the investors in the industry once again. They deserve a great deal of commendation because there so many challenges.
Infact there are radio stations that can no longer cope with the situation of things and as result have to shut down. How do you marry welfare of staff, equipment and running cost with the huge funds invested in the business? My advise to my colleagues in the industry is to look for an alternative way of power generation.
We should also focus more on how to really digitalize our services. Take for instance the pay tvs, some have over 80 channels with no single live program. Most of their programs are recorded. What it means is that I can actually run my program from home. Let’s invest more in technology. There are many ways we can look into to overcome the present situation.
There is no way the present administration in the country can achieve 24 hours power generation. That is the pure truth unless we want to deceive ourselves.
What about the issue of proliferation of radio stations in Oyo State? Is the massive influx a curse or blessing to the industry?
The proliferation of FM radio stations in Oyo State, Nigeria, can be seen as both a blessing and a curse, each with its own set of pros and cons.
It offers diversity and choice but also presents challenges related to quality, sustainability, and accountability.
Regulatory bodies, station owners, and journalists need to work together to ensure that the proliferation of radio stations benefits the society as a whole while upholding ethical standards and promoting high-quality content.
It is a blessing because the influx will create employment opportunities and increase programming with local content.
It creates a healthy competition that gives room for the need to get improved and competitive
On the other hand, it comes with some adverse effects as well. What it means is that the stations will be truggling with a limited marketing space which often puts smaller and upcoming radio with limited capital at a disadvantage.
It portends the risk of compromising professionalism since the industry cannot sufficiently get a pool of trained broadcasters to service the employment needs of all the radio stations.
There is also the issue of fragmentation of audience which often seems confusing to listening audiences because many are relatively unknown.
Quite often, there are frequent jams of frequencies and the audience is left frustrated.
How do you plan to celebrate your 1st anniversary , and what is the next thing for Honor FM?
To the glory of God all hands on deck to have a special celebration, marking a year of outstanding broadcasting from Honor 103.5 FM. We are having a Summit/Lecture in the month of June. The program by the grace of God will have in attendance a number of top personalities in the society. We’ll also use the opportunity to celebrate some notable Nigerians. Those who have positively affected different aspects of our society including some highly revered traditional rulers. This is just to appreciate and encourage them to do more.
Of course, our focus after one year is to be better. To serve our listeners with quality programs as usual. To inform, educate and entertain our listeners across the globe through quality contents.
Discussion is also ongoing for us to embark on a massive international training for our staff.
I was surprised to see the massive structure and the equipment on ground, do you do other things apart from broadcasting?
I will continue to appreciate and praying for my principal, Reverend (Dr) Philips Bukola Oyewale. He’s an international man. He’s a minister of God based in Europe. All the equipment, studio structure and all are ideas from overseas. And for the man to have invested that much, he deserves to be commended. He has provided everything needed for us to run smoothly as a company.
Immaculate Group has 12 subsidiaries. One of them is Honor 103.5 FM. We have the TV arm, ITVS. We have the multimedia aspect which deals in Sound, Screen, Stage and other media equipment. There are others too, the Logistics, Hospitality, Events Centre, Printing Press and more.
So we can only pray for the man to always see favourable of God in all his endeavors.
What was the transition like for you, from a broadcaster to running a radio station?
I thank God for everything. Some years back we used to beg for airtime but now I’m the head of a radio station. It’s indeed a great transformation. But being an independent broadcaster actually prepared me for the present tasks. I must also say that the present position will add value to me and at the same time prepare me for the tasks ahead. So it’s a great opportunity that I will never take for granted.
Who is Seun Awodele and how did broadcasting start for you?
My name is Awodele Oluwaseun Samson, popularly known as Sam Awo or Anointed Presenter. Broadcasting for me actually started when I was in secondary school. I was trained properly at Alhaji Gboyega Lawal’s School of Broadcasting after secondary school. I later went back to school to study Public Administration. I also studied Advertising/Journalism for my PGD program at the International Institute of Journalism (IIJ). I have been running my private company in relation to broadcasting and other businesses. I’m the CEO, Sam Awo Basic Concept. To the glory of God, I have been around for over 3 decades.
Which was your first program on Air and what was the experience like?
My very first time on Air was through Baba Supo Kosemani’s Yoruba program called ‘Owe lesin oro’ on the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS). It was a five minutes program back then. They came to my primary school, CAC Oke Irefin and picked me as one of the students that would ask questions on NTA. That was around 70s. I also featured on Alhaji Gboyega Lawal’s program on Saturday morning at NTA Ibadan. He gave me a segment in the program. The first day I wore my father’s ‘agbada’ to the studio. But the day I can never forget in my entire career was the very day I first bought 30 minutes airtime on BCOS. Within six weeks I extended it to one hour. A few months after I increased it to one hour thirty minutes. And during the period I covered six states running ten live programs. I thank God for everything. I must also appreciate the late Ola Ibironke (Dude Heritage) for his special love for me. He was the first person that gave me N300,000 to buy airtime on BCOS FM and Ondo State.
What would you have become if not a broadcaster?
I would have been a pilot. I don’t know how I got here but there is no regrets about it. I love broadcasting.
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