Story By: Rahamatu-Lahi Zakaria || Sanatu Zambang
The northern regional organizer for Northern Radio Awards, Alhassan Yakubu Sualisu known in showbiz as MC Mataya has said there is so much unprofessionalism on radio in the region. He made this revelation when he appeared on Sanatu Zambang Hotspot Live to talk about the recently held Northern Radio Awards in Bolga.
This he says radio managers are to blame for the unprofessionalism on radio because of their recruiting criteria. ‘’Radio managers in Tamale hire people who can make noise and get traffic so there is so much unprofessionalism on radio. Just make noise and insult people. Say what you want to say and drive traffic, the radio manager will hire you. Ethics has been thrown into the dustbin’’
He reiterated the point that, radio stations do not hire the right people to take up positions in their station. They focus much on popularity and people who have stayed long in the radio stations.
‘’ you spoke about agenda, you see a radio station marketing manager who was once a presenter, has no background in marketing. Because he has been in radio let say five years. He start to shift up and then they make him the marketing manager.’’
Alhassan Yakubu Sualesu
‘’anywhere else we have a marketer and media marketer but over here, we have a marketer who was just on radio, now he has to shift up so he is going up, from marketer to programs manger’ to general manger. It is just a hierarchy they create for themselves but with the skills that comes with it, they don’t have. So most of the institution here, let take for instance MC was on radio has been here for a long time, I have not gone to school or taken any course and tomorrow I am made the marketing manager.’’ He added.
Another thing he realize in this awards scheme was that, there are few female practitioners in the field. MC Mataya who is also an entertainment critic said in most of the radio stations they visited, a lot of them had no or just a few female practitioners and to encourage females to join the industry, they decided to create more slot for women in the awards scheme.
He also took the opportunity to appeal to radio stations and practitioners to start recording their programs for reference sake. According to MC Mataya, the radio stations they visited, most of the programs were not recorded, and it is only the recorded audio they needed to use in the awards scheme. Beyond the awards scheme, he say it is relevant for presenters to record their shows since it is the evidence they will need in times of defamation suits against them.
