As closing ceremony of Aid Effectiveness Forum beckons...

it is important to drink deep--or not at all!!

This "The World Debate" is an opportunity in a lifetime to watch and participate in a BBC debate. Though I have to say that my participation will be rather minimal, as aid effectiveness is far from being my forte!

It's going to take place at Ghana's National Theatre, and people have to be seated before 5.45pm.

Straight from office to work!! (if not earlier!)

Am off to try and blog closing session...

tara!

EXCLUSIVE!-->Interview with the Host of the BBC-Award-Winning Citi FM Breakfast Show

Bernard Avle(left) He cuts a contemplative and tall figure. Be-spectacled with some degree of seriousness etched on his face, you could be forgiven for thinking that the dynamic Bernard Avle, host of the CITI Breakfast Show is only recently a busy man. But he's not. He's been busy ever since he became the host of the young and private Accra-based radio station in late 2004.

Recently from Nairobi, Kenya, where he accompanied the station's managing-director Samuel Attah-Mensah to receive an award for the "Best Interactive TalkShow of the Year", I took the opportunity to ask him over to my workplace, whilst he was in the East Legon neighborhood for another interactive Friday show.

I ended up agreeing on a time to set up an "online" interview with him. These are the results.

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Congratulations on your station winning the first-ever BBC Radio Award for "Best Interactive Show in Africa". How does it feel?

Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be on Global Voices Online. It does feel good to have been acknowledged by the BBC as having the Talk/Interactive Show of the year

Tell me about the BBC Radio Awards

The Africa Radio Awards were instituted by the BBC to celebrate excellence in African Radio, according to the organisers, Radio is a powerful medium for reaching Africans with over 700 million listeners across the continent.
The awards were held in two phases-the 1st being the regional finals for East, South & West Africa. There were 7 categories in all; Radio Station of the Year, New Radio Station of the Year, News Journalist of the Year, Sports Journalist of the Year, Local On-Air campaign of the year, Talk/Interactive Show of the year and Young Journalist of the year.Citi FM got into the finals after being selected as regional winners in the categories of New Radio Station of the Year, and Talk/Interactive show of the year.

Tell me about the entry you sent

For the category which my program won, we were expected to send excerpts of our program totalling not more than 30 minutes, to the BBC. As you would know, my program airs 3& 1/2 hours every weekday, thus it was quite a challenge putting the best of my work into 30 minutes.I sent a mix of programs, including the outdoor broadcasts we held at Gbawe and Oblogo, as well as the heated social discussions we held on "Sex for Jobs"; “Irresponsible Fatherhood”, and “Condoms for Students”. I also sent in excerpts of the program I did on the Legacy of Dr Kwame Nkrumah , on the 97th Anniversary of his birth, plus a few others.

What do you think was the defining element for BBC's choice of CITI?

To answer that i'll just paste verbatim, what the judges said about my entry."Interactive/ Talk Show of the Year: The Citi Breakfast Show hosted by Bernard Avle, Citi FM, Ghana

This show successfully mixes studio guests, outside broadcasts, phone-ins and text messages to ensure it is tapping into the stories the local community want to hear. Bernard Avle has a questioning, out-going personality which gets to the heart of issues in a fun and informative way. He often takes his listeners' complaints direct to those responsible and nothing is taboo with everything from free condoms and sexual harassment to Kwame Nkrumah's legacy coming under scrutiny.


I've heard you on radio many times. You sound rather combative in your interviewing techniques. Or so your critiques say. What's with that style?

Combative might be a strong word, assertive is probably more accurate. I ask simple questions when I have to elicit information for listeners, but I sometime ask pointed questions in a bid to clarify a point or even play the devil’s advocate when necessary to ensure that all sides of an issue are articulated.

Ghanaians appear to be turned off by aggressive and combative interviewing, whilst at the same time being very vocal about criticizing their policy-makers. In your view, why is there such a disparity?

Ghanaians value respect for authority but also appreciate probing questions from an assertive interviewer who does so in a courteous way. A few listeners complain sometimes about my style, but generally, there is no disparity there; one does not have to be rudely aggressive or "combative"- a word I still disagree with - to be robust and thorough in an interview. The essential point is to ask well-grounded, relevant questions.

Interactivity is fine; topics are another. The CITI Breakfast Show has covered international topics, such as Zimbabwe, but doesn't cover that many ECOWAS or other-Africa related issues. Is this because there is no appetite for this? If not, why not?

The BBC was pleased by the broad mix of subjects discussed on the Citi Breakfast Show. Although our audience is of an international nature, pre-eminence is sometimes given to local issues because local listeners predominate.I do not agree that we do not cover Ecowas issues. My show did a live outdoor broadcast from the Budumburam camp of Liberian Refugees, during their 2005 elections. We also did many shows on the Nigerian elections. Anyhow, as we grow our audiences we would definitely put in more hours for the sub-region.

As Ghana becomes the hub, or gateway, for West Africa, what challenges do you foresee will emerge for broadcast journalists?

If your question is in reference to the Ghanaian Journalist, I think the challenge of objectivity will always be there. Ghanaian journalists will need to move away from what has become partisan and parochial agenda setting to objective coverage of the country, to give the international community a more accurate picture of the situation in Ghana.

What do you think is the future for radio broadcasting in Ghana?

Huge potential, Radio is the most powerful means of reaching both urban and rural Ghanaians. Over 70% of All Ghanaian own a radio set* as compared with less than 50% for TV. The Ghanaian is hungry for information and presently radio provides that in good, credible measure, largely because people see radio as the first port of call to channel grievances.

In the West, citizen journalism and blogging is big vis-à-vis the media, with many debates raging on the threat-- or lack thereof-of how Media is changing the face of journalism. Last August, the BBC reported that 61% of Nigerians had accessed the BBC website via their mobile phones ( **). Where do you see Ghanaian journalists going with New Media?

Its obviously a big opportunity which I do not think Ghanaian electronic media owners have fully opened up to. It has more to do with where media owners want to invest in. Having said that, the Ghanaian journalist has a big opportunity to take advantage of these technologies to learn from across the globe.

* Ghana Statistical Service; Pattern & Trends in Poverty(Ghana Living Standards Survey v;2007)

Coming in June to this Blog: The Westernisation of Accra

To conceive of any kind of Westernisation of Accra is initially problematic, because it pre-supposes any Westernisation is negative.

That said, I find it difficult to avoid it, for the print and electronic media, along with my personal experiences can only confirm a perception that the westernisation is here in Accra--in grand style--and is here to stay.

Last Thursday's opening of the South African retail giant, GAME in my view has gone to cement any perception that the Westernisation--as exemplified by the individualise and consumer culture--is well and truly here.

Over the next few weeks, I shall be looking at the definition of westernisation in Ghana; including how technology; banking; life-style; and our values are changing--or not--as a result of this putative, or so-called, westernisation that I claim to see in my three years of being back home in what Bernard Avle of CITI-FM , receiving an award for the station (adjudged the best interactive show in Africa), in Kenya over the weekend for the BBC Radio Awards, called "the best country in the world"--Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana.

This is What Young Ghanaian Journalists Should Aspire to!

With less than a week before the Jubilee celebrations, the country is undergoing reflection—whether serious or not is a very moot point!—on the state of a number of things. The state of Ghanaian media is no exception. Now, let’s be – yet again – clear: I am no journalist; a few courses here and there have helped me appreciate the practice, but I don’t have a journalism degree to my name. What I do have are a few journalist friends/acquaintqnces who remind me that the proactiveness of the young journalists in this country is a great deal better than one would have expected.

Let’s take the case of the Stanbic Bank/ADB issue. The Sunday after I wrote that article, I contacted a journalist from the Business and Financial Times. I gave him what he has considered a "scoop" on the ADB/Stanbic story, which I am quite chuffed about. More importantly, though, was his tenacity, his questioning, his seeking of clarifications for the story, which turned out to be a front-page story like this:



This, within two days!!

I was more than impressed. As I was equally impressed to have heard that Bernard Avle, broadcast Journalist-cum-Economist of the private radio station, CITI FM 97.3, had had his show win the award for "NEW RADIO STATION of the year" and "TALK/INTERACTIVE SHOW of the year", for no less than BBC's Africa Radio Awards for West Africa!

I have spoken and interacted with Avle a number of times, and can say that he thoroughly deserves it! Full of humility on the evening of the win, in his response to the flagship CITI Eyewitness News, he praised the producers (Soloman Alhaji—sp?), among others of the show, and the number of unsung heroes who make the show possible. He told me he did a google search of his name—only to find his name featured in a number of entries yours truly had made about him!;-) It is good to know that it is something he appreciated.

Whatever the case may be, my view is that this is how the budding journalists in the country should be behaving...fifty years on!