Renowned broadcaster and former drive time (Kwanso brebre) host of Peace FM, Fiifi Banson has disclosed that he left the Despite Media Group because he wanted to try a new challenge on radio.
He had hosted the drive time from 1999 when Peace FM had just been established to 2015 when he was poached by EIB.
At EIB, Fiifi Banson hosted the ‘Anopa Kasapa’ breakfast show on Kasapa FM– a totally new thing he had never done on radio ever since he entered the media industry in 1993.
Although he started as a sports pundit and presenter from GBC and later joined Radio Gold where he worked as a sports journalist until he veered to host a music programme for a while before joining Peace FM.
Speaking to Agyemang Prempeh (Agyengo), host of Legends on TV XYZ, the veteran journalist indicated that he knew Kasapa FM would be his exit point.
“After many years in the industry, I wanted to try a new challenge before exiting from the media space,” he said in Akan when asked why he left Peace FM.
He indicated he prepared his own contract and set his own terms when joining EIB.
“I drafted my own contract,” he disclosed.
That means he set his own terms and conditions for the EIB.
The management accepted his terms and agreed that his official vehicle will be given to him should he decide to part ways with them.
He would not disclose the amount he was offered at EIB when he was poached but hastened if it was for money alone he would not have left Peace FM.
“Which amount will Brother Osei [Owner of Despite Media] not give me if I asked him for it, ” he added to buttress his reason for leaving Peace FM.
Fiifi Banson who is also known as the ‘Dynamite’ left EIB in 2018 and has since not hosted any radio show.
He says he is doing well financially but that is not why he is not on radio.
“I had my own plan to leave after some time,” he added.
Asked if he listens to radio he said “No, I don’t.”
“Once in a while I listen to Lexis Bill on Joy FM; once in a while I listen to Kojo Yankson on Joy,” he stated.
That is because he does not think most of the current crop of radio presenters are shallow-minded.
He said most of them are on air by chance and not by their talent, adding that most of the recent radio presenters “do not research about various issues.”
Radio in recent times is not exciting enough so he is better of not listening to any.
Asked about Peace FM, he said once in a while he listens to Odiahenkan Kwame Yeboah who is currently hosting the drive time– the show Banson hosted.
“I once in a while listen to my boy Odiahenkan.”
Asked if he was satisfied with how his ‘boy’ is handling the show on Peace FM, he said, “he is struggling.”
“He needs to do more. He is not a drive time host. If he gets a good drive time host, he can do quite well. He’s a sidekick to the drive time,” Banson added.
If he has the opportunity to manage a radio station, Fiifi Banson said he would employ Odiahenkan to be a “sidekick to the drive time host.”
He would not compare Odiahenkan and Mickey Darling who was his sidekick when he was hosting the drive some years back on Peace FM.
“I won’t choose between any of them because they are working together,” he added.
Banson also noted the drive time he left behind on Peace FM isn’t the same as he left it.
Source: myxyzonline.com
