By Isaac Massaquoi
Let's be honest, radio in Sierra Leone has become very predictable. I am referring to a situation in which creativity, which is the mother's milk of radio has been allowed to take a severe battering at the hands of mass production and unimaginative programme-making.
So we don't wake up in the morning looking forward to well-produced magazine programmes dealing with a broad range of issues, reflecting voices and views from across the whole spectrum of our society. Production skills like the use of wild track and sound effects carefully crafted on easily available computer software like cool edit pro, are non-existent.
What we have as magazine programmes running in radio stations all over the country, in some cases for two hours daily, are lengthy interviews with studio guests, some of whom frankly deserve no more than five minutes on certain shows.
Then there is the inevitable attempt at interacting with the audience by means of instant SMSs. That's very good. But a not-so-careful observation would reveal that the democratic space created by the radio stations with way of interactivity has been captured by a handful of people who have opinions about everything under the sun. They are either attention-seekers or part of the elaborate spin machine politicians from all sides have put in place to attempt influence public opinion in their favour. It's either our radio stations have not noticed this capture or have simply surrendered to spin.
We can argue about the quality of some of the interviews next time but for now the issue is the amount of time sometimes allocated to some civil servant who comes on radio looking over his shoulders for the messenger who would deliver his letter of dismissal if he told the truth about the wretchedness of his ministry, department or agency. That also applies to a clutch of civil society organisations who only use the media to bolster their public profile and all that flows from it in terms donor support or politicians and spin doctors whose frequent media appearances result in more heat than light being generated about an issue of national significance.
The other pastime is for our ministers to sing the praises of the president - constantly talking about his "wisdom," his "commitment" and his "love for the people," It's now a kind of national sport. The point is, I don't necessarily have any quarrel with ministers making such public show of their undiluted loyalty to the president. They owe their jobs and status to him. But when a colleague and I met one of such "totally loyal" minister at a small pub in central Freetown just a week or so after he was unexpectedly sacked, he made certain statements that left me convinced about the unbridled hypocrisy that runs through the veins of some politicians. It's easy to prove me wrong. Just listen to popular radio programmes anytime newspapers start speculating about a pending cabinet reshuffle. And it appears that the strategy is working for many of them - how else can we explain their political longevity.
The public knows a lot of them have performed badly in office but they are still hanging in there, doing the rounds of radio studios every week to convince the president about their suitability for office.
We always accuse people from generations before us of painting an unbelievable picture of their so-called good old days. The impression they create is that in their days things were better and our generation would never have it so good. I believe that It's very difficult to look back to any such good old days with my 21st century lens. All I see now, is a world completely changed by technological advancement. Broadcasting is one industry that has experienced the biggest growth in its infrastructure, reach and power as a result of modern day technology available to today's programme makers.
Sierra Leonean broadcasters have access to much of the new tools of the trade but I can argue that they have largely failed to take advantage of the full range of possibilities offered by technology in programme-making to the extent that they have allowed people like us who have a bit of a foothold in the so-called good old days of broadcasting in Sierra Leone to talk about something being radically wrong with today's programming and general approach to radio.
Let me demonstrate this quickly: go back to the days when Babatunde Roland May was a football commentator with Abu Bockarie and the late Fode Kandeh serving as analysts; the internet had not exploded in Sierra Leone as now and the latest Information on football from all over the world on sites like Goal.com, Sky Sports and Live Score for example were not available to them in that cubicle at the national stadium. Today's football commentators have all these facilities plus more but do they compare with that golden generation? I can call them that. There are other variables in this comparison but I am assuming that at all times only the most competent people are put forward by broadcasters for such events. If you challenge me on this point, then I would simply refer to the variables in your counter argument as the problem with broadcasting in Sierra Leone today.
Here's another example: Many years ago, the SLBS had a current affairs programme titled The Latest. It was a brave attempt to round up the day's major events in the country in just half an hour. Equipment was basic, producers were few but content, scripting and presentation was top quality. When Cecil Blake became minister of information in Tejan Kabbah's government, he described broadcast equipment at SLBC as Iron Age tools. Today's current affairs producers have all the technology and luxury of one hour and half for their programme but The Latest can safely hold its ground after all these years and I can still describe Joshua Nicol - a producer of The Latest as one of the few world class producers in Sierra Leone.
When I talked about the predictability of radio in this country at the start of this piece in the sense of how programs are produced across the landscape, I forgot to include even the language of continuity announcing, interviewing and presentation. I have an exercise book of nearly forty pages filled with such expressions that I pick up daily. And I make it a habit of writing them down, no matter how many times they are used on radio stations in and out of Freetown. Here are a few of them: Every announcer on our radio stations tells their audience to stay tuned to this FINE FREQUENCY. What does that mean? Current affairs magazine presenters without exception, invite their studio guests to, CONTINUE TO STAY WITH US. I remember that line from the days of UN radio.
Forget about the construction for now. My point here is why is every presenter on every other radio station using the same line? Why?
Interviews are the most problematic. I am not going into any details about how to handle this most basic tool of information gathering in this edition. I am simply calling attention to some extremely redundant expressions that our broadcasters think they just cannot do without when they conduct interviews. Let's go: they will always ask their interviewees this question: WHAT MODALITIES OR MECHANISMS HAVE YOU PUT IN PLACE for bla, bla, bla. Is there no other way of asking an interviewee what he was doing about something? Then look at this: every interview ends with the interviewee being asked to give his last word as if they were being taken to the firing range to be shot. Again, there may not be anything fundamentally wrong with construction but why are they all using the same words? And why should all interviews end with a LAST WORD?
The tragedy is that it appears nobody is taking notice how they all sound the same and how a little annoying that can be. Where is the variety and diversity in content and style that more than forty radio stations promised at registration? In fact, if all the radio stations are collapsed into one - management, programme schedule and reach, Sierra Leoneans would miss nothing.
Please don't understand this work as one from a man living in the past. I did acknowledge somewhere in this piece that a lot of good work was taking place in our radio stations and I congratulate them for that. But how about managing time a bit more prudently, opening up the airwaves to ordinary people just like officials are enjoying today, reclaiming the interactive space from the political spin machine, making interviews a bit more purposeful and doing all what is humanly possible to sound different from everybody else and increasing creativity by stretching the power of modern technology to unimaginable levels in programme-making?
(C) Politico 21/12/15
