Letter to Hot FM 98.3, Abuja
Posted by trae_z on March 4th, 2006
Anybody who knows me well knows that I’m intoxicated with my radio/music as much as Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni is intoxicated with power (but I dey think clearly oh!). So I don’t take it lightly with anybody who tries to diminish the enjoyment I derive from music/listening to the radio. In line with that, this post goes out to Hot FM 98.3, an Abuja radio station because from my point of view they can really do with some improvements. They’re one of the nine radio stations in Abuja; they’re privately owned and have been around for over a year. Other stations in the ABJ area are: Cool FM 96.9, Rhythm FM 94.7, Ray Power 100.5, Crowther FM 104.5, Kapital FM 92.9, Aso Radio 93.5, Vision FM 92.1 and Zuma FM 88.5. The improvements should be in four major ways:
Reading of playlists should be stopped. It would really help if you guys stopped letting in us in on the songs you’re going to play for the next hour before playing them. It spoils the fun of the whole thing. When playlists are left unpredictable, when the songs come up they are all the more enjoyable for the song’s lovers. It hits them like a gift from heaven. I guess that’s why we all love the shuffle/random function on our PC’s media player, CD deck, Discman, IPod etc. But when the playlist is announced and the songs don’t suit a listener’s taste he most likely changes the dial and that ain’t good for listernership numbers.
Presenters should stop being empty. This sounds harsh but for real your presenters are empty. In the sense that most of the time they have nothing to say…dull personalities. E.g.: you just heard “be happy” hope you guys are happy, just heard “show me love” have you should someone love today? Etc. If they ain’t telling us we’re on to Hot FM and they’re playing hot music, they’re asking us if we’re hot, or telling us the time, or their names, or not to change the dial, or what they’ll be playing next. There’s nothing really captivating in their speech, nothing to make you look forward to listening to a particular presenter. Ideally besides the basics, presenters usually dish out facts, give advice, tell stories, jokes, give infotainment news, or say stuff that’s relevant to current societal happenings.
Cooling it with the hype and jingles. The hype you guys build on air (hot this, hot that) is too damn much and the jingles you play are too damn long and many. Can we get more of five seconds or less jingles? And it’s made all the more worse by the fact that minus music and news there’s not much to look forward to. Your presenters are not utilized well/fully thus their fan base is not built. Could we have more programmes and really interesting ones at that?
Presenters should work on their accent. As an on air personality your voice and accent should be pleasant to the ears. It’s good to go natural because if you fake you end up sounding stupid when speaking Pidgin English or pronouncing names in vernacular. I get an earache when I listen to a lot of your presenters. The chick (Shola) that anchors the “flava of Naija” youth programme on radio is a good example of how to balance your flow or keep it real both ways. Her flow is flexible such that she drops her English sweetly (she doesn’t blow hyper phonetics) and flawlessly switches to pidgin/vernacular when the need arises and it’s all pure. Okay now, adios.
Hot FM’s Chaz Bruce doing his thing. Picture originally available here.
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True talk and we get the same ish over here. endless banter about nothing and 20 mins adverts selling the same thing.
the playlist can work two ways. sometimes you hear a song and when it’s done you itching for the name and the presenter comes on announcing the next one. you’re like c’mon what was that song? but i agree. at least if they have a website they can publish the playlist after the show for the curious.
Hey, i just sent this link to my sister, she does the morning show with Chris on hotfm.
She’ll beg to differ about her own show.
ok, good looking out man.
one more thing: the “battle of the sexes” saturday morning program is so childish. it’s just basically back and forth bickering about who is better, men or women. why not alternate between male and female errors instead.
trae. i want to thank u for taking time out to sample HOTFM out of the many radio stations in abuja and i must say that all ur comments are constructive and, in some ways, true.
it true that we read out our playlists but this is only at the top of the hour when we take a billboard and we only mention 3 song. d song u’ll hear next, a song u’ll hear in d middle of the hour and one that will wrap up the hour. considering that we play approximately 15 songs an hour. u see, our aim is to appeal to as many people as we can. Some people, unlike urself, like knowing what to expect and enjoy waiting 4 ‘that song they havent hear in years’.. it keeps them on our dial and we are given the opportunity to sell our station to them, by playing more music we hope they’ll love, while they wait. and for all those after the surprise, i’m sure we can find a song out of the 4/5 songs left in the hour to thrill u.
on being empty… gosh that IS harsh! Well i can only speak authoritatively on my show and yes, i do beg to differ! our morning show is upbeat, informative and most importantly a great laugh. it has the highest listenership of all the 9 radio stations (nbc fact!). i challenge u to listen to our show and tell us if u dont learn a minimum of 3 new AND interesting facts. u will be laughing and u’ll get to hear first hand from the many callers we get, how our show always makes their day. We have a strong fan base and we take pride in the fact that no caller gets off the phone without a smile.
i wont say anymore, why dont u listen to it and then u can write another article on how much u loved it! (and ofcourse, if u spot a fake accent, which u wont, pls feel free to write all about it)
i officially welcome u into the hot breakfast club from 7-9am on ur number 1 super station hot 98.3fm
if u want u can call the studio during the show to tell chris and i what u really think.
we are all about improvement.
hi,i think you guys are doing a great job,its hard tryna get pple entertained especially in abuja,but you guys are doing it,i remember listening to our shows i loved the music.just want to say hi to all of my family in nigeria,i miss you all.
GOOD DAY AND VERY SORRY TO DERAIL YOU PEOPLE, MY AIM OF DROPPING BY, IS THAT I AM A YOUNG GRADUATE AND READ MASS COMMUNICATION IN CAMEROON AND HAVE WORKED IN FOUR RADIO STATIONS OUT OF NIGERIA IN COUNTRIES LIKE CAMEROON, GABON AND IVORY COAST. I WILL LOVE TO WORK IN HOT 98.3FM ABUJA BUT UNFORTUNATELY AM NEW TO ABUJA AND DO NOT HAVE THEIR ADDRESS. I WILL LOVE ANYONE HERE TO HELP WITH THE ADDRESS SO I CAN DROP MY CV. I SPEAK BOTH FRENCH AND ENGLISH VERY WELL AND WILL LOVE TO WORK WITH THEM. THANKS FOR READING, MY NUMBER IS 08030836159. THANKS