Ebullient Ashorkor, is ‘dope’ on The Zone

0
811

551507_865181673529524_7228214397407180285_n.jpg

I have said before and will repeat it here that the late 1990s and early 2000s gave us some of our best times on radio. At least on radio in Accra. I will say it anywhere and to anybody that on all day parts, we are doing quite poorly compared to what we did in the days gone by.
The morning shows were real morning shows, not the political and newspaper review shows we have today and the presenters were great men and women.
Tommy Annan-Forson, Dusty Wayne, Kwami Sefa Kayi (yeah the Radio Gold one), Komla Dumor, Kwabena Pecku, Joe Tetteh Coffie, Charlie Sam, Nana Ayensu Amonoo, Anne Sekyi, to name a few, were awesome presenters back then.
Similarly, the late afternoon shows had some of the top notch presenters radio has ever known. Gabby Adjetey, Yaw Addo Darkwa, Kwame Farkye, Bushke, Kwesi Anim Agyei, and others dominated the airwaves with good music, wit and creative presentation skills.
The mid-morning back in those days wasn’t any different as there were fantastic presenters who did their work diligently. Doreen Andoh, Naana Dankwa, Naa Ayele Ardayfio, Ivy Heward-Mills, Ivy Apea, Rachel Nyann, Vanessa Odonkor, Patrice Amegashie and others made sure we got our money’s worth listening to their shows on the radio.
Talking about mid-morning and afternoon brings me to the subject of today. When Starr FM started in 2014 the person on whom the station entrusted their mid-morning and afternoon show to was actress and TV presenter Naa Ashorkor Mensah-Doku.
It was a very bold move and a high risk to take with a person who had not been tried nor has she been tested on radio anywhere. Yes, she had been doing a lot of television presenting on many shows over time, but the cold fact was that she was but a novice, a JJC when it came to radio.
She was coming on a platform that was going to compete directly with Doreen Andoh, yes THE DOREEN ANDOH, on Joy FM and Osei Kwame of Citi FM. Let’s not forget the many other non-directly competitive but also strong on their own such as Sammy Forson on YFM, Kofi Kum Bilson on Peace FM, Antoine Mensah on Live FM, Delay on Oman FM, Ohemaa on Adom FM and many more.
As predicted, Naa Ashorkor bottled it totally. She was like fish out of water; she was completely lost and unaware of his surrounding like a deer blinded the headlights of an oncoming vehicle.
Two things needed to happen: she either had to improve and tremendously so or get yanked off the show.
I remember saying on Viasat1 TV when I met with Selina Bebaako-Mensah on Patrice and Kokui’s show during that period that it was in her interest and in the interest of the station that she improves. There was no other way if the show was going to be relevant on the station and on the airwaves.
I must commend whoever it was who had faith in Naa Ashorkor and insisted that she was kept on the show because over time she gathered enough confidence on the show, spoke like a real host of a mid-morning show should speak and delivered her lines perfectly.
She hasn’t got to the level of Doreen, of course nobody gets there, but she is on a level that makes her a very strong contender to whatever prize there is for presenters of mid-morning to afternoon programmes on radio in Accra.
Osei Kwame is a very good presenter and I like him. You know, the kind of presenter who plays very exotic music that you like, the kind who won’t talk over the lyrics until it gets to the end or has an instrumental playing in the background.
He is good and yet he doesn’t come with the smokes and mirrors that characterize that platform. Jessica had raised the bar so high that despite her potential and good voice and very good music taste, Kwame can’t match it.
Doreen, we all know is the magisterial (as Ray Hudson describes Lionel Messi), majestical and undoubtedly occupies the highest echelons of the pantheon of the aristocracy of radio presenters past, present or future. She is the standard that we measure everyone else.
I think Naa Ashorkor has rubbed shoulders so well with Osei Kwame if she has not surpassed him in many things that make a typical morning show. She has a lot to do to get to Doreen’s level (if she’ll ever get there), but as it is now (and for a while now I must say) she is flying like a kite.
She is well prepared before going on air, she knows her topics, interacts very well with her audience when they call, perfect with the interviews and dominates the show with her ebullience and vivaciousness. She ticks all the right boxes.
1918551_10209047359130293_3715796404190142730_n
Together with a very strong team that comprises a producer, a DJ, a social media manager and others who have helped to make The Zone a very interesting one on Accra radio.
Indeed, The Zone on Starr FM is among the most trending mid-morning shows on social media (read Twitter). There is a big army on social media that interacts with Naa Ashorkor every day.
I think the DJ is good too and his music selection from when the show starts to when it ends is very good and he makes her shine very well.
It may be a bit presumptuous to say this, but from the way she is flying, if she could keep at it and get even better, I won’t be surprised if Naa Ashorkor Mensah-Doku emerges as the best female radio presenter at any of the radio and television awards shows to come later in the year. Read my lips: I won’t be surprised.
I recommend The Zone to those who want to listen to the show that has a very effervescent presenter and one who together with her team bring sassiness to mid-morning show in Accra. Just like it was done in the old days.
Credit Graphiconline.com