GN Radio Channel Manager, Prince Osei Tutu
Group Ndoum has finally established GN-TV and GN Radio-UK at a ceremony at Kennington Business Park on Saturday 4th November 2017.
The launch was well attended by a cross-section of diplomats, dignitaries, traditional chiefs and some patrons of the Groupe Ndoum empire.
According to their information, GN-TV will be on Sky Channel by the 16th of November 2017 and the channel number will be communicated as and when it is ready. GN-TV will also be on the Free-View channel as well as many others later on.
The president of Groupe Ndoum, Dr Papa Kwesi Ndoum, thanked his dedicated employees who are making all the necessary strides for the progress of the company.
Placing much emphasis in his address, Dr Papa Kwesi said GN-TV-UK is a channel that will enable the strengthening and discovery of linkages to culture, business, sports, politics, religion, and entertainment activities.
Not only that, but also educate, and promote values and aspirations and also celebrate success, be it individual, corporate or national.
Programmes to be aired on the station include 'TALK AFRICA', which will be showing from 06:30:00 to 08:30:00 Monday to Sunday and 'SUNSHINE AVENUE', an entertainment series set in Accra with various intriguing stories about life in Accra.
The others are AFRICAN BUSINESS NEWS, which will broadcast trending African businesses and the latest technologies that support them. 'AFRIMIXX', Documentaries and others complete the list.
Having numerous radio stations in Ghana, the founder of the People’s Progressive Party, Dr Papa Kwesi Ndoum, has bought into the idea of expanding his media outlets as far as London.
In 2015, the ownership of Diamond Radio broadcasting on Sky Channel 0185 changed hands and then re-branded to Ahomka Radio and later moved on to the Digital Audio Broadcasting platform.
With regards to the re-branding of Ahomka Radio-UK to GN Radio, the channel manager Prince Osei-Tutu usually said “Ahomka Radio is the name of our sister station in Ghana, so we adopted that as the UK version and as time goes on, the company is growing, and we belong to a group called Groupe Ndoum, which has about fifty subsidiaries under the Group Ndoum umbrella hence GN Radio”.
Talking about their latest business model he said, “now we are also going to incorporate our TV station which is called GN TV, so we thought it is wise to standardise our branding by changing the name Ahomka Radio-UK to GN Radio-UK”.
In the direction of content and programming, it looks as if GN Radio is not going to repeat or run programs as formally as Ahomka Radio-UK, but rather differently as Mr Osei Tutu puts it.
He added that the station is now under a new management with a new vision and new ideas and "we are going to bring on board new contents, new presenters that would go in line with the vision that the new management is going to use to run the station”.
GN Media in itself have conglomerates of other media platforms in Ghana and abroad notably in both print and electronic.
The electronic media includes First Digital TV, Amansan TV, (ATV) and Business Television Africa, (BTV) with about some 15 radio stations throughout Ghana.
Hedjorle is its online radio station as well as Today Newspaper, and Theghanaianjournal.com
Many a station sets up for different reasons and objectives, so when asked as to what the identity of the station is and what is expected of GN Radio-UK, in his concluding remarks Mr Osei Tutu said "GN Radio's vision is to link the world to Africa by telling the true story of Africa”.
The status of the station as Ahomka Radio since its re-branding did not see any dramatic changes in terms of content programming as compared to Diamond Radio.
So the current re-branding of Ahomka Radio to GN Radio may only be once again just a name change or a narrative change in broadcasting.
Looking at it either way, the central questions still remain the same as to how ready and strategic Groupe Ndoum and their re-branded station GN Radio be.
Staking their claim within the Ghanaian community living in the UK and the diaspora will not be as simple and easy as has been experienced by the previous name-changing and re-branding ones.
These questions are so because, the Ghanaian community in the UK and its environs arguably needs a radio station that will be different, unique and refreshing in terms of content and programming.
If their theme is anything to go by, then it says 'We serve our customers with Enthusiasm, Innovation and Discipline and for the Company, we serve with loyalty'.
This is the United Kingdom, so listeners, clients and customers alike would definitely hold the company's word to its responsibilities.
