Starr FM to bring about refreshing change?

JOY FM’s longest serving and former host of the late afternoon programme Drive Time has resurfaced at Starr FM the newest radio station about to hit the Accra airwaves. Starr 103.5FM is the rebranded name of Power FM which was also previously known as Agoo FM.

Earlier last month we broke the news here that Bola Ray would leave Joy FM at the end of the month. Interestingly though Bola Ray is not leaving Joy FM to Starr FM as merely a presenter of their late afternoon show or any other show for that matter, but as the Chief Executive Officer of the parent company that owns the station.

Although he most likely will be involved as a presenter from the beginning to stabilize the station. Then there seem to be an Avengers-like list of radio and TV presenters who will be arriving from different stations to work with Bola Ray and his team at Starr FM.

They include Nii Ayi Tagoe (Joy FM), William Nanka Bruce or DJ Blow (formerly of YFM) and Kafui Dey (formerly of Choice FM and host of TV quiz show Who Wants to Be Rich?).

Others are Patrick Ayumu (formerly of Citi FM and Radio XYZ), Paa Kwesi Asare (former business news presenter at Joy FM), Sammy Darko (formerly of Joy FMand current BBC Accra correspondent), Jon Germain (formerly of Choice FM, Citi FM, XFM and host of Allo Tigo on Metro TV).

Some presenters of sports and news such as Henry Asante Twum, Dennis Mepuri, Kweku Obeng Adjei, Seth Gyapong who all worked with Power FM before the rebranding will continue to work with the new station.

As CEO of the Excellence In Broadcasting (EIB) Group, Nathaniel Kwabena Anokye Adisi (which is Bola Ray’s official name) will be responsible for running not just Starr FM in Accra, but other radio stations across the country, a source told me recently.

The EIB Group, which sources say Bola Ray owns some shares in with the rest owned by former governor of the bank of Ghana Kwabena Duffuor, also owns Ultimate Radio in Kumasi and has acquired a few radio stations in other regions to build a nationwide media group.

The stations EIB Group has acquired are Agoo FM and Hi FM in the Eastern Region as well as Cool FM in Cape Coast with Bola Ray’s Empire FM in Takoradi coming on board as partner station. Sources say the group will acquire a few more stations in due course.

Starr FM has former Joy FM presenter and programmes director of Asempa FM, Adom FM and Joy FM respectively Cox Tamakloe as General Manager who it is hoped would design the programme and recruit the right personnel to see to the growth of the station.

Meanwhile the EIB Group has also acquired a television licence for a free-to-air channel and they hope to start transmission by December this year, a source close to the station hinted.

Starr (and the group for that matter) has obviously collected some big name presenters (and a few more are yet to sign whose names have been mentioned), but can they shine as bright as a star? Time will tell.