Growing up, her dream was to be an influential person because she had compassion for the vulnerable and less privileged hence, becoming a broadcaster was not accidental.
Nana Yaa Konadu, a journalist with about two-decade experience in the field was raised in a mission house as her father was a pastor with the Assemblies of God Church. At the early stages of her life, she stayed with a relative in a zongo community. She reckons it was to aid her to know the different faces of life. This, she says, has eventually shaped her life positively.
The newscaster who has been with Accra-based Peace FM for the past seventeen (17) years, first expressed interest in working with Luv FM in Kumasi but her desire was crushed; the company would not employ her.
“There was a lady who kept asking me about job experience as though there were many radio stations at the time,” she recalled in an interview on ‘Restoration With Stacy’.
“It didn’t break me; I still wanted to do radio. Fox FM started operating so I went there and begun working,” she said but added that she exited after a while because the environment was not conducive.
“I got the opportunity to be a staff but it wasn’t how I thought it would be. When I report to work, it appeared as though one had to beg before one would be given the opportunity to work.”
Her passion for the job took her to Brekum where she settled at Chris FM. That decision, however, came with its own challenges.
In the interview monitored by GhanaWeb, Nana Yaa Konadu said she had to plead with some persons to convince her father just so he gives her the nod to leave Kumasi for Brekum. But for the intervention of these persons, her father would have objected because he argued that she would be a stranger in Brekum – for she had no relative there.
According to her, the father later drove her to Brekum and handed her over to the owner of the station, Christopher. Her father, she recalled, asked her employer to take care of her. This was in 1999.
"I was focused. I had no friends. From work, I go home, record GBC news, transcribe and translate to Twi for my radio station" she recounted. “I was the youngest female staff. We had no cleaner so I scrubbed, cleaned and washed."
"Chris was astonished when he realised I did all these so he asked me to come home after work. Earlier, I was told I'd be paid 4 cedis. When I went home, Chris told me he’d rather give me 12 cedis. I was happy. He told me he had worked with so many people but none has my traits."
From Chris FM, she moved to Kumasi where she worked with Invisible FM, now Nhyira FM but called it quits after few months because it was not financially rewarding.
She said: "I quit. The next day, I got a call to work with Ash FM.”
While at Ash FM, she hosted ‘Abibrem Nsem’ – a program centered on the Africa.
“One day, I went to a Despite shop for CDs to aid me do production for my show. I met Bro Ebo who said he had heard I wasn't in Ghana. While we spoke, he called Fadda Dickson of Peace FM that he's seen me. Fadda spoke to me and asked me to come to Accra immediately,” she recalled her journey to Peace FM.
Watch the full interview below:
