Welcome The Only Apostle On The Airwaves Of Ho

The advent of FM radio broadcasting in the Volta Regional capital has brought in its way a group of broadcasting talents who have made use of the local Ewe language to educate, inform and entertain the listening public.

In doing this, a few of these presenters have made names for themselves and their names would have been entered into the Radio Hall of Fame in Ho if we had one. Their efforts have undoubtedly led to a more enlighten citizenry most of whom have become aware of their rights, and to some extent, their responsibilities as citizens of this great republic called Ghana.

The importance of reaching out to people in their local languages has not been lost on even the management of the only campus-based radio station in the Volta Region, Volta Premier FM. The station, since its inception, has rolled out a few programmes which air in Ewe aimed at serving the needs of listeners outside the cosmopolitan Polytechnic community which is its primary audience.

To this end, a good number of talented Ewe language presenters have been on the network at various points in history to serve the listeners in this regard. Names such as DJ Sly Pinto, the guy who started this whole Borborbor music craze on radio and Joseph Kwame Amevor (DJ Aseco), who took over from Sly Pinto, come to mind readily as presenters who helped VP FM maintained a semblance of a radio station in a predominantly Ewe speaking town.

Beside Sly Pinto and DJ Aseco, one personality who has for a very long time been serving the Ewe audience of VP FM is Paul Senyo Domey, popularly known as Apostle Paul by his teeming fans in Ho and its environs. If my memory serves me right l started listening to him on this network in the early 2000s and that in my estimation should make him the longest serving on air staff at VP FM.

Since the exit of his one time partner in crime DJ Aseco (they co-hosted a couple of shows) from VP FM he has been the main voice on VP FM when it comes to Ewe language programming. Currently, he ‘chairs’ all Ewe language programmes on VP FM including the very popular market day show, asigbe asi di na and also partners the morning show host to present the newspaper review segment of the morning show.

Apostle Paul’s popularity can partly be attributed to the sheer number of people he personally know within the catchment area of VP FM and invariably does ‘shout outs’ for on his shows. Sometimes, one is tempted to believe he comes to the studio with an extraordinarily big file (l mean the type Kweku Baako carries to his political discussion shows) containing the names of all his acquaintances which should now be reaching half the entire population of the Ho municipality.

His other strengths as a radio personality lie in his great radiogenic voice and good command of the language in which he presents his shows. For someone who seems to have spent a good number of years in the middle belt of the Volta Region it is not surprising he has a thorough understanding of the developmental challenges of the various communities within the catchment area of VP FM.

He is also reputed for his great sense of humour and this makes his own shows on the network the favourites of most people in Ho and its environs. This unique trait is most evident on the comedy show, Toli Time, which he has been hosting since its inception close to ten years now even though the show seems to have lost the steam it started with in recent years. To make the programme more interesting they have introduced a segment dedicated to the reading of some popular Ewe literary works and l hope that works the magic for them.

In the days of the VP FM-VSR duopoly on the airwaves of Ho Apostle Paul competed with only the folks located at the SNNIT Junction on the Residency Road and his dominance in the Ewe speaking market in Ho at that time was never in question. But now that the flood gates have been opened and a few more stations have entered the market with some very interesting talents one only waits to see how the Apostle of radio in Ho deals with the onslaught from his competitors in their bid to capture a bit of what used to be his territory. A case in point is the number of Borborbor shows which currently air at the time that his Saturday afternoon slot airs.

PS. Many interesting things have happened at the campus-based Volta Premier FM in less than two months. After moving their operations from the national power grid to solar the station seems to have joined the elite group of stations which broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 52 long weeks in a year nonstop. This is definitely a laudable achievement in the life of VP FM which used to end its transmission at 10pm in the early days of its existence and later extended to 12am and now ....... If Joy FM is celebrating twenty years and they are rewarding their long serving staff with cars VP FM can also celebrate nineteen years by at least extending their transmission period. This brings the number of stations in Ho operating 24 hours nonstop to three, after Hope FM and Tosh FM.

Writer’s Contact: 020 7398103/0245 871 875