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20.08.2017 Opinion

With RTP Awards 2017 in the offing: the ‘Most Outstanding” of the 200 best stations will be revealed.

By Richmond Nii Quarcoo
With RTP Awards 2017 in the offing: the Most Outstanding of the 200 best stations will be revealed.
20.08.2017 LISTEN

During the week, I stumbled on a press release from the organisers of the Radio and Television Personality Awards indicating that the door was opened for presenters and all involved in Radio and Television In Ghana, to file their nomination to compete in this year’s awards.

I was glad because I saw it as an opportunity to distinguish between the outstanding and the ordinary. You are probably asking yourself “What do you mean”. Every radio jingle trumpets themselves as the best station whereas most TV presenters point out that that they are the best in Ghana. Tune in to at least 5 radio stations and within an hour and you are likely to hear each of them claim the number one spot in Ghana. Presenters tooting their own horn is a norm all over the globe and so it is fine.

The funny bit is that, as far as listeners are concerned, the station they listen to or watch is the best among the best. Unlike football, Stoke City fans know and admit that their team isn’t as good as a Chelsea or Manchester united, every station’s unique fan base is convinced that their station of choice is the best.

In truth, only listeners can determine which station gives them what they want and the presenter who informs with well researched content, educates on values that shapes society and entertains them with wholesome quality of fun above all else.

This is why I look forward to each RTP Awards event as an opportunity to know who really is the best of the best and who is paying lip service to get recognition.

In view of this, I get very disappointed when some presenters decide not to contest for the awards after years of boasting. The RTP Awards is a great platform to project our media personalities who have been a check and balance on political institutions, brought a spotlight to stories that were buried and showcasing their skills to make us cry, laugh and gloat.

Awards give us the unique opportunity to pinpoint those who excelled above all, those who are confident in their work and to those who do not participate it demonstrates a lack of courage to subject one’s work to evaluation. The worse of the year to me are those who lacked the courage to file for nomination in spite of besting themselves the whole year.

The RTP Awards has become the yardstick for measuring who really attained excellence in the year of review. The RTP Awards like the VGMA is a Ghanaian based award that should be supported to grow by stakeholders and the good people of Ghana. We cannot compare them to the BETs, Oscars and Grammys when these awards having been running for years, corrected their mistakes and have huge budgets.

The success of those awards shows means that the RTP awards will grow into big platform of honouring excellence in the media on the African continent. We need to outgrow the needless comparison and focus on building what is ours and make it good enough for us. I have travelled to a number of African countries and I can only be proud of the calibre of people who command the airwaves in this country. Yes, exposure to the Aljazeera’s, BBCs and CNNs may tempt us to compare them directly to others and rubbish the good work they do here but that is a wrong way to assess them.

Our broadcasters demonstrate the diagnoses capacity of doctors or nurses, educates and inform us like teachers or professors, and investigate matters of national concerns like lawyers and forensic investigators. They are good enough for us therefore the little we can give do is to encourage, and celebrate them.

Our media should cut the negative and be ambassadors to the Award that recognises their work and rewards them for their effort. Early this year, I wrote an article to condemn the deliberate demonization of the VGMA by people who should be thankful for its inception and existence.

Thankfully, compared to this year’s RTP Awards, the negativity is on the low.

To the organisers we are looking at you, you have decided to carry a huge task, no one asked you to you did. We expect that your process are open and fair, and continue to keep and protect the integrity of the RTP Awards. I hope you do a great job to make us proud as a nation.

I will keep my fingers crossed and wait patiently to know the most outstanding in excellence of the best stations in Ghana because I am tired of every station being the best in Ghana.

Richmond Nii Quarcoo

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