Entire Staff of FM Station Fired

The Director of Spirit 88.3 FM in Kumasi Mr. Dan Peters has sacked the entire management and staff of the station due to alleged financial problems. Authentic sources from the station told Kapital News that the Director of Spirit FM, a subsidiary of Starcom Broadcasting Services through its Chief Financial Controller, Mr David Ocansey on Thursday, December 29th 2005, verbally dismissed the entire staff of Spirit 88.3 FM saying the station is going bankrupt and needs to take that decision to re-energize it. The all-time gospel station has now being put on auto play, playing gospel tunes automatically with the aid of computers.

In an interview with some of the aggrieved workers of the station, they pointed out that the dismissal was illegally carried out with no letters or compensa! tions. They stated their intention of filing a law suit against the station. In a letter written to the Director of Starcom Broadcasting Services, Mr. Dan Peters, dated December 31, 2005, the aggrieved workers expressed their displeasure at the way the act was carried out and their intention to talk to their lawyers. In a subsequent reply from the director, he pointed out in a letter that, Spirit Fm continues to run at a huge deficit since its inception and he simply does not have the money to continue subsidies. He stated that he trusts that running spirit FM in a smaller operation will save jobs at least, for some people.

In his reply to the group letter sent by the dismissed staff of the station, Mr Dan Peters wrote and I quote, “The practice is common in the USA-to terminate without prior warning. All our major air! lines have done it in recent years for example. And in my business in the USA, sometimes it is necessary to terminate a person's employment. To make it as painless as possible, they leave the premises immediately as soon as they clean out their desks of personal effects. Although it is painful for both parties, it's still legal and ethical.

My accountant once told me 'you can't pay people to be your friend…' “, unquote. When The Financial Controller, Mr. David Ocansey was contacted, he declined to comment saying he was not the manager of Spirit FM. Meanwhile, the Manager of Spirit 88.3 FM was not available to comment at the time of filling this report as his phone was switched off and was not at the premises of the deserted station.