Veteran Broadcaster , Wole Akinbo wants govt to revive Booster station
– Steve Ovirih.
Chief Oluwole Akinbo, the Luhare of Irele , a seasoned news broadcaster and reputable on air personality (OAP), has charged the government of Ondo State to encourage the spread of news broadcast to the hinterlands of Ondo state so that the local communities can be kept abreast of development in the state, noting that the broadcast media is a formidable medium of disseminating information in the 21st century.
Chief Akinbo who has just retired from the Ondo State Radiovision Corporation (OSRC) after thirty five years of meritorious service told the polity.net that the reason a booster station of the Ondo Radio and TV station was located at Okitipupa, along Aye Road will be defeated if government doesn’t revive and sustain the abandoned booster station. He noted that for a very long time now, the people of the Southern senatorial district of Ondo State could not access the TV broad broadband because the booster station has not functioned optimally for a very long period of time .
Tracing his sojourn into the electronic medium of television journalism, Chief Akinbo said he started as a teacher in a public school and along the line, his interest in TV presentation led him to how he eventually settled into broadcast journalism. ” I was recruited in the early eighties and I worked in the station in Akure as a cub reporter. My recruitment was hinged on my ability to do a very good presentation in the indigenous language and when I went in for auditioning, I was assessed as a very good up coming bard.” Akinbo noted that along the line in the course of learning the ropes in the job, he was transferred to Okitipupa division of yore, which covered the length and breadth of Ikale Land and beyond.
Narrating how he got his reports reported on time, he said he had a good rapport with officials of the then NITEL Okitipupa, therefore , any news he covered in the then Ikale Division, he rolled it mute with his voice over through a prompt call to his news room in Akure from the NITEL office and this did not only marvel his superior in office but placed the Ikale communities which he covered in broadcast limelight.
Chief Akinbo said journalists of today are benefitting a lot from the perks of technological advancement particularly in the electronic media, stressing that the broadcast journalists of the 70s, 80s and the early 90s who had to rely on the analogue working tools faced on the job challenge of that era a great deal, noting that the social media has encouraged citizen journalism and a very prompt reportage of event on the go. In his advice to young professionals in the media profession and those who hope to career in any of the branches of journalism, Chief Oluwole Akinbo said the job is not for lazy louts. He rued the syntax challenge among young professionals in the field of print and electronic journalism these days, maintaining that the job is not meant for people with English Language challenge and incompetence, adding that the fallen standard of Education in Nigeria is taking its toll on the Media profession.
He however noted that like every other job, hardwork and steadfastness are required with patience and grace of God, the sky is the limit for any young and upcoming journalists.
Prodded on his advice for the people of Ondo State as Governorship election approaches, Chief Akinbo said ,” the time has come once again for the good people of Ondo State to choose for themselves a Governor. They should choose right. The leader we get is a function of our collective choice and whatever political choice we make as electorate , we just have to live with it for four years. Election , once it’s free and fair is a matter of choice and the electorate are mature people who know where their bread is buttered.
Government too should allow a free and fair election process because that is the joy of Democracy.”
