Nana Otu-Gyandoh: I changed the face of urban radio in Ghana

The Head of programmes at Asaase Broadcasting Company Ltd, Nana Otu-Gyandoh, has said he played a major role in transforming urban radio in Ghana.

‘The Gyandoh’, as he is affectionately called, has had over two decades of experience in the Ghanaian radio space.

“I have done radio to the top in Cape Coast,” Otu-Gyandoh said in an interview with Nana Ama Egyirba, the host of Asaase Café on Asaase 100.3 Cape Coast. “I have done radio to the top in Takoradi, Kumasi, so I said let me go and prove a point in Accra.” 

“I am the first person who transformed a sports radio into a morning show in the country, way before Asempa FM. I said I was going to do an entertainment morning show to keep it very youthful. I am the first person who put Shatta Wale on prime radio morning show,” the veteran broadcaster said.

The Asaase journey

According to Otu-Gyandoh, he sees so many opportunities at Asaase Broadcasting Company Limited since it represents his authentic African viewpoint.

“People who know me saw Asaase colours from far and when I was asked to join the team everybody assumed that Gyandoh is part of the building blocks, because the colours of Asaase are me.”

He added: “Everybody knows I love coffee, brown, anything shade of brown I am in there. Because all my life I have represented what I call the contemporary African perspective.

“If you check online and from history anything that depicts Africa, they use dirty earth colour. So, I decided to adopt. And then African languages are expressive, you will realise there is a certain artistic control in every African language and that’s me,” Otu-Gyandoh said.