On the Weekend City Show
The Weekend City Show on Joy FM was not meant to be a comedy show, it was meant to be that show that comes to you on Saturday mornings with a potpourri of soft items including music, information tidbits and other trivia.
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Those who have listened to the Weekend City Show for a long time are likely to remember that the show has undergone several changes with different presenters taking it up one time or another all with the view to getting the right balance for the weekend relaxation of listeners before the hard issues of politics and sports kick in.
Out of the many presenters that passed through, the most quintessential presenter of the show for a very long time was Rami Baitie, the extremely witty banker who presented the show far longer than most others.
When he was the boss on the Weekend City Show I would count the days from Monday and hope that Saturday would arrive early so Baitie would be on to give me that show that would help me wind down from all the piled up stress during the week.
Rami’s laid back approach, his exotically laced choice of music on the show, his extremely caustic tongue and his world famous trivial information added to his weekly selection of the moron or as he called it “toonoo” of the week is the quintessence I talk about.
I completely lost hope in the Weekend City Show when Rami Baitie left the show and I am very certain I did not hide it. I thought the real essence of the show had been lost and nothing really moved me go out of my way to listen as I used to.
Since Rami Baitie left there have been some efforts at changing the show from the way it was laid back to adding some verve and a lot more humour to spruce it up. I don’t know if this has happened by accident or by design from the programmes people at the station.
For instance there was a time when Ruddy Kwakye and a gang of guys including current host Citi Drive on Citi FM, Nii Kpakpo Thomson took over the morning with comedic stunts as they took on people who had really goofed, in the reckoning of the team, and made fun of them. Listeners with sharp memory would recall the “it’s only a fool who doesn’t change his wife” episodes that was ascribed to him and therefore riled Mr. E.T. Mensah so much.
Within this same period were the Nii Ayi Tagoe and the Ato Kwamena Dadzie years. Those two and their extras took the comedic angle of the show to a different level as they made mincemeat of the people who had goofed in the week among other silly stunts of music and trivia.
The show had peaked when Ato Kwamena left but that also created another vacuum and left Nii Ayi Tagoe to his fate. It was for a while a show that played music and made effortless attempt at humour and you couldn’t wait for Newsfile to start.
Then someway somehow they pushed Anny Osabutey on to the show and though it was not an instant hit with him as Tagoe’s humour partner and sidekick on the Weekend City Show, he grew into it gradually and overtime the pairing became sensible.
The CNN/Multichoice African Journalists Awards winner Osabutey has a very good sense of humour and a very strong heart to go with it. He can say things that many would dare not say or even if they did they would have apologized for it the “Akuapem way.”
What I like about Osabutey is his production mind. He comes to the show prepared with what sounds like a well scripted production. If it has to be music he learns how to sing and perform it creditably in that terrible voice. Then there is that annoying guffaw that he unleashes on listeners every Saturday morning.
The two have found a bond that works perfectly for them but also one that is very bad when the two are not together on the show. For some reason, although Anny Osabutey would be doing the same thing that he does every Saturday it doesn’t come out very well and very humorous when Nii Ayi Tagoe is not around and vice versa.
Since this union has been going on and gaining currency it feels like the Baitie days again and although it is just music and comedy I look forward to the show every Saturday morning. Among other things it is the jaunt on radio on Saturday to catch up on the goofs and in some cases the nonsense that people have spewed in the ensuing week.
Oh and it is also to hear Nii Ayi Tagoe trying to sing in another language apart from English and Ga and have a laugh with Anny Osabutey’s croaky voice and Prampram-ish Akan.
Indeed the two have been lighting up the Weekend City Show for a while now and long may it continue as listeners deserve some humour before a barrage of proper lawyer and pocket lawyer political talk on Newsfile.
I could have titled this piece “Two Bald Men Brighten Accra Radio” but that would be giving too much credit to these Ga and Prampram men who respectively support Manchester United and Arsenal so let’s leave it as it is.
By Francis Doku
Email: [email protected]; Twitter: @TheGHMediaGuy