15 hours listening to Armed Forces Radio

If you were born into lots of money and all you need do is spend the money, with no need whatever to make more money; what would you do with the money and with your time? As it turned out, listeners who called into the programme had much more to say about what they would […]

If you were born into lots of money and all you need do is spend the money, with no need whatever to make more money; what would you do with the money and with your time?
As it turned out, listeners who called into the programme had much more to say about what they would do with the money than what they would do with their time; perhaps because to arrange the spending in the most beneficial ways is itself a lot of work. This became apparent in the answers the callers gave to the question of what they would do with the money.
By the way, the twin question about much money and how you would react to it came from the Armed Forces Radio, a megaphone of the Nigeria military broadcasting from Abuja, in the course of airing one of a recent edition of evidently one of its most popular programmes.
Tune in to 107.7 FM along the 15 hours (6 am to 9 pm) that the Armed Forces Radio, otherwise called Defense Radio, is on air each day and you get similarly intriguing soft-touch issues of daily life and how people are dealing or may deal with them.
In Nigeria, pre-GSM FM radio stations had playing of music as their mainstay. They played music for hours without end, turning to other programmes such as news, current affairs, sports and the likes only now and then. But with the coming of GSM, with virtually everyone clutching a hand-phone to make and receive calls, phone-in programmes have become the meat, bone and blood of FM station programming.
This would be why the Armed Forces Radio, the youngest of a motely 19 FM stations in Abuja, could broadcast phone-in programmes and have audience members steadily calling in as if it is the only FM station that Abuja knows.
Such is how popular the discussion programme just described is: the Armed Forces Radio’s Have Your Say. Such is how popular the station’s other many discussion programmes are. They are the mainstay of the Armed Forces Radio, a station commissioned by former President Goodluck Jonathan one week before he came to the end of his reign last May, primarily to be The Authentic Voice of the Nigerian Military, as its motto proclaims.
Jonathan said in the maiden broadcast from the station during its commissioning, “I recall at times, some people will come to me and say, ‘Nigerians do not know what the military is doing; are they covering up?’ And sometimes other nations bring in foreign media to cover their operations and things are exaggerated as if they are even working harder than us. So, today that you are launching your radio station will be a turning point. Some of your operations will be properly covered and Nigerians will know. If they know what you are doing and what you are passing through, they will remain grateful. So, I am pleased you are commissioning a radio station.”
Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) at the time, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh who also spoke on the occasion which was held at the Armed Forces Radio broadcasting complex in Mogadishu Cantonment in Asokoro, remarked, “Negative propaganda against the Nigerian Military by certain foreign outfits brought to the fore the need to have an outfit through which a fair and accurate account of activities of the Nigerian Military will be disseminated.”
True to the mandate, the Armed Forces Radio snaps at news items having anything to do with the armed forces and airs it. It does so lavishly, and the news beats it is unable to reach, it gets from other mediums, mostly the broadcasting outlets of other federal media establishments like the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and Voice of Nigeria (VON).
The activities of the Nigerian military in the war against Boko Haram in the Northeast expectedly dominate the Defense Radio’s news programmes, but snippets of other armed forces-related commitments, events and happenings also frequently come. And some seasons turn up to make the station busy with things of particular interest to defense, such as in January when it feasted for days on activities around the Armed Forces Remembrance Day.
Beyond relishing contents designed to inform the public about the activities of the various arms of the nation’s security agencies however, the Armed Forces Radio is like any another FM station for the listening needs of the general public.
By its array of programmes, the station appears conscious of a need to widen its audience base beyond the military to the general population whose appreciation the military hierarchy said in the beginning that it required.
Armed Forces Radio programmes on a Monday include Dangerous Driving, which runs between 8 and 9 am, and it is a one-hour delivery road safety in which listeners call in to responds to comments and posers from presenters. Let’s Talk is programme which follows immediately after Dangerous Driving which features listener discussion on usually challenging public-oriented topics chosen by the radio producers. The Money Show in which the gist is usually about money, runs from 11.30 am to 12.30 pm every Monday. Neighbour, My Neighbour, a community enlightenment drama, runs from 12.30; and is followed by a collection of music tit bits, including music in the ‘80s, and runs up to 3 pm.
Beyond Bullets is a one-hour programme dedicated to armed forces news particularly on the Boko Haram insurgency, running from 3 to 4 pm on Monday. The programme features mostly news items surrounding activities of the various military services, mostly the Nigerian Army and the Air Force. The bits that get highlighted usually include not only the exploits of the military but also losses, including deaths of officers in course of fight against Boko Haram elements. IDP issues are also covered.
Many news items are sourced from other media outlets, mostly Voice of Nigeria. Beyond Bullets, from weeks of listening to it and other programmes of the Armed Forces Radio, is typically a collection of news mostly on events of the previous week.
Born to Win Incorporated is a motivational commentary aired at 5.45 pm Monday and is followed with News at 6, a 15-minute major news presentation with focus on activities of the armed forces. Reflections is a programme of roughly 7 minutes in which mostly staff members of the radio station air researched human interest pieces, such as happiness, forgiveness, bereavement, and the likes, and it comes up after the 6 pm news presentation.
Have your Say, scheduled for 7 pm every Monday, is a programme running for one hour, in which a topic of national interest is given and listeners encouraged to contribute to. Topics usually run in such lines as ‘Do you love Nigeria?’ Heart to Heart is Monday’s last programme, starting at 8.05 pm and dedicated to listeners to tell their problem and other listeners to offer advice and sometimes material support.
Days of listening to the Defense Radio programmes showed that events by the military forces are a must-coverage and airing. News items are also commonly written from statements released by the services, the Army and the Air Force mostly, and sometimes the Nigeria Police and other armed forces
The FM radio has the tradition of joining the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) for the 4 o’clock network news every day.
Many of the programme types have repeats in the course of the week but are made fresh because new topics are usually chosen for treatment.
For instance, Reflection which is aired about 6.15 pm on Monday,comes on again immediately after the 4 o’clock network news on Tuesday. Have your Say is also repeated on Tuesday, between 7 and 8pm.
Now, assume that you were born into a fabulously rich home. The money is there and you simply need not work. What will you spend your time doing? It was the tpic thrown up for discussion in one of the Have your Say production of the Armed Forces Radio. These are some of the answers that the listeners gave: “I will build churches and mosques and people who come in to worship will receive money as souvenir.” “I will first pray that God help me to remember where I’m coming from and use the money to help people.” “Money is never enough. I will work, make more money and help the poor.” “I Will build companies in which graduates will work and earn their own money.” “I will build good hospitals and help the needy with free treatment.” “I have money on its way. I will establish skill acquisition centres and set up all trainees with equipment to start out on their own.”
Heart to Heart, as it does on Monday, closes the FM radio’s broadcasting on Tuesday. One of the problems discussed in a recent programme was raised by a young woman. This woman is in love with a man who is being pressured to marry from his place and is beginning to listen. What does she do?
On the same Heart to Heart on the particular day, a man phoned in to say that he had two women. He asked, “I prefer one who has the physical qualities that I want, but the one without my dream physical qualities has the heart and character that I prefer; which of my two women do I marry?