How General Jemibewon Nicknamed me the Music Merchant..Yanju Adegbite, By Ayo Ademokoya

How General Jemibewon Nicknamed the Music Merchant… Yanju Adegbite

By Ayo Ademkoya

Broadcasting in Nigeria especially in the South West and to be specific Oyo state, can never be completed without mentioning the first voice on the Oyo state radio to ever present a program on it and the very first face to appear on the Television Service of Oyo State, now called Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State, Mr. Yanju Adegbite.

Together with the late Alex Condy ,who goes with the mantra “cat and the kittens of the in crowds’  and ‘Your Music Merchant….Yanju Adegbiteeeeeee…rocks the airwave on the popular afternoon show on radio O-Y-O, ‘the Big show’ from the late 1970’s to the mid 1980’s.   Presently serving as the Special Adviser to the Governor of Oyo State on Broadcasting matter and at the same time on an intervention mission as the Chief Executive Officer of Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State, the foremost former DJ realitytvstation@yahoo.comicon is focusing, repositioning as well restoring the lost glory of the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS) to what the founding fathers intended it to be 30years ago.

‘Uncle Yanju’ as he prefer to be addressed, in an exclusive interview with the Weekend Sun revealed his life, his journey from a street DJ to a cultured and informed broadcaster, how he came about his appellation, his advice for the youth and his mission to the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State.

“I was born on the 10^th of January 1955, to the family of Mr. and Mrs. Sijuade and Amoke Winfred Adegbite, My father was a draftsman at the Ministry of Agriculture while my mother was a typist and a stenographer. We were three boys in the family and I was the first son.

“My father died in 1968 when I was 13 years old, I was in form one, then at the Government College Ibadan when the sad incidence happened. A friend of my father, Engineer G.I Akinde took over the responsibilities of paying my school fees till my school certificate level.

“ I went for the ‘A level’ but dropped out at the  ‘Lower Six’ because of lack of funds and I thought within me to take care up the responsibilities of sending my siblings, two of them need to go to school and I sacrificed mine education so that they can complete theirs.

“I got a job as an adhoc enumerator for the 1973 census, while I was also making ends meet as a Disk Jockey (DJ) spinning at parties here and there .The day we were to be paid our honorarium was the day I got two appointment letters, one as an ‘Account Clerk’ with the Cooperative Bank and the other one at the other side of the road, the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) as  a ‘Studio Manager.’

“Perhaps the nomenclature ‘Manager’ attracted me more to the job at the Radio Nigeria, I never intended to do for so long a time, I was a science student, even I did Physics, Chemistry and Biology up till my A levels, though I was the school pianist at Government College and never can any drama be performed without my taking the lead role.

“On getting to Radio Nigeria, I found out that the nomenclature Studio Manger is not a big deal, is not what it is today, in those days as a ‘Studio Manager’, you are to sweep the floor, cue tape, record, trained to be on the console and open the fader to determine what goes on air.

Describing night life in Ibadan in those days and his various escapades as a popular and hottest DJ in town on radio, Yanju, who could be single out in those days for his lurched moustache said,

 “Night life was fantastic in those ‘terrible’ days, I was very popular as a DJ that no nightclub would open in Ibadan without my endorsement, no disco party is ever complete without me spinning. I remember that the very first Night club we had in Ibadan was, Yesmina nite club located around Gbagi , it was owned  by some Lebanese.  I  ‘commissioned’ the KS nite club, then we had  the Safari  nite club which later became Sonnyville, Gangan nite club at the Lafia hotel was really cool those were the top five disco club in Ibadan in those day before we later had the like of Segi’s.

“In fact each day, I always schedule three hours each for at least 3 or 4 nite clubs before the day breaks, My night used to Start from Gangan Nite club where I used to spin for 3 hours then to another nite club, there were no armed robbers, people move from one party to another with ease till day break in those days we enjoy night life.

“I was a unique, classy and corporate different from what they believed we are, ‘drop out’. This is because nobody saw a future in what I was doing as a DJ, in fact my in laws did not but I was determined to make a difference. That was why I always put on tie and suite, if you know me in those days I was always looking very corporate because I don’t want anyone to see me as a dropout that everyone believes the job is meant for, more so, I work at a reputable radio station, so I distinguished a mere DJ on the street from the DJ who is an on air personality. In my days on air I inform, educate on the platform of entertainment up till now. I was really very informed in other to inform others on radio.

In the mid1980’s we were the ones who rebranded  fuji music  by mixing it with funky beats which made it acceptable to a particular class who detest the fuji, I remember we advised Wasiu Ayinde Marshal to change his style of dressing to a more corporate one and that increases his fan base.

“Back to how I got into presentation, I never knew fate has greatness in stock for me by accepting to work with the Radio Nigeria in those days with the likes of late Yinka Craig, Late Ambassador Olusola, and late Bisi Lasile Oladimeji etc.

“There was this blessed morning when the announcer on duty did not come to the station on time on time. We had a van that normally pick the staff from their homes to the station, I was living at Elewura area of Challenge, Ibadan and I learnt on time that the van had a mechanical problem on the way, so I took a commercial bus to work around few minutes to 5:00am and by 5:25 am when the station was to go air, the announcer on duty, Mrs Bisi Lasile Oladimeji had not come.

“In those days, when music just kept on rolling on air without an announcer, it means there had been a coup de tat or something, I did not want to cause panic so I decided when Bisi Lasile had not come to go to the announcer’s cubicle, played the National Anthem and signed on the station. I had earlier cued the first program at my own end, so I did  the programme parade which is the highlight of all the programmes for the day, signed on the first program, closed the fader and rushed back to my own end to release the pause for the program to go on air. Everything went well, as the programme was still going on, Bisi Lasile came. Suddenly our boss, Mrs Bisi Onabolu wife of the first General Manager of the Ogun State Television OGTV, Yomi Onabolu, who later remarried and became Mrs. Karimu, stormed the studio screaming,

“Who the hell opened my station this morning..,? I never knew that she could be monitoring that early, in fact nothing goes out on air without close monitoring by our bosses in those days.

“It was me Ma” I replied...

I was so s scared. She summoned me to her office. Yinka Craig noticed my fear and said,

“Yanju just go and see her, at least she can’t kill you”

“Unknown to me, there was a circular from Lagos that the station should send some nominee for the “intermediate announcer course”. Ibadan Station no longer have any nominee to send for the course so Mrs Onabolu saw my potential in presentation and nominated me for that course at the Radio Nigeria which was held at Obalende two weeks after the incidence, when I returned from the course, I was co-opted into ‘Presentation Department’ of the Radio Nigeria of Ibadan and that was it.

Yanju Adegbite also use the opportunity to share with the Weekend Sun on how he left Radio Nigeria for Radio O-Y-O where he made his impact felt in the broadcast industry and how he came about his nickname ‘the music Merchant’

“There was the creation of States in 1976, which necessitated radio Nigeria, been divided into four, Ondo Radio, Radio O-Y-O and Ogun Radio all became the properties of the newly created States while Western Nigerian Television (WNTV) retained its status as Federal Government owned Television Station.

“Oyo state lost most of her professional to the neighbouring states and there was an urgent need to recruit new hands, especially professionals. Mr. Victor Adeniyi invited me to the WNTV office at Agodi (now NTA) where I was auditioned, did a voice test and all that. They were so impressed with my performance  that I was offered an immediate employment to join radio Oyo, but I asked them to give some time, at least a month notice to Radio Nigeria. That was how I joined Radio O-Y-O and I carved a niche for myself together with my senior colleague and mentor, late Alex Condy.

“Alex Condy was the main man on air in our days. He uses the mantra “Cats and the kittens of the in crowds”, I also was looking for an appellation befitting and very contagious on air too. Our show was an afternoon show called “The Big show”.  Usually when you peep true the DJ or presenters cubicle, you will see all my records in the studio scattered on the floor ready for the turntable as I pick one after the other from the floor. I was still  searching for the next records on the floor and as  I looked up, I saw in front of me  a figure in an in all white attire   like someone who had gone to play Tennis standing before me. There was another man standing behind and they were right inside the DJ’s cubicle.

“The man greeted me, pointed to the records on the floor and asked, ‘are you a merchant of Music?,  suddenly, I realized that the man asking me the question was the Governor of the Old Western States and Oyo state, General David Jemibewon while the person behind him was his ADC

I said ‘Yes sir’ and then he said ‘okay well done’ and left.

 After he left I sat down and meditated… Merchant of Music...Music Merchant, “yeah!!!” I screamed, henceforth this appellation given by General Jemibewon would be the one I’ll use on air . Immediately I went in to the studio and produced the jingle Your Music Merchant…. .Yanju Adegbiteeeeee… and it stuck!

Yanju Adegbiter, however did not forget to furnish us about his mission at BCOS, the place he was among the pioneer staff and posses the record of been the first voice on the radio as well the first face on the television arms of the stations and resigned in 1991.

“In 1982, Uncle Bola Ige, the prime mover of the project Television Service of Oyo State,(TSOS) now Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo Sate said he had a vision of creating a broadcasting house that would serve as the hub of broadcasters in Africa and the World as a whole. After all, our state could boast of the first Television station in Africa and the first Television personalities in Africa.

“If you are here when the project was launched in 1982, you would agree with me that apart from the type of equipment purchased for the project, the kind of enthusiasm that was driving the would have made the station the best in Africa was very high. Unfortunately Uncle Bola did not win the election in 1983 and the Military came in 1984 and merged the television arm with the radio. That I believe was the downturn of the vision our forefathers had.

“Also the creation of Osun from Oyo in 1992 also affected the Station as more than t 75% of the managers and the best hands we had here were indigene of the new state, which was the beginning of the woes of BCOS. I left around that year too for private business. And now fate has brought me back to do intervention work meant to restore BCOS back on track and take it to where we actually wanted it to be.

Disclosing the role of the present administration in Oyo state in the ongoing process of intervention, Yanju Adegbite  gave kudos to the incumbent governor of Oyo state  for his vision similar to that of Chief Bola Ige he said  Senator Isiaq Adeyemi Abiola Ajimobi would stop at nothing short of giving  the best to the electorate most especially in the area of Communication and broadcasting to be specific

“We would like to say kudos to his Excellency Governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi who saw BCOS as a flagship project. This is the reason why he painstakingly picked the team Yomi Layinka, (programmes), Engineer Olugbodi(Engineering Dept),.Femi Ipadeola( News Dept), Tunde Olaniyi aka Iroyin ti o common(Yoruba programmes), to work alongside with my humble self in other to rescue the moribund BCOS.

“The governor as a professional and as a businessman appreciates the fact when a ten storey building collapses, it would take a few years to rebuild, but with the technology available now you don’t expect the process of rebuilding to take too long. Governor Ajimobi has been very supportive by approving some intervention budget for us immediately he assumed office, that was what we lived on to be able to achieve what we have achieved so far. We also tried to the best of our abilities; reduce wastages because when we came we met a lot of wastages on ground. These had to do with management and it have help us save some money to do the repair work which we are sent here to do. We realize the fact that government can’t do it alone in fact, the governor has been so magnanimous by increasing our subvention from 50 -90 %. He also knows that we have to spend some time in solidifying the foundation before he could start expecting some money from us.

 On what he met 22 years after he left, Uncle Yanju confessed that the state of BCOS when he came back was an eyesore and very deplorable.

“I must confess to you that BCOS was in a sorry state when I came back. The kind of equipment I met BCOS was the worst in the South West. We had about three and a half cameras and those cameras were very low end cameras, for a station that was running programmes and news item, also there were about two and a half editing suite which also could not match the demands of broadcasting of the present dispensation. The studio had only two cameras.

 “The set has a speaker that was pasted at the back as backdrop for the newscaster, then we had to change the set, Yomi Layinka and I had to move some furniture from our homes to be used temporary in the studio.

“Also we discovered that at the MCR, there was only one DVD player that plays out the visual which freeze on air most time and they would put a caption which would be there forever until the problem with the DVD is solved. So I came in and discover that the type of DVD that is used at the MCR is not as good as the one I use at home. I asked “is this what you people are using here?, apart from the fact that the DVD is not up to the standard it even the  only one you use to play, don’t you know that the lenses would be worn, no wonder the visual freezes all the time. We bought two work stations on credit which ensure that programmes that would come up the following day would have been ripped into the system. That gave a kind of stability to visual going in and out of different materials

“ we found out that the morale of the staff, have been so brutalized and very low over the years when we had thugs invading the station to come and deal with them any time they did not toll the line of government in power.

“So when we came they saw us as “hmmmm… these once had come as usual” so we needed to win their confidence which is very much important if we are to do our intervention if they are as still the once we need to work with. We had staff who are not trained at all not to talk of retraining for the challenges of the modern day broadcasting,. In fact 7 years before we came, there was not a single naira in the budget for training. We came down from the white horse and relate with them like colleagues, which eventually did the trick.

“We decided to observe them for about two or three weeks and let them do their thing, only to found out that the program and the schedule are horrible. For instance, when you wake up in the morning what they do is to start playing musicals, fuji and stuffs,  for like an  hour then by 8.30am, home movies would be the next, so I screamed that what kind of station is this that would not inform or educate anybody especially in the morning. I told them that we need to do something concerning the morning belt to be able to attract the audience. So we created programme like ‘AM120’ that focus on news, interviews and topical issues bringing in top professionals and not just anybody.

“Let’s take Sunday as another example, I saw that they would just play religious programmes back to back and said “how can people go to church to listen to the sermon and then come back to sit in front of the TV throughout the day and watch sermon all over again?’, this is spiritual constipation. Already we fell afoul of NBC recommendation on religious programmes so we had to create new programme or buy new content’  

“We began training of the staff on duty by coming to work at 6.30 am and would not leave the building till 11pm; in fact, I had to be treating files from the studio.  My staff did not know their left from their right,  we had  to be there in the studio, MCR, VTR everywhere to show them how it should be done,  we keep asking question and teaching after this program which one is going on next? etc

“ Yomi Layinka was busy with the producers, creating new montage for various programs, design chest captions, working on graphics, we had to do all that from the scratch we had to tutor them with the simple element that adds value to our output and consequently drew back our viewership.

“We also discovered that the station was completely youth unfriendly.  That was the reason the youths ran and the satellite took them over, we decided to bring back the youths because they formed 75 percent of the audience on television anywhere in the world. Advertisers and agencies in Lagos will only determine what and which advert to be placed and based on viewership base on youth friendliness.

“We had to start branding and rebranding of the station by creating new station identities, change the logo to something more contemporary like we have now, 3-5months after, words started to go round that BCOS has changed.

He decide to shed more light on the 30^th anniversary of the station by saying, “Anyone would want to mark or celebrate landmark years, like 25, 30, 40 years. We felt that we could use these 30 years to add more value to our branding efforts and since we don’t have fund to organize something grandeur like a gala night, award ceremony etc, we decided to celebrate on air and use the occasion to launch the station to the next level. We decided to invite 30 pioneers and former newscasters for 30 news bulleting for 30 days, in other word, each day marks each calendar year to make 30 years. The response has been awesome, our viewers are happy to see and hear our former GM , Chief Kunle Adeleke read the news, we have had  Prince Gbade Sanda, Tunde laniyan,Feyi Ogunduyile ,Kola Akanji, Ayo Adedayo, Lillian Adesokan and my humble self as a veteran read the news. More who began their career with us are still coming like John Momoh, Demola Akinbami and Folasade Ogedegbe, also we have had our Yoruba veteran broadcaster like Yemi Ademokoya, Folusho Taiwo who created nostalgia on the screen with their performance bringing back reminiscence of what BCOS used to be since 30 years.

Yanju Adegbite finally revealed that very soon BCOS would be ready for Digital terrestrial Broadcasting (DTTB) and would be seen on a particular satellite station as all hands on deck to install and upgrade equipment which would enhance the operation of BCOS. He also said that he is ready to send   some of the staffs out of the country in order for them to be able to face the challenges of digitization.

“What you’ve seen is just a scratch, I want our viewer to be patient and remain loyal to us as we will not disappoint you” He concluded

How General Jemibewon Nicknamed the Music Merchant… Yanju Adegbite

By Ayo Ademkoya

Broadcasting in Nigeria especially in the South West and to be specific Oyo state, can never be completed without mentioning the first voice on the Oyo state radio to ever present a program on it and the very first face to appear on the Television Service of Oyo State, now called Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State, Mr. Yanju Adegbite.

Together with the late Alex Condy ,who goes with the mantra “cat and the kittens of the in crowds’  and ‘Your Music Merchant….Yanju Adegbiteeeeeee…rocks the airwave on the popular afternoon show on radio O-Y-O, ‘the Big show’ from the late 1970’s to the mid 1980’s.   Presently serving as the Special Adviser to the Governor of Oyo State on Broadcasting matter and at the same time on an intervention mission as the Chief Executive Officer of Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State, the foremost former DJ icon is focusing, repositioning as well restoring the lost glory of the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS) to what the founding fathers intended it to be 30years ago.

‘Uncle Yanju’ as he prefer to be addressed, in an exclusive interview with the Weekend Sun revealed his life, his journey from a street DJ to a cultured and informed broadcaster, how he came about his appellation, his advice for the youth and his mission to the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State.

“I was born on the 10^th of January 1955, to the family of Mr. and Mrs. Sijuade and Amoke Winfred Adegbite, My father was a draftsman at the Ministry of Agriculture while my mother was a typist and a stenographer. We were three boys in the family and I was the first son.

“My father died in 1968 when I was 13 years old, I was in form one, then at the Government College Ibadan when the sad incidence happened. A friend of my father, Engineer G.I Akinde took over the responsibilities of paying my school fees till my school certificate level.

“ I went for the ‘A level’ but dropped out at the  ‘Lower Six’ because of lack of funds and I thought within me to take care up the responsibilities of sending my siblings, two of them need to go to school and I sacrificed mine education so that they can complete theirs.

“I got a job as an adhoc enumerator for the 1973 census, while I was also making ends meet as a Disk Jockey (DJ) spinning at parties here and there .The day we were to be paid our honorarium was the day I got two appointment letters, one as an ‘Account Clerk’ with the Cooperative Bank and the other one at the other side of the road, the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) as  a ‘Studio Manager.’

“Perhaps the nomenclature ‘Manager’ attracted me more to the job at the Radio Nigeria, I never intended to do for so long a time, I was a science student, even I did Physics, Chemistry and Biology up till my A levels, though I was the school pianist at Government College and never can any drama be performed without my taking the lead role.

“On getting to Radio Nigeria, I found out that the nomenclature Studio Manger is not a big deal, is not what it is today, in those days as a ‘Studio Manager’, you are to sweep the floor, cue tape, record, trained to be on the console and open the fader to determine what goes on air.

Describing night life in Ibadan in those days and his various escapades as a popular and hottest DJ in town on radio, Yanju, who could be single out in those days for his lurched moustache said,

 “Night life was fantastic in those ‘terrible’ days, I was very popular as a DJ that no nightclub would open in Ibadan without my endorsement, no disco party is ever complete without me spinning. I remember that the very first Night club we had in Ibadan was, Yesmina nite club located around Gbagi , it was owned  by some Lebanese.  I  ‘commissioned’ the KS nite club, then we had  the Safari  nite club which later became Sonnyville, Gangan nite club at the Lafia hotel was really cool those were the top five disco club in Ibadan in those day before we later had the like of Segi’s.

“In fact each day, I always schedule three hours each for at least 3 or 4 nite clubs before the day breaks, My night used to Start from Gangan Nite club where I used to spin for 3 hours then to another nite club, there were no armed robbers, people move from one party to another with ease till day break in those days we enjoy night life.

“I was a unique, classy and corporate different from what they believed we are, ‘drop out’. This is because nobody saw a future in what I was doing as a DJ, in fact my in laws did not but I was determined to make a difference. That was why I always put on tie and suite, if you know me in those days I was always looking very corporate because I don’t want anyone to see me as a dropout that everyone believes the job is meant for, more so, I work at a reputable radio station, so I distinguished a mere DJ on the street from the DJ who is an on air personality. In my days on air I inform, educate on the platform of entertainment up till now. I was really very informed in other to inform others on radio.

In the mid1980’s we were the ones who rebranded  fuji music  by mixing it with funky beats which made it acceptable to a particular class who detest the fuji, I remember we advised Wasiu Ayinde Marshal to change his style of dressing to a more corporate one and that increases his fan base.

“Back to how I got into presentation, I never knew fate has greatness in stock for me by accepting to work with the Radio Nigeria in those days with the likes of late Yinka Craig, Late Ambassador Olusola, and late Bisi Lasile Oladimeji etc.

“There was this blessed morning when the announcer on duty did not come to the station on time on time. We had a van that normally pick the staff from their homes to the station, I was living at Elewura area of Challenge, Ibadan and I learnt on time that the van had a mechanical problem on the way, so I took a commercial bus to work around few minutes to 5:00am and by 5:25 am when the station was to go air, the announcer on duty, Mrs Bisi Lasile Oladimeji had not come.

“In those days, when music just kept on rolling on air without an announcer, it means there had been a coup de tat or something, I did not want to cause panic so I decided when Bisi Lasile had not come to go to the announcer’s cubicle, played the National Anthem and signed on the station. I had earlier cued the first program at my own end, so I did  the programme parade which is the highlight of all the programmes for the day, signed on the first program, closed the fader and rushed back to my own end to release the pause for the program to go on air. Everything went well, as the programme was still going on, Bisi Lasile came. Suddenly our boss, Mrs Bisi Onabolu wife of the first General Manager of the Ogun State Television OGTV, Yomi Onabolu, who later remarried and became Mrs. Karimu, stormed the studio screaming,

“Who the hell opened my station this morning..,? I never knew that she could be monitoring that early, in fact nothing goes out on air without close monitoring by our bosses in those days.

“It was me Ma” I replied...

I was so s scared. She summoned me to her office. Yinka Craig noticed my fear and said,

“Yanju just go and see her, at least she can’t kill you”

“Unknown to me, there was a circular from Lagos that the station should send some nominee for the “intermediate announcer course”. Ibadan Station no longer have any nominee to send for the course so Mrs Onabolu saw my potential in presentation and nominated me for that course at the Radio Nigeria which was held at Obalende two weeks after the incidence, when I returned from the course, I was co-opted into ‘Presentation Department’ of the Radio Nigeria of Ibadan and that was it.

Yanju Adegbite also use the opportunity to share with the Weekend Sun on how he left Radio Nigeria for Radio O-Y-O where he made his impact felt in the broadcast industry and how he came about his nickname ‘the music Merchant’

“There was the creation of States in 1976, which necessitated radio Nigeria, been divided into four, Ondo Radio, Radio O-Y-O and Ogun Radio all became the properties of the newly created States while Western Nigerian Television (WNTV) retained its status as Federal Government owned Television Station.

“Oyo state lost most of her professional to the neighbouring states and there was an urgent need to recruit new hands, especially professionals. Mr. Victor Adeniyi invited me to the WNTV office at Agodi (now NTA) where I was auditioned, did a voice test and all that. They were so impressed with my performance  that I was offered an immediate employment to join radio Oyo, but I asked them to give some time, at least a month notice to Radio Nigeria. That was how I joined Radio O-Y-O and I carved a niche for myself together with my senior colleague and mentor, late Alex Condy.

“Alex Condy was the main man on air in our days. He uses the mantra “Cats and the kittens of the in crowds”, I also was looking for an appellation befitting and very contagious on air too. Our show was an afternoon show called “The Big show”.  Usually when you peep true the DJ or presenters cubicle, you will see all my records in the studio scattered on the floor ready for the turntable as I pick one after the other from the floor. I was still  searching for the next records on the floor and as  I looked up, I saw in front of me  a figure in an in all white attire   like someone who had gone to play Tennis standing before me. There was another man standing behind and they were right inside the DJ’s cubicle.

“The man greeted me, pointed to the records on the floor and asked, ‘are you a merchant of Music?,  suddenly, I realized that the man asking me the question was the Governor of the Old Western States and Oyo state, General David Jemibewon while the person behind him was his ADC

I said ‘Yes sir’ and then he said ‘okay well done’ and left.

 After he left I sat down and meditated… Merchant of Music...Music Merchant, “yeah!!!” I screamed, henceforth this appellation given by General Jemibewon would be the one I’ll use on air . Immediately I went in to the studio and produced the jingle Your Music Merchant…. .Yanju Adegbiteeeeee… and it stuck!

Yanju Adegbiter, however did not forget to furnish us about his mission at BCOS, the place he was among the pioneer staff and posses the record of been the first voice on the radio as well the first face on the television arms of the stations and resigned in 1991.

“In 1982, Uncle Bola Ige, the prime mover of the project Television Service of Oyo State,(TSOS) now Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo Sate said he had a vision of creating a broadcasting house that would serve as the hub of broadcasters in Africa and the World as a whole. After all, our state could boast of the first Television station in Africa and the first Television personalities in Africa.

“If you are here when the project was launched in 1982, you would agree with me that apart from the type of equipment purchased for the project, the kind of enthusiasm that was driving the would have made the station the best in Africa was very high. Unfortunately Uncle Bola did not win the election in 1983 and the Military came in 1984 and merged the television arm with the radio. That I believe was the downturn of the vision our forefathers had.

“Also the creation of Osun from Oyo in 1992 also affected the Station as more than t 75% of the managers and the best hands we had here were indigene of the new state, which was the beginning of the woes of BCOS. I left around that year too for private business. And now fate has brought me back to do intervention work meant to restore BCOS back on track and take it to where we actually wanted it to be.

Disclosing the role of the present administration in Oyo state in the ongoing process of intervention, Yanju Adegbite  gave kudos to the incumbent governor of Oyo state  for his vision similar to that of Chief Bola Ige he said  Senator Isiaq Adeyemi Abiola Ajimobi would stop at nothing short of giving  the best to the electorate most especially in the area of Communication and broadcasting to be specific

“We would like to say kudos to his Excellency Governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi who saw BCOS as a flagship project. This is the reason why he painstakingly picked the team Yomi Layinka, (programmes), Engineer Olugbodi(Engineering Dept),.Femi Ipadeola( News Dept), Tunde Olaniyi aka Iroyin ti o common(Yoruba programmes), to work alongside with my humble self in other to rescue the moribund BCOS.

“The governor as a professional and as a businessman appreciates the fact when a ten storey building collapses, it would take a few years to rebuild, but with the technology available now you don’t expect the process of rebuilding to take too long. Governor Ajimobi has been very supportive by approving some intervention budget for us immediately he assumed office, that was what we lived on to be able to achieve what we have achieved so far. We also tried to the best of our abilities; reduce wastages because when we came we met a lot of wastages on ground. These had to do with management and it have help us save some money to do the repair work which we are sent here to do. We realize the fact that government can’t do it alone in fact, the governor has been so magnanimous by increasing our subvention from 50 -90 %. He also knows that we have to spend some time in solidifying the foundation before he could start expecting some money from us.

 On what he met 22 years after he left, Uncle Yanju confessed that the state of BCOS when he came back was an eyesore and very deplorable.

“I must confess to you that BCOS was in a sorry state when I came back. The kind of equipment I met BCOS was the worst in the South West. We had about three and a half cameras and those cameras were very low end cameras, for a station that was running programmes and news item, also there were about two and a half editing suite which also could not match the demands of broadcasting of the present dispensation. The studio had only two cameras.

 “The set has a speaker that was pasted at the back as backdrop for the newscaster, then we had to change the set, Yomi Layinka and I had to move some furniture from our homes to be used temporary in the studio.

“Also we discovered that at the MCR, there was only one DVD player that plays out the visual which freeze on air most time and they would put a caption which would be there forever until the problem with the DVD is solved. So I came in and discover that the type of DVD that is used at the MCR is not as good as the one I use at home. I asked “is this what you people are using here?, apart from the fact that the DVD is not up to the standard it even the  only one you use to play, don’t you know that the lenses would be worn, no wonder the visual freezes all the time. We bought two work stations on credit which ensure that programmes that would come up the following day would have been ripped into the system. That gave a kind of stability to visual going in and out of different materials

“ we found out that the morale of the staff, have been so brutalized and very low over the years when we had thugs invading the station to come and deal with them any time they did not toll the line of government in power.

“So when we came they saw us as “hmmmm… these once had come as usual” so we needed to win their confidence which is very much important if we are to do our intervention if they are as still the once we need to work with. We had staff who are not trained at all not to talk of retraining for the challenges of the modern day broadcasting,. In fact 7 years before we came, there was not a single naira in the budget for training. We came down from the white horse and relate with them like colleagues, which eventually did the trick.

“We decided to observe them for about two or three weeks and let them do their thing, only to found out that the program and the schedule are horrible. For instance, when you wake up in the morning what they do is to start playing musicals, fuji and stuffs,  for like an  hour then by 8.30am, home movies would be the next, so I screamed that what kind of station is this that would not inform or educate anybody especially in the morning. I told them that we need to do something concerning the morning belt to be able to attract the audience. So we created programme like ‘AM120’ that focus on news, interviews and topical issues bringing in top professionals and not just anybody.

“Let’s take Sunday as another example, I saw that they would just play religious programmes back to back and said “how can people go to church to listen to the sermon and then come back to sit in front of the TV throughout the day and watch sermon all over again?’, this is spiritual constipation. Already we fell afoul of NBC recommendation on religious programmes so we had to create new programme or buy new content’  

“We began training of the staff on duty by coming to work at 6.30 am and would not leave the building till 11pm; in fact, I had to be treating files from the studio.  My staff did not know their left from their right,  we had  to be there in the studio, MCR, VTR everywhere to show them how it should be done,  we keep asking question and teaching after this program which one is going on next? etc

“ Yomi Layinka was busy with the producers, creating new montage for various programs, design chest captions, working on graphics, we had to do all that from the scratch we had to tutor them with the simple element that adds value to our output and consequently drew back our viewership.

“We also discovered that the station was completely youth unfriendly.  That was the reason the youths ran and the satellite took them over, we decided to bring back the youths because they formed 75 percent of the audience on television anywhere in the world. Advertisers and agencies in Lagos will only determine what and which advert to be placed and based on viewership base on youth friendliness.

“We had to start branding and rebranding of the station by creating new station identities, change the logo to something more contemporary like we have now, 3-5months after, words started to go round that BCOS has changed.

He decide to shed more light on the 30^th anniversary of the station by saying, “Anyone would want to mark or celebrate landmark years, like 25, 30, 40 years. We felt that we could use these 30 years to add more value to our branding efforts and since we don’t have fund to organize something grandeur like a gala night, award ceremony etc, we decided to celebrate on air and use the occasion to launch the station to the next level. We decided to invite 30 pioneers and former newscasters for 30 news bulleting for 30 days, in other word, each day marks each calendar year to make 30 years. The response has been awesome, our viewers are happy to see and hear our former GM , Chief Kunle Adeleke read the news, we have had  Prince Gbade Sanda, Tunde laniyan,Feyi Ogunduyile ,Kola Akanji, Ayo Adedayo, Lillian Adesokan and my humble self as a veteran read the news. More who began their career with us are still coming like John Momoh, Demola Akinbami and Folasade Ogedegbe, also we have had our Yoruba veteran broadcaster like Yemi Ademokoya, Folusho Taiwo who created nostalgia on the screen with their performance bringing back reminiscence of what BCOS used to be since 30 years.

Yanju Adegbite finally revealed that very soon BCOS would be ready for Digital terrestrial Broadcasting (DTTB) and would be seen on a particular satellite station as all hands on deck to install and upgrade equipment which would enhance the operation of BCOS. He also said that he is ready to send   some of the staffs out of the country in order for them to be able to face the challenges of digitization.

“What you’ve seen is just a scratch, I want our viewer to be patient and remain loyal to us as we will not disappoint you” He concluded

How General Jemibewon Nicknamed the Music Merchant… Yanju Adegbite

By Ayo Ademkoya

Broadcasting in Nigeria especially in the South West and to be specific Oyo state, can never be completed without mentioning the first voice on the Oyo state radio to ever present a program on it and the very first face to appear on the Television Service of Oyo State, now called Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State, Mr. Yanju Adegbite.

Together with the late Alex Condy ,who goes with the mantra “cat and the kittens of the in crowds’  and ‘Your Music Merchant….Yanju Adegbiteeeeeee…rocks the airwave on the popular afternoon show on radio O-Y-O, ‘the Big show’ from the late 1970’s to the mid 1980’s.   Presently serving as the Special Adviser to the Governor of Oyo State on Broadcasting matter and at the same time on an intervention mission as the Chief Executive Officer of Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State, the foremost former DJ icon is focusing, repositioning as well restoring the lost glory of the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS) to what the founding fathers intended it to be 30years ago.

‘Uncle Yanju’ as he prefer to be addressed, in an exclusive interview with the Weekend Sun revealed his life, his journey from a street DJ to a cultured and informed broadcaster, how he came about his appellation, his advice for the youth and his mission to the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State.

“I was born on the 10^th of January 1955, to the family of Mr. and Mrs. Sijuade and Amoke Winfred Adegbite, My father was a draftsman at the Ministry of Agriculture while my mother was a typist and a stenographer. We were three boys in the family and I was the first son.

“My father died in 1968 when I was 13 years old, I was in form one, then at the Government College Ibadan when the sad incidence happened. A friend of my father, Engineer G.I Akinde took over the responsibilities of paying my school fees till my school certificate level.

“ I went for the ‘A level’ but dropped out at the  ‘Lower Six’ because of lack of funds and I thought within me to take care up the responsibilities of sending my siblings, two of them need to go to school and I sacrificed mine education so that they can complete theirs.

“I got a job as an adhoc enumerator for the 1973 census, while I was also making ends meet as a Disk Jockey (DJ) spinning at parties here and there .The day we were to be paid our honorarium was the day I got two appointment letters, one as an ‘Account Clerk’ with the Cooperative Bank and the other one at the other side of the road, the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) as  a ‘Studio Manager.’

“Perhaps the nomenclature ‘Manager’ attracted me more to the job at the Radio Nigeria, I never intended to do for so long a time, I was a science student, even I did Physics, Chemistry and Biology up till my A levels, though I was the school pianist at Government College and never can any drama be performed without my taking the lead role.

“On getting to Radio Nigeria, I found out that the nomenclature Studio Manger is not a big deal, is not what it is today, in those days as a ‘Studio Manager’, you are to sweep the floor, cue tape, record, trained to be on the console and open the fader to determine what goes on air.

Describing night life in Ibadan in those days and his various escapades as a popular and hottest DJ in town on radio, Yanju, who could be single out in those days for his lurched moustache said,

 “Night life was fantastic in those ‘terrible’ days, I was very popular as a DJ that no nightclub would open in Ibadan without my endorsement, no disco party is ever complete without me spinning. I remember that the very first Night club we had in Ibadan was, Yesmina nite club located around Gbagi , it was owned  by some Lebanese.  I  ‘commissioned’ the KS nite club, then we had  the Safari  nite club which later became Sonnyville, Gangan nite club at the Lafia hotel was really cool those were the top five disco club in Ibadan in those day before we later had the like of Segi’s.

“In fact each day, I always schedule three hours each for at least 3 or 4 nite clubs before the day breaks, My night used to Start from Gangan Nite club where I used to spin for 3 hours then to another nite club, there were no armed robbers, people move from one party to another with ease till day break in those days we enjoy night life.

“I was a unique, classy and corporate different from what they believed we are, ‘drop out’. This is because nobody saw a future in what I was doing as a DJ, in fact my in laws did not but I was determined to make a difference. That was why I always put on tie and suite, if you know me in those days I was always looking very corporate because I don’t want anyone to see me as a dropout that everyone believes the job is meant for, more so, I work at a reputable radio station, so I distinguished a mere DJ on the street from the DJ who is an on air personality. In my days on air I inform, educate on the platform of entertainment up till now. I was really very informed in other to inform others on radio.

In the mid1980’s we were the ones who rebranded  fuji music  by mixing it with funky beats which made it acceptable to a particular class who detest the fuji, I remember we advised Wasiu Ayinde Marshal to change his style of dressing to a more corporate one and that increases his fan base.

“Back to how I got into presentation, I never knew fate has greatness in stock for me by accepting to work with the Radio Nigeria in those days with the likes of late Yinka Craig, Late Ambassador Olusola, and late Bisi Lasile Oladimeji etc.

“There was this blessed morning when the announcer on duty did not come to the station on time on time. We had a van that normally pick the staff from their homes to the station, I was living at Elewura area of Challenge, Ibadan and I learnt on time that the van had a mechanical problem on the way, so I took a commercial bus to work around few minutes to 5:00am and by 5:25 am when the station was to go air, the announcer on duty, Mrs Bisi Lasile Oladimeji had not come.

“In those days, when music just kept on rolling on air without an announcer, it means there had been a coup de tat or something, I did not want to cause panic so I decided when Bisi Lasile had not come to go to the announcer’s cubicle, played the National Anthem and signed on the station. I had earlier cued the first program at my own end, so I did  the programme parade which is the highlight of all the programmes for the day, signed on the first program, closed the fader and rushed back to my own end to release the pause for the program to go on air. Everything went well, as the programme was still going on, Bisi Lasile came. Suddenly our boss, Mrs Bisi Onabolu wife of the first General Manager of the Ogun State Television OGTV, Yomi Onabolu, who later remarried and became Mrs. Karimu, stormed the studio screaming,

“Who the hell opened my station this morning..,? I never knew that she could be monitoring that early, in fact nothing goes out on air without close monitoring by our bosses in those days.

“It was me Ma” I replied...

I was so s scared. She summoned me to her office. Yinka Craig noticed my fear and said,

“Yanju just go and see her, at least she can’t kill you”

“Unknown to me, there was a circular from Lagos that the station should send some nominee for the “intermediate announcer course”. Ibadan Station no longer have any nominee to send for the course so Mrs Onabolu saw my potential in presentation and nominated me for that course at the Radio Nigeria which was held at Obalende two weeks after the incidence, when I returned from the course, I was co-opted into ‘Presentation Department’ of the Radio Nigeria of Ibadan and that was it.

Yanju Adegbite also use the opportunity to share with the Weekend Sun on how he left Radio Nigeria for Radio O-Y-O where he made his impact felt in the broadcast industry and how he came about his nickname ‘the music Merchant’

“There was the creation of States in 1976, which necessitated radio Nigeria, been divided into four, Ondo Radio, Radio O-Y-O and Ogun Radio all became the properties of the newly created States while Western Nigerian Television (WNTV) retained its status as Federal Government owned Television Station.

“Oyo state lost most of her professional to the neighbouring states and there was an urgent need to recruit new hands, especially professionals. Mr. Victor Adeniyi invited me to the WNTV office at Agodi (now NTA) where I was auditioned, did a voice test and all that. They were so impressed with my performance  that I was offered an immediate employment to join radio Oyo, but I asked them to give some time, at least a month notice to Radio Nigeria. That was how I joined Radio O-Y-O and I carved a niche for myself together with my senior colleague and mentor, late Alex Condy.

“Alex Condy was the main man on air in our days. He uses the mantra “Cats and the kittens of the in crowds”, I also was looking for an appellation befitting and very contagious on air too. Our show was an afternoon show called “The Big show”.  Usually when you peep true the DJ or presenters cubicle, you will see all my records in the studio scattered on the floor ready for the turntable as I pick one after the other from the floor. I was still  searching for the next records on the floor and as  I looked up, I saw in front of me  a figure in an in all white attire   like someone who had gone to play Tennis standing before me. There was another man standing behind and they were right inside the DJ’s cubicle.

“The man greeted me, pointed to the records on the floor and asked, ‘are you a merchant of Music?,  suddenly, I realized that the man asking me the question was the Governor of the Old Western States and Oyo state, General David Jemibewon while the person behind him was his ADC

I said ‘Yes sir’ and then he said ‘okay well done’ and left.

 After he left I sat down and meditated… Merchant of Music...Music Merchant, “yeah!!!” I screamed, henceforth this appellation given by General Jemibewon would be the one I’ll use on air . Immediately I went in to the studio and produced the jingle Your Music Merchant…. .Yanju Adegbiteeeeee… and it stuck!

Yanju Adegbiter, however did not forget to furnish us about his mission at BCOS, the place he was among the pioneer staff and posses the record of been the first voice on the radio as well the first face on the television arms of the stations and resigned in 1991.

“In 1982, Uncle Bola Ige, the prime mover of the project Television Service of Oyo State,(TSOS) now Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo Sate said he had a vision of creating a broadcasting house that would serve as the hub of broadcasters in Africa and the World as a whole. After all, our state could boast of the first Television station in Africa and the first Television personalities in Africa.

“If you are here when the project was launched in 1982, you would agree with me that apart from the type of equipment purchased for the project, the kind of enthusiasm that was driving the would have made the station the best in Africa was very high. Unfortunately Uncle Bola did not win the election in 1983 and the Military came in 1984 and merged the television arm with the radio. That I believe was the downturn of the vision our forefathers had.

“Also the creation of Osun from Oyo in 1992 also affected the Station as more than t 75% of the managers and the best hands we had here were indigene of the new state, which was the beginning of the woes of BCOS. I left around that year too for private business. And now fate has brought me back to do intervention work meant to restore BCOS back on track and take it to where we actually wanted it to be.

Disclosing the role of the present administration in Oyo state in the ongoing process of intervention, Yanju Adegbite  gave kudos to the incumbent governor of Oyo state  for his vision similar to that of Chief Bola Ige he said  Senator Isiaq Adeyemi Abiola Ajimobi would stop at nothing short of giving  the best to the electorate most especially in the area of Communication and broadcasting to be specific

“We would like to say kudos to his Excellency Governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi who saw BCOS as a flagship project. This is the reason why he painstakingly picked the team Yomi Layinka, (programmes), Engineer Olugbodi(Engineering Dept),.Femi Ipadeola( News Dept), Tunde Olaniyi aka Iroyin ti o common(Yoruba programmes), to work alongside with my humble self in other to rescue the moribund BCOS.

“The governor as a professional and as a businessman appreciates the fact when a ten storey building collapses, it would take a few years to rebuild, but with the technology available now you don’t expect the process of rebuilding to take too long. Governor Ajimobi has been very supportive by approving some intervention budget for us immediately he assumed office, that was what we lived on to be able to achieve what we have achieved so far. We also tried to the best of our abilities; reduce wastages because when we came we met a lot of wastages on ground. These had to do with management and it have help us save some money to do the repair work which we are sent here to do. We realize the fact that government can’t do it alone in fact, the governor has been so magnanimous by increasing our subvention from 50 -90 %. He also knows that we have to spend some time in solidifying the foundation before he could start expecting some money from us.

 On what he met 22 years after he left, Uncle Yanju confessed that the state of BCOS when he came back was an eyesore and very deplorable.

“I must confess to you that BCOS was in a sorry state when I came back. The kind of equipment I met BCOS was the worst in the South West. We had about three and a half cameras and those cameras were very low end cameras, for a station that was running programmes and news item, also there were about two and a half editing suite which also could not match the demands of broadcasting of the present dispensation. The studio had only two cameras.

 “The set has a speaker that was pasted at the back as backdrop for the newscaster, then we had to change the set, Yomi Layinka and I had to move some furniture from our homes to be used temporary in the studio.

“Also we discovered that at the MCR, there was only one DVD player that plays out the visual which freeze on air most time and they would put a caption which would be there forever until the problem with the DVD is solved. So I came in and discover that the type of DVD that is used at the MCR is not as good as the one I use at home. I asked “is this what you people are using here?, apart from the fact that the DVD is not up to the standard it even the  only one you use to play, don’t you know that the lenses would be worn, no wonder the visual freezes all the time. We bought two work stations on credit which ensure that programmes that would come up the following day would have been ripped into the system. That gave a kind of stability to visual going in and out of different materials

“ we found out that the morale of the staff, have been so brutalized and very low over the years when we had thugs invading the station to come and deal with them any time they did not toll the line of government in power.

“So when we came they saw us as “hmmmm… these once had come as usual” so we needed to win their confidence which is very much important if we are to do our intervention if they are as still the once we need to work with. We had staff who are not trained at all not to talk of retraining for the challenges of the modern day broadcasting,. In fact 7 years before we came, there was not a single naira in the budget for training. We came down from the white horse and relate with them like colleagues, which eventually did the trick.

“We decided to observe them for about two or three weeks and let them do their thing, only to found out that the program and the schedule are horrible. For instance, when you wake up in the morning what they do is to start playing musicals, fuji and stuffs,  for like an  hour then by 8.30am, home movies would be the next, so I screamed that what kind of station is this that would not inform or educate anybody especially in the morning. I told them that we need to do something concerning the morning belt to be able to attract the audience. So we created programme like ‘AM120’ that focus on news, interviews and topical issues bringing in top professionals and not just anybody.

“Let’s take Sunday as another example, I saw that they would just play religious programmes back to back and said “how can people go to church to listen to the sermon and then come back to sit in front of the TV throughout the day and watch sermon all over again?’, this is spiritual constipation. Already we fell afoul of NBC recommendation on religious programmes so we had to create new programme or buy new content’  

“We began training of the staff on duty by coming to work at 6.30 am and would not leave the building till 11pm; in fact, I had to be treating files from the studio.  My staff did not know their left from their right,  we had  to be there in the studio, MCR, VTR everywhere to show them how it should be done,  we keep asking question and teaching after this program which one is going on next? etc

“ Yomi Layinka was busy with the producers, creating new montage for various programs, design chest captions, working on graphics, we had to do all that from the scratch we had to tutor them with the simple element that adds value to our output and consequently drew back our viewership.

“We also discovered that the station was completely youth unfriendly.  That was the reason the youths ran and the satellite took them over, we decided to bring back the youths because they formed 75 percent of the audience on television anywhere in the world. Advertisers and agencies in Lagos will only determine what and which advert to be placed and based on viewership base on youth friendliness.

“We had to start branding and rebranding of the station by creating new station identities, change the logo to something more contemporary like we have now, 3-5months after, words started to go round that BCOS has changed.

He decide to shed more light on the 30^th anniversary of the station by saying, “Anyone would want to mark or celebrate landmark years, like 25, 30, 40 years. We felt that we could use these 30 years to add more value to our branding efforts and since we don’t have fund to organize something grandeur like a gala night, award ceremony etc, we decided to celebrate on air and use the occasion to launch the station to the next level. We decided to invite 30 pioneers and former newscasters for 30 news bulleting for 30 days, in other word, each day marks each calendar year to make 30 years. The response has been awesome, our viewers are happy to see and hear our former GM , Chief Kunle Adeleke read the news, we have had  Prince Gbade Sanda, Tunde laniyan,Feyi Ogunduyile ,Kola Akanji, Ayo Adedayo, Lillian Adesokan and my humble self as a veteran read the news. More who began their career with us are still coming like John Momoh, Demola Akinbami and Folasade Ogedegbe, also we have had our Yoruba veteran broadcaster like Yemi Ademokoya, Folusho Taiwo who created nostalgia on the screen with their performance bringing back reminiscence of what BCOS used to be since 30 years.

Yanju Adegbite finally revealed that very soon BCOS would be ready for Digital terrestrial Broadcasting (DTTB) and would be seen on a particular satellite station as all hands on deck to install and upgrade equipment which would enhance the operation of BCOS. He also said that he is ready to send   some of the staffs out of the country in order for them to be able to face the challenges of digitization.

“What you’ve seen is just a scratch, I want our viewer to be patient and remain loyal to us as we will not disappoint you” He concluded