My love for radio is well-known. It was first a natural love relationship and then my career path made it to become a full habit. I’ve got favourite channels and sub favourite channels, which means I frequently switch from one channel to another to get the best of everything.
It was therefore a true delight when about eleven years ago there was an outbreak of new On-Air Personalities (OAPs). I can truly say you they had me thinking of life behind the microphone.
I received these OAPs warmly, even though they came with their own concerns. Heavily accented or should I say ‘Americanised’ English appeared to be the norm, which was very confusing, everyone sounded like a returnee of sort. An American or British returnee, the irony was we even heard some Australians on air (no kidding).
Dan foster the big American heart it was in my view, who brought things ‘home’ for us. It was he who first built the bridge between the old and new style of radio delivery. It was even more pleasurable to hear five years after, this rich voice that offered substance. He appeared to have arrived from nowhere and instantly gave you the feeling of having been there forever and even better, a feeling of being a relative of sort. That was Chaz B.
He was a real ‘Dear John’. The only difference was he gave very sound advice which was faith based. He talked to men and women alike about relationship issues, abuse, marital matters, sibling disputes and then ran more than a couple of ‘what if you were the ones’. He was the person who brought to fore how rampant depression was. I had never heard many people spoke openly about depression until they called in to speak about it on radio. I had been overtaken by the ‘Nigerians are consistently happy people theory’. The messages always sought to give hope to another or enjoin us to…it was always ‘if each one, could reach one’
READ ALSO: Covid-19:West African MPs urged to prioritize advocacy on right to food
I remember once getting into a lift at an office and heard two people discussing a topic from this show. He was often part of discussions during office circle times.
Even the traffic show he did was great. His fan base grew. I suppose the maturity with which he delivered the show made his audience genderless. We frequently heard males call anonymously to speak about their concerns. You could tell this personality dishing out the advice ‘had seen life’, had life experiences. One day we couldn’t find him on air and his fan base harrased the young lady who stood in for him.
I actually remember someone I was in a car with, listening to his drive through show lamenting that ‘this station was taking us for granted’ by sending us a stand in without ‘real life experience’. His absence made me discover one or two other shows but nothing like his- the earnestness he brought in was always missing.
My elder sister informed me much later that he had been very unwell and had undergone a kidney transplant, she asked that I tune into his testimony. I did and it was a very sobering session, which he as usual turned into a teaching session…about love, generosity (he had a kidney donated) and generally gratitude about life. All appeared fine and dandy and for whatever reasons he moved to another station.
It was therefore very shocking to hear of his passing last Saturday. I mean the brevity of life isn’t in doubt, it’s just that we never keep this knowledge before us, even worse the cares and worries of daily living makes us forget this knowledge. That’s why death shocks us the way it does.
The persons who listened to his last show reported he closed with the usual ‘see you on Monday’. Now Monday never was and soon enough his face was used on many blackberry messenger display pictures, on many blogs and on my news websites.
The eulogies haven’t stopped pouring in. As one person put it ‘ We just lost our most sincere AOP’.
I couldn’t agree more. RIP Chaz B- We pray great comfort for your family at this time and may your memory be for a blessing.
Nkiru Olumide-Ojo
