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Tell us an insight to your upbringing?
I was born in Ikare-Akoko in Ondo State but a native of Oyo State. I went to Auntie Bisi Nursery and Primary School, Ikare Akoko, Ondo State before joining Franciscan nursery and primary school to complete my primary education. I later had my secondary education at Methodist High school, Ilesa, Osun State. I hold a Bachelors Degree in Education from the University of Ibadan. I’ve attended several professional and in-house trainings in broadcasting since 15years when I started fully and professionally.
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Why did you choose broadcasting and not follow the path of your training in school?
I didn’t choose the arts. I didn’t choose broadcasting. I didn’t choose Agbaletu. It chose me. It’s been in me since the cradle. I make people laugh without stress but I’m not a comedian. It’s something from the Adeyanju family. It’s in all of us. We love music too. So, the combination of these two brought me to this place. I had to be creative and not follow the crowd. At the same time I followed my passion and just like that, Agbaletu was birthed and since the concept started in 2007, I have forged on. At the moment, I am the head of station at the Lead City FM of Lead City University and currently anchoring the programme ‘Agbaletu’ on Lagelu FM in Ibadan. And I hope the programme gets bigger than this because the sky is always a starting point as they say, I want people to know that when we have old people around us we shouldn’t be uncomfortable with them but always make them happy, as we all pray to be old. People should know that old music, tunes, drama are still remain the best, they are classic we, can’t have things we had in the past any longer, we should preserve what we had and a lot of these artistes that are still alive should be celebrated because time is no more on their side.
What is the programme ‘Agbaletu’ all about?
Agbaletu is a programme which is about giving back and celebrating geriatrics that is old people. When we talk about old people in Nigeria, then we refer to people from the age of 40, we want bring back to them, their pasts, beautiful memories through good music and interviews with veteran artistes; we want to know what they are doing, where they are at the moment and what they achieved as well as how they achieve things when they were playing music, that is what the programme all about.
Could you share with us your sojourn into the industry?
It’s been very wonderful. The programme started in Radio Nigeria in 2007, that is Gold FM in Ilesa then I moved to Premier FM in Ibadan when I felt I was becoming a local champion in Osun State. I left the radio station in 2014, went to Akure in Ondo State where I presented for a year before coming back to Ibadan to present as an independent presenter. In all those sojourns across stations private and government-owned stations, it’s been a very wonderful if you analyse the kind of reception and love old people showed me on the programme. We were off the air once and during that period, we received a lot of calls to ask when are we coming back on air? And that is while we want to celebrate our people in coming event.
What about the coming event all over town as regards ‘Agbaletu’?
The coming event is ‘Agbaletu Senior Citizens Club Meet and Funfair’ on Sunday, 9th September, 2018 at Lead City university stadium. Elders are coming to the event to be celebrated, network, enjoy themselves and company of other elders. The event was organised to create a platform for old people to relate with one another. Some people believe relating with old people may be boring sometimes and mostly leads to argument and debate. We are going to make the relationship to be interesting and add flavour to it. That is why we inviting old people from the age of 50 to come and relate with one another and experience the past. Aside all these, we are also introducing free medical assessment, free eye test and we have six different musicians to perform live on stage on that day, which include Micko Ade, Captain Jide Ojo, ToyeAjagun, Akin George among others. And we are going serve good foods as well, it’s not going to be rice and beans as usual, we will introduce our local foods and some local games like AayoOlopon, draft etc. It will be an exciting experience.
What inspired you to be presenting programme for old people?
The inspiration come from creativity, I always like to be stand out, I don’t call myself a normal presenter. I am a creative and spontaneous person and I am very passionate about old people, infact some people call me “Omo Agba” because I love it when I relate with old people. I always like to make them happy and I believe we should give them another life. We all pray to be old and being old shouldn’t be a curse, we should make that age memorable and be fun for them. That’s what I stand for, we should not be doing what other people are doing anyway and I will want to give it to my father who inspired me.
Who is your mentor in broadcast industry?
I have two mentors in the broadcast industry actually. The first is MrKayode Joseph who is a thorough professional and he gave me the first ever opportunity which I used smartly and today the rest as they say is history. The second is MrYemiSonde. BodaYemi understands the glamour and business side of the profession. So as an upwardly mobile young broadcaster, I look up to YemiSonde because he has everything from his dress sense to his business sense.
How will you encourage a young one who is aspiring to come into the industry?
Well, I will charge young people aspiring to come into the profession to be super-creative. Copyright won’t take anyone anywhere. If you are creative, you shall be noticed in no time. The industry is sought of disorderly. A lot of untrained broadcasters have taken over the airwaves. This I’m sure was not the type of broadcast industry started in 1959 by OtunbaKunleOlasope, MrsAnikeAgbaje-Williams, Late Ambassador SegunOlusola, and others. The industry is messed up. NBC is trying to put it in order as it is putting food on the table for a lot of families, but for new entrants, only Super-creativity and the ability to think outside the box and be the extra prefixing ordinary, that’s extraordinary, will take them somewhere.
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