I would have been a mechanic – Tommy Annan-Forson
Broadcaster Tommy Annan-Forson would have held a spanner, dressed in overalls and slid under cars to fix engines daily but a change in trajectory landed him behind the microphone and console in a radio station.
The veteran presenter and coach picked up an interest in mechanical engineering at an early age but his destiny was diverted in a different direction.
“Growing up, I started learning how to tear things apart and put them back together,” he said, as he pointed out that his journey into radio was unplanned.
“God is the one who chooses our destiny for us. In as much as you have plans to do something, that is not God’s plan. If He says do this and your instinct tells you that this is where you should go, this is where you should go, perhaps that is where you will be successful and that’s what I did,” the award-winning radio personality noted.
Many hold the view that famous people are wealthy. However, Mr Annan-Forson, who was very popular in the early 90s, had a different view.
“I’ve always believed in that theory of ‘good name is better than riches’. There’s that myth also that once you’re famous you have everything at your bank hall. That’s not true,” he stated.
For him, being a broadcaster is a very tough job that involves huge pressure, hard work and determination, and “not as easy as people perceive it to be”.
He recounted his journey as a staff of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) for 16 years and how he had to walk from Labone to GBC, even in the rain to host an early morning programme at 5:30 am.
But he was not deterred by the 4kilometre journey that could last up to an hour on foot.
His style and presentation of Country Music earned him the nickname ‘King of Country Music’.
He was grateful to GBC for giving him the platform for 16 years to do what he loved doing most.
Mr Annan-Forson expressed disappointment in persons who seek to be broadcasters but refuse to learn or pay their dues.
“They don’t read, all they do is take stories from social media, take stories from television, and come up with their own versions. If you think you’re just going to come as a broadcaster because you want a job, then you’ve got the whole scenario wrong. It won’t work for you. You’ve got to explore new avenues of how to be different” he advised in an interview on GTV.
Tommy Annan Forson is also the founder of Rabodef Radio Academy. He is a multiple award-winning broadcaster with a plethora of awards including an honour by CITI FM at the maiden edition of ‘The Eminence’, for enrolling many young people into the media fraternity.