Asaase Radio’s afternoon news is being revised! From Monday 4 October, The Lunch News, which has aired every Monday to Friday at 1pm since the station started operation in June 2020, will air at 12 noon.
It has been extended to one hour and will now be called The 12 O’Clock Report.
The shift in timing notwithstanding, the same format that has been served to listeners over time will be maintained: Asaase Radio will continue to bring you factual, reliable and timely current affairs, sports and news – straight from the source, devoid of any agenda-setting and pontification and interlaced with expert analysis.
What’s new?
If anything, listeners should look out for the inclusion of a social space – the introduction of a segment where curated comments from listeners from social media platforms will be read on air.
There will also be more human interest stories, which will be given prominence and brought to the attention of the appropriate officials for a speedy response.
Speaking about the changes, the head of programmes at Asaase Radio, Nana Otu Gyandoh, said: “Over the past year, we’ve kept our listeners entertained through our lifestyle mid-morning show, Ten-2-One. We’ve also informed our audience through our midday business news and lunch news.
“Our one year of operation has indeed been an interesting experience. Asaase has gone ahead to become a leading force and a thought leader in the media space through its quality programming and service delivery.
“We believe strongly that what has brought the station here today is our ability to innovate, to think outside the box and to dare to be different.
“In line with our objective of moving forward,” Gyandoh added, “we’ve taken steps to redesign and optimise some of our programmes in order to deliver an even better-value offering to our cherished audience.”
Anchors’ take
Certainly, the changes cannot be effected smoothly without dedicated anchors.
Karen Dodoo, an anchor on the afternoon bulletin, said that: “Although 12 noon is the hot spot for news on almost every other channel, we’re promising you something different, something you can relate to, something to make the news more listener-friendly.
“And so, for listeners who want a blend of everything, this is it. It’s a cool serving for those interested in social stuff,” she said.
“We were doing tremendously well with our news bulletin at 1pm. The time change just puts us ahead in the news competitive space,” said Caleb Ahinakwah, another anchor on the afternoon bulletin, also sharing his thoughts on the change.
In the latest format, the afternoon news will merge with the midday business news, which previously aired in the last half-hour of the mid-morning show.
Nana Otu Gyandoh said the new changes are “designed with our audience in mind”, adding that he is “convinced they will appreciate our value proposition even more”.
Nana Abena Boakye-Boateng
UPDATE: A version of this report published earlier said that the recast news broadcasts would start tomorrow (Friday 1 October 2021). We have corrected this to reflect the correct start date: Monday 4 October.
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