My name is Wale Animashaun and my fans call me Wale
Popopo, or Poski, or even Pandoski. The funny thing
about life is that you, sometimes, don’t chose what you
want to be. It has been fun being an On-Air personality,
OAP and you get to see so many things and meet so
many people that you have never thought of meeting,
and so it is a life changing experience and it is just so
wonderful. Funny enough, I am an accountant by
profession but if I had not been an OAP, I would have
loved to be a medical doctor. I just like taking care of
people.
Talking about the most basic training I have had on my
job as an OAP, I will say it is the training at FRCN
Training School. It is the Mecca of broadcasters, if you
ask me. If you go anywhere as a broadcaster, the first
question you are asked is this: “Have you been to the
FRCN?” I have also been certified by the Independent
Television Producers Association. I have done courses on
theatre, pronunciation, etiquette, and the like. What I like
about my job and the most interesting part of it is how I
get to let people have the real picture. A lot of people
have the wrong picture about so many things and as an
OAP, you have to do your research and get an unbiased
view. People must know that after six, there is seven and
then eight. After I have sensitized people about things
like this, I always feel great.
The only thing I don’t like about my job is that you don’t
have a private life. You don’t even have a personal life
and people go out of their way to know all about you.
They even see you as a supernatural person. You cannot
afford to fall sick and people just see you as their
property, who must not have a private life. On this job,
the most embarrassing moment I have had was when an
artiste came to the studio and I never knew that he is
my relation. When we started talking on radio, I felt so
ashamed that I never knew him. People started calling
me on air to accuse me of not knowing my own relative.
Since then, whenever I have a guest, I try as much as
possible to do a thorough research on the guest.
If I have my way to change something about the job, it
would be the salary. Most people think we have a lot of
money and they don’t even know that “fowl dey sweat,
na him feathers no let us know”. I think OAPs should be
appreciated more and remunerated better. After a very
busy day, I love watching football, even if it is Zimba
bwean league, as long as you are playing good soccer, I
am good with it. My family knows that they can ask me
anything and I will give it to them once I am watching
football off work. If I am given an opportunity to get on
another job apart from this, I will do it. You may not
know that if you put just an extra effort to another job, it
could be better, especially in a better working
environment elsewhere. Then, I will be able to deliver
better where I find myself. That is the state of my mind.
There is something that people don’t know about being
an OAP. They listen to us and enjoy the programme but
they don’t know that at times, we are fighting one
another in the studio and some other things that if the
listeners could just see, they will know that we are not
super humans.
Most people don’t know that to produce a programme
takes a lot. It is not just a paper work.
At times, the air-conditioner is off and you are live on a
programme, sweating it out like a goat, because the
show must go on. You are just in discomfort. If I have
my way to do something else in life, I will start an NGO
because I really want to impact people in the society in
so many ways that anywhere my children go and they
mention their surname, people will trace the name back
to me. I want to leave a legacy for the next generation
because my fathers have done their own. I must confess
that I love my job. I have been in broadcasting for over
20 years now.
I started out at Ray Power and then AIT before I moved
to Radio Continental.
It is normal to feel you want to make moves when you
just look at yourself and ask, is it not possible to do
something else, like going into politics? When you think
of the people that would miss you, you stay put on the
job. It is like in marriage, when your wife annoys you and
you feel like quitting but when you think about your
children, you just choose to continue.
I will support any of my children that so wishes to be an
OAP like me. In life, an elephant can only give birth to an
elephant. If I have a child that wants to toe my path, I
will encourage him/her but will only instruct him/her on
the good and the bad sides of the job.
There are days you are not happy yet you have to make
people happy; the show must still go on. In a couple of
years, I hope to have been in the political terrain and
that is because I have to help the society. You must
leave something behind that your children will be proud
of.
Maybe it is because of the way I was brought up. In the
next five years, I hope to have been on a platform that
will enable me impact the people in such a way that will
make the society a better place.
