Nigerian owned Black Heritage Radio debuts in UK

The list of Nigerians in Diaspora doing the country proud swelled last
Thursday, 19th August, 2010 with the going on air of the much talked
about internet based radio station- The Black Heritage Radio (BHR) in
the united kingdom.

It is the brainchild of three Nigerian trained broadcasters Ladi Taiwo
formally of AIT and SUPERSCREEN, Bukki Solanke and Olasunkanmi
Sanusi both formally of LAGOS STATE BROADCASTING SERVICES
(RADIO LAGOS/EKO FM).

BHR is an unusual combination of radio broadcast with entertainment
and lifestyle journalism, speaking on this novel idea, Ladi says ‘we
realised that tabloid magazines are not easily accessible online despite
the huge readership, so we spoke to some of our colleagues about our
plans and the result is what you see when you log on to www.
theblackheritageradio.com. The outpouring of commendation and
encomiums from Nigerians and other visitors to the site has been
humbling to be honest. It has also brought a surge in the number of
media that want to be part of this idea but we can only accommodate a
limited number from Nigeria to create room for other tabloid magazines
from other black communities.’

According to Bukki, proper programming will commence in January
2011 as we test our streaming server and try to put together our
studio; we are also in talks with some of our professional colleagues in
UK and other part of the world who are seriously considering
romancing the microphone once again after a long time.

The entertainment scene in and around London will not be the same as
BHR is set to take over with their professional coverage of live
individual and corporate events, Having narrowly missed out on the live
coverage of the maiden edition of the Nigerian carnival in Ireland due
to some logistical issue, all things being equal they will be streaming
the Notthinghill carnival in west London by the end of August.

Speaking on other activities of BHR, Sunkanmi added that ‘we also
package promo and are recording some churches at the moment who
have paid for slots on our Sunday programme listings, our video player
is for movie trailers and promo at a very affordable rate’.

BHR have been on air for less than two weeks and the response has
been overwhelming, they have over hundred people join the ‘BHR-I’m a
fan’ account on the social networking sites facebook and many more
on twitter. Through their friends in the advertising industry, they have
secured some banners and promo and their site visitor’s statistics is
enviable. They have many well-established organisations signifying
interest to work with them.

Speaking on this significant leap in a short space of time, Ladi says ‘we
thank God for the vision and let me acknowledge that the three of us
have very good and influential friends in the media/advertising industry
who have been in the know of this project before we went public. We
are using this medium to say a big thank you to everybody who have
supported us this far and we hope to live up to the confidence they
have in the team and lest I forget, I want to thank our wives for their
understanding.

African Examiner.