‘Payola’ Takers Should Go To Jail KKD

"Radio disc jockeys (DJs) should go to jail for demanding payola (bribe) from musicians before playing their songs on air," award-winning DJ, Kwesi Kyei Darkwa, (KKD) has proposed. “When I was on radio as a DJ, I never took payola from any musician. If there is any musician out there who claims to have given me money so I play his songs, he should come forward," KKD challenged. Kyei Darkwa, popularly known as the 'Finest', made the suggestion when he presented a paper on the "State of Entertainment in Ghana" at an arts/entertainment seminar held at the Alisa Hotel in Accra. The event was part of activities marking the first anniversary of Empire Entertainment Limited established by top radio and television presenter, Nathaniel Kwabena Anokye Adisi, aka Bola Ray. According to KKD, DJs in the country could use their huge public images as platforms for the generation of extra income to augment their salaries rather than extort money from musicians who are already struggling to make ends meet. He charged managers of radio and television stations to organise more musical programmes to accommodate the thousands of songs in the system so that presenters will not have the power to play what he described as "announcers' choice", which almost always turns out to be payola connected. KKD said this would go a long way to reduce 'mediocrity' in radio and television programming in the country. Speaking on the topic: "Business in Entertainment", the publisher of Agoo Magazine, Mr Kojo Bonsu charged artistes to seek professional counsel in all their activities to ensure that they made the most out of their profession. "To be able to turn your talent into a successful business, you need the services of lawyers to advise you on all contractual issues, publicists to manage and sell your image; business managers to use your talent to create wealth etc". He advised artistes to court the company of people who had something positive to offer them in respect of their careers and not cronies and relatives who were only interested in what they would get from the artistes. The vice president of the Film Producers Association of Ghana, Mr Ben Imoro, criticised Ghanaian film makers for promoting witchcraft and juju (magic) at the expense of the good aspects of the Ghanaian culture, saying, "The audio-visual medium is the most powerful tool for public education and it is sad that film makers have lost sight of that basic fact". The Editor of the Muzic-Biz newspaper, Verus Nartey, wondered if the careers of once popular hip-life singers like Buk Bak, VIP, Kontihene, Okomfo Kwadee and others had slackened, and challenged all hip-life singers to prove to the world that hip-life music was still alive by releasing more works and holding more shows.