MD/CEO of Wazobia fm, Cool fm and Nigeria Info
Amin Moussalli is the CEO of three leading radio brands in Nigeria. He founded, the popular Pidgin oriented Wazobia fm, coolfm and more recently, Nigeria Info. Moussalli came to Nigeria in 1975 and founded AIM consultants, a company that is focused on architectural Engineering designs. His success in that field lured him into other ventures such as radio broadcasting which he considers a passion and a national service. He has since founded several stations in Lagos, Abuja, Port-Hacout, and Kano. In this interview, he speaks with Yemi Olakitan on his latest effort Nigeria Info, and many other plans for the future. Excerpts:
· How it all began
The story of AIM Group began in 1886 when the grandfather of my wife, Mr. Michael Elias immigrated to Nigeria. He was actually on his way to see to his grandparents in Brazil, but in those days the ships sailed through the West Coast from one port to the other, and from Lagos to Brazil. Mr. Elias was made to spend his money on gambling on board the ship and was therefore dropped off in Lagos. In 1975 my wife and I came on a visit to see my late in-laws. My late father-in-law, Mr. Fouad Elias asked my wife to see the late Gen Murtala Mohammed, who then had plans to build a new capital. We were so excited because we had studied about the planning of the Brazilia, built in 1957, and now a new Capital would be built! Since then we have made this place our home, because to us a home is where you spend most of your precious time, a place you have your friends, a land where you re-invest. As you can see my two daughters are now with us, and my two grandchildren are also here.
· Let us talk about your latest project Nigeria Info
Nigeria info is a total talk radio station that was created by my daughter, Tatiana. We wanted to start a completely new format that would compete with our existing stations. In order to start a new radio station, you need to do research. My elder daughter who started the whole project decided to rely on the research services provided by a Nigerian company, called Media Planning Services, MPS. They conducted a research and she found out that 40% of Nigerians want to talk when they are on the radio and 30% wants to listen to news and the other 30% wants to listen to sports. It means that radio broadcasting have changed from what we have in the 90s. It is no longer more music. Music is not really the number one attraction on radio. People want to listen to interesting talk and they want to participate. This prompted us to create Nigeria Info, which is a total talk station and less music. The station would be focusing on sports, news, national issues that affect every Nigerian. I think that people would be enjoying more sports on the radio now. It is more interactive than what they have been listening to before now and it is a big brand because Nigeria is big and it is about Nigeria. Anything, you want to know about Nigeria, you would get on Nigeria info. When you get on Nigerian info, you will listen to news and you get a very good opportunity to express yourself. Everybody has a chance to talk and be heard. You get to talk about issues that affect the nation, the family and the government and it is toll-free.
We wanted a station that would compete with Wazobia Fm and our other our stations. The problem we have and it is a problem is that Wazobia has gone on top of the roof and it has gone as far as it can go. When that happens if you don’t take action, the next place to go is down and we do not want that to happen. We would like to maintain equilibrium. In order to do that, you need a competitor and the next competitor to Wazobia is all the way down. We decided to create another competitor so that these guys in Wazobia would not feel relaxed. They can see what is happening now and we can put them on their toes. The facebook for Nigerian info is very active and we have Nigerians between the ages of 17-50 listening to Nigeria info. The research has been very revealing. What new thing are we doing with Nigeria info? We ensue that our listeners talk. Our broadcasters are moderators. What do the conventional radio broadcasters do? He plays music, he talks. The situation is different on Nigeria info, he introduces a topic, and he let the people talk. In every show, we have two people and it is like a cross frire.it is just like the CNN show in 1990 called the Cross Fire. The station is also toll free. We have about six lines that people can call free of charge. It is expensive but we allow everyone to talk. The situation is actually a national service because it is very expensive to run it as designed. We allow a man sitting down at the Bar Beach to express his mind although we put in some checks. When people become rude we have to correct them. NBC cannot monitor every thing, individual stations must take responsibility. If you want to talk about the President, you have to say, His Excellency or Mr. President. When a person becomes the president, he becom3es the number one person in the country, the leader of the nation. You have to show respect, there must be decorum, and there must be protocols.
We are the only radio station with scriptwriters in Nigeria. Scriptwriters are usually for the television but we have scriptwriters in our station now. This is all in an effort to ensure quality broadcasting.
· You brought in an American broadcaster called Bill Torch. Why and what is so special about Bill Torch?
Bill Torch is a veteran broadcaster in America, although he is retired now. We brought him in to train our people here. He started broadcasting in the United States when cable was free to air and nobody was on it. He used to come up in the morning and he brings a donkey with him to the studio and he reads the news. The next day, he brings a dog and he broke the norms. He makes the news interesting because he puts a lot of drama to it and everybody loves it. He was able to draw Americans attention. He would be coming back to Nigeria by January. I never knew in my life that we were going to work with Bill because we love him so much. When we first contacted him, he said, I have never been to Africa. When he came, he fell in love with Nigeria. He loves the country so much. He has been training our people. We have the sole license on him because we do not want other people to hijack him once he gets here. Don’t forget that he is a retired man, and he loves our girls. (Laughter)
· Who designed the Logo? It is an interesting one.
Our logo was designed by my daughter and it is a sign for talk. What the logo is saying is that it is time for talk. Come, let us talk about Nigeria.
· Can you share some of the challenges you are facing with us.
One of the biggest challenges that we face is electricity. It is a big challenge indeed. We set up a radio station in Kano; Coolfm and the experience is hell because of electricity problems and we have two transformers there and yet we still have issues with electricity. We have lights here and we still complain because it is always going and coming. We have to run on generators but Kano’s electricity supply is very bad. The electricity situation here does not help the generators because the lights keep tripping off. It’s a challenge. Our adverts rate is low compared to other countries. We have one of the lowest in the world. In Benin Republic, the rates are 30percent higher and they have stable electricity.
On air, the challenge we have is that we to beg people to turn off there radio sets. Everyone wants to hear himself speak. I am enjoying the process though with all the stress. It is like playing Tennis. I know that Nigerians are going to love it as much as I do.
· Let us Talk about the Broadcasters
I have engineering background and I have since left Broadcasting. I left it to other people to run it. I have to come back because my daughters said that if I have to maintain quality, I have to be more involved and this has basically increased my workload. You have to sleep by 3am and wake up by 6am. Sunday is a good day because you can rest. Well, about the broadcaster, we have Tolu, who used to be on the Midday Oasis on Coolfm in the nearly days and now she is back on Nigeria Info. She is on the morning show. She went to do some television broadcasting and she was on Channel 24 but when she listens to the station she likes it and now she is back. She is such a confident person and you need to listen to her in the morning. Katherine is also a very good broadcaster and her story is very interesting. She listens to the station and she got hooked and she wanted to be on it. She had not been with us before and now she is with us. You see, one thing about broadcasting is getting the right person. You can get a lot of people but to get the right persons is not very easy. The right person in the right place is the challenging part. Matse is another interesting person. You know, she said that I want to be on Nigerian Info. I need a change in my life. We say why? She was doing well on Wazobia Fm. Matse is a very intelligent lady and she made it a point of duty to do international courses online and I credit her for that. You know, she is the first Nigerian to break facebook record for the highest number of friends on face book. You can have about 40, 000 friends and she was the first Nigerian to break that record because of her show on Wazobia Fm. She is very hardworking.
· What is your relationship with your former staff members such as Dan Foster and many others that are no longer in your employ?
I am a very friendly person. You know people come and when they want to go, you cannot force them to stay. We always maintain a cordial relationship with all. Some have spent 30 years with us. Some have an ambition and they go out to make it work. Some time, it can be a success and sometimes it is not. You have to make sure that your ambition is a concrete one.
When I look at Nigeria. The first problem is see is unemployment among the youths. We have a huge population of youth who are out of school. When we create a new business. We are trying to help out by solving some of our national problems. We are not alone in these. We have other people such as Aliko Dangote, who is doing incredible things all over the country.
· About His National Honors
I have a MON and a very great Nigerian recently nominated me for another MON but I have to beg them to remove my name from the list because I already have an MON. To get an upgrade, you need to wait for five years. If they give me another MON, I have to wait for another five years to get an upgrade. I asked them to drop it.
· What plans for the future?
We know that the future belong to Internet radio and so we are working on that and getting prepared. We have Cool ink. We are working on that so that internet service can become so cheap that cybercafés can be built all over the country. We can work with the local governments in different communities so that Nigerians can have cheap access to the Internet. We have signed agreements with a certain company for the purpose of satellite services so that Internet access can be provided to all through cool link. Internet is going to become very cheap and we are going to ensure that every one have access to it all over the country. Next year, we are putting the issue of television into God’s hands and looking at what he would bring.
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