OAP Ali Bassey Talks About The Negative And Positive Side Of His Job And The One Big Mistake He Made On Air...

On air personality Ali Bassey talks about the Negative and positive sides of a Job he loves doing so well and how it impacts on him...

Listen to him live on CorrectFM 100.7 Kano....

. TELL US ABOUT YOUR JOB AND HOW YOUR DAY BEGINS

I am a Broadcast Journalist (or OAP like we are popularly called). I am obligated to inform, educate and entertain my listening audience.
I work weekdays, and Sunday mornings. Initially, I was on the morning show, and it's called the 'Una Gud Morning ' show, from 6am to 10am. And I was on it for 4 years, until 2 months ago when there was a reshuffling and I was asked to handle the afternoon belt. So now, it's, 'Kano Wetin Dey', from 12pm to 4pm.


My Day begins at 5am with family prayers. And then I get my son ready for school. Take him to school, get back, eat, do a brief over view of my show for the day, and relax for a bit. By 10am, I leave for the office.



. WHAT INSPIRES YOU?


God is my biggest inspiration. And then family. My dad is a major inspiration and I ensure I talk to him every morning just to draw from his ever flowing pool of wisdom. My wife and kids serve as daily inspiration as well, cos I spend the best part of my day with them. I listen to a lot of music and watch movies as well. And then I read alot too. Meeting smart, intelligent, funny people, is inspiration on another level!

All of these inspire me a great deal.







 WHAT ARE THE POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES OF YOUR JOB?


The positives of my job include the fact that it opens doors that may otherwise be closed to you. You meet and interview top personalities daily, whether in the studio or at events. People want to meet you and be associated with you. 

You get to be invited to anchor events and stuff. You are well liked in your locality and neighborhood because they hear your voice on air and feel the need to 'associate'. Then, you also get tons of messages from people daily, on how your show makes them feel great and how they eagerly look forward to it. The greatest positive though, is the fact that God has been gracious enough to let you do what you love for a living. To get paid to do what you love, is amazing. There is no greater feeling!


Negatives? E plenty ooo. As much as you have those who love what you do and appreciate you, there are those who genuinely dislike you and will stop at nothing to pull you down.

Then, as glamorous as our job may appear, media houses can sometimes have the problem of delayed salaries. So, its best to have a side hustle to augment, if not, wahala dey o, especially for those that have families.

Then you meet entitled friends or fans, who feel as a public figure, you suppose get money na. So when they reach out and you 'lock up' or explain you don't have, they pick offence and call you all sorts, But we move!

. HAVE YOU EVER MADE A MISTAKE ON AIR?


Oh yes! Especially with facts and figures sometimes. We are humans after all. 

The greatest mistake (that I hope never to repeat again, ever!), was a day I had just finished talking on air, and then I got a call from the guy who was supposed to paint my house that day. So, I picked up the call, without realizing I hadn't dropped my mic fader. Meaning, my mic was still on, I was live, and I was facing the mic. 

Na so I begin dey talk with Chijioke for phone o. He was explaining that I needed to add more money for paint and I was telling him where and where to paint in the house. The entire Kano state and beyond, was listening to this conversation.

 God! 

People were calling my line, and I was like "una see say I dey on call, una still dey call me". The call lasted like 5 minutes. As call end, I saw lots of messages telling me I was on air and they could hear the conversation. Omoh, e just be like say make ground open. Jeez!!

What if it was a crazy conversation I was having with a friend that was very sensitive or somewhat offensive? Na so I for cast for Kano. But thank God. I just went downstairs and apologized to my boss and he warned me to be very careful.

 This happened in 2019.


. HAS BEING AN ON AIR PERSONALITY BEEN A BLESSING TO YOU?


Oh yes it has! It's a blessing to do what I LOVE for a living. And then just to meet people who eagerly await your presence on air, because they genuinely love listening to you, is another big blessing. And then the gift of meeting people daily, inspiring them, learning from them and listening to their stories, is another blessing I don't take for granted.
God put me in this world to inform, inspire, educate and entertain. When I die, I wanna go empty!