From spicy Hello to boring Hello
Cameroon
By Franklin S Bayen
 |
| Albert NjieMbonde and Elmer Nene Shadzeka |
So, CRTV has replaced its TV daybreak
infotainment talk show with an information magazine; they have replaced an
appealing show with an essential one, more or less aptly described as boring.
Now, the darling Hello of MabiAzefor, Albert NjieMbonde and Elmer Nene Shadzeka
that appears to have become a way of life to so many for over a decade now, is
gone!
It
feels like having to do with the rather boring but very informative Newsday
that replaced the very infotaining Network Africa daybreak show on BBC. I’m yet
to come to terms with that change on BBC. I’m yet to connect with Newsday,
nearly half a decade on. Yet, I find Newsday very informative. Change is hard
to accept. It becomes a bitter pill to swallow especially when it has been a way
of life over the decades (for Network Africa) and over the years (for Hello).
The
swell of resistance to CRTV’s dawn broadcasting changes (now including the
decade-and-a-half old Morning Safari on radio to be replaced with Daybreak from
next Monday) must be understood. When, just over a decade ago, London Times
decided to move from broadsheet (standard format for up market newspapers in
advanced media settings) to tabloid to be more appealing to younger readers,
the older traditional readers objected vehemently. To steer clear of trouble,
managers of the Times treaded the King Solomon line by running both formats for
a while, not to alienate any segment of their readership; for a smooth
transition.
As
I understand from savouring both Hello Cameroon and its French language sister
Bonjour le Cameroun this past week (I have not checked with those in the CRTV
programmes kitchen), the intention could be to give an essential morning
briefing to viewers. Hello Cameroon may seek to give the elite, including the middle
working class (besides the general public), a grasp of the day’s news in
perspective with a variety of useful information and tips before they engage
the day’s business, a shift from just feel-good entertainment, interspersed
with bits of information; from a load of entertainment with some information to
a load of information with some entertainment, so to say.
This
is nothing to do with the presenters. Duty calls them to do an assignment cut
out by hierarchy. No doubt, the casting picks the suitable heads though their
personal touch can make the difference. Mabi, Nene and Mbonde were not the only
Hello hosts, but they left a mark where (an)other(s) obviously did not. And,
unsurprisingly, their Hello legacy, not the other’s, is remembered.
From my observation, this is what is going
on at CRTV:
• The
newsroom (trained journalists) is “seizing” the “animateurs” shows. Journalist
Emmanuel Mbede (new programmes director) has modified and reassigned the
programme created by producer Robert Ekukole for “animateurs” and more sexy
faces preferred by some viewers ;
• Hello
legmen and women, a lot of them greenhorns or “animateurs”, some trying their
hands at it for the first time on the show, have been shoved aside or assigned
elsewhere and the stage opened for newsroom journalists, the focus shifting
from style and “sexiness” to content. Watching “unsexy” Clarice Achu and Mekole
Henry (as a youth on-air campaigner describes them) commenting the news or
zooming into an issue makes my day;
• Where
“sexy” Hello greenhorns, many of them untrained broadcasters in the programmes
department, gave half-baked reporting and sometimes below standard on-set
performances on state TV viewed around the world via satellite, CRTV, perhaps
heeding calls to limit questionable on-air exposure that may legitimize
mediocrity and disgrace the nation, could be seeking ways to put its best foot
forward as best it can afford with trained and competent newsroom picks, hoping
its newsroom best are good enough to meet the great expectations;
• Viewing
Hello Cameroon snapshots on Facebook, some Cameroonians abroad not privileged
to be watching the show, thought some of those seen on set with host
PochiTambaNsoh were permanent co-hosts. The new concept features a parade of
journalists (call them temporary or rotating co-hosts or guest-hosts) joining
the host on set to either discuss the news, interview a guest in the studio or
a colleague on the line;
• With
live correspondence reports, the new show also looks like Luncheon Date on TV;
• I
can’t rule out the possibility that CRTV management would consider giving our
Hello darlings their stage back elsewhere, maybe in weekend shows or an
after-work evening show leading to the 7.30pm news, in the mould of Equinoxe
TV’s DisonsTous hosted by Sam SeverinAngo and andC’Comment on Canal2 hosted by
Clarence Hardy. Ivo Partem, one of those gone with the defunct sister Bonjour
is already giving a new boost to CRTV’s Sunday afternoon Tam-Tam Weekend. He is
pairing with the pleasant Hello kid, GwendolyneEgbe.
Nene and Mbonde
• It
is not ruled out that our beloved Hello duet may be back on Hello Cameroon to
add spice, colour and flexibility where lady Pochi’s business attitude, well
suited for the new business concept, may need the Nene-Mbonde touch;
• I
read someone say as a “trained journalist”, Nene can fit into any other
newsroom role. Of course, she’s a news girl in her own right, training,
degrees, practice and all (she read Journalism at UB and ASMAC and
International Communication at IRIC and has presented radio news and Cameroon
This Morning), though her on-air gift and natural appeal and style give her the
persona of an “animatrice” par excellence. NjieMbonde is one bundle of talent
and on-air skills, a blend of rawness and polish, jovial and formal as may suit
the call. He is eloquent and knowledgeable in measures to be the envy of anyone
in the newsroom (a one-cut-fit-all persona) that may qualify him to also host
the more formal Hello Cameroon (if newsroom guys won’t raise the journalism
school card to disqualify him). Nene and Mbonde just may be back, though it has
to be seen if they will loosen the Hello Cameroon on-set discipline or it will
discipline their looseness;
• CRTV
knows it must find a show to accommodate the jolly good Nene and Mbonde if it
must not waste some of its best talents and its investment in also grooming
them.
Oddities
• Correspondence
reports by phone are not accompanied with the standard graphics of reporter’s
photo mug, location on the map and perhaps stock videos from the location; (the
French language show has made some amends in that light in the last two
editions);
• Some
guest-hosts are a mere formality as they sit on set simply to announce a
colleague filing in by phone from a regional station, which could be conveniently
done by host Pochi;
• The
use of rotating guest-hosts on set seems to be a clever move to cover up lapses
or lack of adequate knowledge of issues by the host, but that may only make
sense where a journalist specialized in the subject interviews an expert. Also,
if that may be necessary for Bonjour le Cameroun host, Eric Christian Nya, an
“animateur”, it may not be exactly so for journalist Pochi whom I believe can
handle issues on her own;
• About
the oddest feature so far on the new format was an inelegant simulated live
(faux directe) interview with Basic Education minister YousoufAdidjaAlim in the
maiden edition of Bonjour le Cameroun. From her vocal pitch, her eye language
and general attitude, even the inattentive viewer could tell it was a recorded
interview and she was responding to questions from the journalist with her in
her office, not live on the line with the same journalist faking it from the
studio on that back to school morning. Even worse, the minister was reading
from a script, a kind of back to school speech, faked both as an interview and
live for that matter. It was a failed trick. The thief was caught, live!
Morning Safari/Daybreak
CRTV
radio chief, Alain Belibi, has announced similar changes on radio daybreak
programmes in English and French. Beginning 4:30am, a new programme Daybreak
will replace Morning Safari and bring a wider variety of informative content
than its predecessor that, for the most part, featured one guest for the entire
dawn programme.
*Franklin SoneBayen is a journalist, media
watcher and consultant
Pic
Nene and Mbonde were simply irresistible
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