Metro TV’s Dr. Randy Abbey has remarked about the tremendous impact the late Mr. Sainti Baffour-Bonnie has had on his professional life, saying the former CEO of Radio Gold inspired and provided the foundation for him to develop his business life.
Mr. Abbey made these remarks in celebrating the memory of Baffoe-Bonnie affectionatly called ‘Babo’ whose sad death occurred at the University Medical Center on February 1, 2021, awaiting final funeral rites.
On his Good Morning Ghana programme on Metro TV, Friday, June 25, 2021, Dr. Randy Abbey who cut his teeth in broadcasting at Radio Gold said his rapport with the late media proprietor of the media house matured over the years noting:
“One thing about ‘Babo’ is that the relationship never ended when I left Radio Gold. I have been out of Radio Gold for twenty years, but he still kept in touch till the very last day. He was very interested in your family life, your exploits in academia, career, and all those things and he was always sending messages to me on this program and sometimes insisting that I should age,” he added.
Randy Abbey, who holds a doctorate in Business Administration, indicated that the late Kwasi Sainti Baffoe-Bonnie persuaded him to get a doctorate degree.
“He was one of the first persons that insisted that I should put the title doctor when I was refusing to that. He has this way of motivating people. I always tease him that he won’t motivate you financially. But, of course, the kind of motivation he will give you was more than money. He will inspire you to do things exploits that will bring you money and a lot more,” he stated.
Touching on Baffoe-Bonnie’s gift to spot talents, Dr. Abbey said indeed his predecessor had what it took to discover talents indicating: “he just had a knack for identifying, he felt happy. I think he was fulfilled by the number of people he developed because in my case I got into this thing [journalism] by accident.”
“I went to see Fiifi Banson and we were chatting and Fiifi was supposed to introduce me to somebody. Whiles we were chatting at Radio Gold at Laterbiokoshie, it was a Monday and he had to do a show at 3 pm and it was time for his show, so, he asked that we walk to the place. It was supposed to be a one-hour show so that after we continue with our discussion. I sat at the reception and he went in to do his show. But I think his producer, Tony Owusu Amofah then informed him that his guest for the show had not arrived. It was ‘1996 thereabout when Radio Gold had started a year after,” he narrated.
He added that “He came back to the reception and sought my consent about standing in for his guest. I agreed to it and asked for the topic for discussion. I wrote a few guidelines down and we proceeded to the studio. So that was it. I never intended to pursue this as a profession. So by the time we finished the show, here was ‘Babo’ and ‘Bingo’ he was the Business Development Officer. Babo asked ‘Young man, who are you? What do you do? Can you come a lot more often? I want to hear you more often. And that’s it. That’s how it all started.”
By: Ernest Tetteh Kabu | Metrotvonline.com | Ghana
