With absolutely no initial intention of ever becoming a radio presenter but very energetic, clearly outspoken and an addiction for the radio, Dotun is now one of Nigeria’s hottest radio presenter.
BY ADA IGBOANUGO
You would know a radio jockey/presenter when you see one or rather when you hear one. He practically took out all other questions from my mouth at the answering of just one question as we hooked up on a sunny Saturday afternoon at his Coolfm office, ikoyi.
In the beginning
Born April 8 1984 to the Kayodes, Oladotun Ojuolape Kayode has his grandfather to thank for his girly middle name. ‘‘it makes people laugh, thanks to my grandfather’’.
Though born and bred in Lagos state, dotun never forgets where he came from as I spotted him putting on a tee-shirt which read, ‘ondo boys are stubborn’. ‘‘yes we are, we know our rights If we have to take it from the likes of Gani Fawenhimi and Femi Falana.’’
In a family of three in which he’s the first born, the 25years old attended the Lagos state University, School of Communication Ojuelegba specialising in advertising and public relations. He also took an elective in E-tech/info technology at NIIT, ‘’I can actually specialize in java/html now, computer programming.’’
Despite his set physique and good looks, this hunk has a soft side to him that is quite uncommon in most guys. ‘‘I’m very honest and can be very blunt but people tend to think I’m emotional. I could risk getting into trouble for people.’’
Due to this, His major heart desire includes setting up a foundation for Sickle cell patients and getting people off the street and reasons why he chose to do this? ‘’I want to save lives. A whole lot of them- I have and have lost friends with sickle cell and I hate child labour.’’
He inherited this rare gene of his from his mother who’s been a nurse for 20years and according to him has apparently been saving lives.
Having been a radio presenter for four years, that is ‘‘two years behind the scene and two years perfectly on the radio’’, dotun would go back to school if he gets the chance to- to get a masters degree. “Probably try my hands on oil and gas”
Journey to Coolfm
In a country where problem is our middle name, what else would you expect than people who’d be suffering from chronic insomnia as a result of the problems as they would rather stay awake and think about their lives. Ironically though, dotun earned his fame and fans through these people’s problems as his show ‘sleep talk, what’s on your mind’ were dedicated to the ‘night crawlers’ which got him promoted from the night show to the daytime show. But this heartthrob of many sleep talkers today started as a young novice who did nothing for the first two of his four years putting up charts for United States Radio Express as they had found him trustworthy in the analysis of music. This experience opened him up and made him to be unrestrictive when it comes to music and he naturally started listening to songs he never would have thought of listening to. “Now I’m a huge fan of Nigerian music. I respect Nigerian music a lot more now than I did before. I also respect a couple of Nigerian musicians today who are doing us proud because they chose to be different.”
But the real walk into Coolfm was in November 24 2004, when his mentor, Mr Nzeribe, depicted the confidence he had in Dotun by putting a phone call through to the then general managing director to Coolfm, Chris ubosi telling him about Dotun. “He gave me three options; MiTV, LTV and Coolfm and of course I was already a diehard fan of Coolfm at that time so everything just fell into place.” He first got picked by Alero Egaga a woman who he claims understood the fundamentals of music.
Having started as an intern, dotun claims it wasn’t as easy as people think it is or probably what it is today. “It was hard. I did a lot of research. There was a lot of politics going on. People took advantage of the fact that I was young. It was like a battle of supremacy but thankfully it all paid off.”
The Ups and the Downs
Though fun, being a radio presenter comes with its price. For dotun, the price of sleep was what he had to pay. But then that’s basically the life of a Presenter so it didn’t really count as anything. What did count though were the challenges he had to face while on air. “There was a time I was on air presenting and Olisa asked me, ‘what the heck are you talking about?’ and he said get back on the mic, this is how it’s done and after he showed me I kept coming everyday to watch him present until I finally got it”. And that experience also marked the beginning of a new era in his life as his success in the radio industry skyrocketed since then. ‘Sleep talk’ was one of the most listened to shows in Lagos.
The Razzmatazz of the Job
Craziness is an understatement in the Radio industry. That’s where most crazy things are done or said; after all, like they say, ‘you can’t see their face’ so you are completely oblivious of whoever is talking or whoever is calling in to participate or contribute on the show. Like every other presenter, dotun has had his own fair share of craziness. The craziest thing he has ever done on the radio was to publically give out the phone number of a caller, a prospective stalker, who was insisting he had it. “It wasn’t intentional though. It was a pure mistake, I just let it slip and she was so angry because her phone kept buzzing from many callers who had gotten her number off the air as she called it out. But we are cool now though.”
While the craziest thing a caller has ever done was to profess her feelings and her love for him on air. “She kept doing that every night. Don’t get me wrong she was a pretty good caller but that just wasn’t it. You want to talk and ask questions but all she wants to do is take off her clothes and just do something and that always made me laugh because I was warned that I’ll get the craziest call one day”. Someone even called and proposed on air to him.
Relaxation Spot
Dotun spends most of his hangout time like every normal average youth presenter- the fab way. He’s hangout spot would include Tribeca, insomnia Chocolat royale or seeing a movie and when he’s not going out he is watching TV or surfing the internet.
No comments:
Post a Comment