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Entertainment of Thursday, 12 April 2007

Source: JIVE

Party marks VIBE FM’s 11th anniversary

Vibe FM has come a long way indeed: from the days when it seemed like you had to have lived in the UK to get a job there, to the period it had the whole capital tagging along their off-the-wall programming to when they were reportedly chased out of the Trust Towers. Things seemed to be looking up when bad debts crept in. Plus, there was the case of some government interference after one of the station’s presenters got a little too abrasive one morning.

Truth be told, Vibe FM had good run with radio entertainment and after the street carnival was launched it looked like nobody could catch up. How many stations were flying bands from the Caribbean to perform at a free concert? That wasn’t too long ago, and whatever went wrong, it would take a lot to put the pieces together. At the moment the station has just about the biggest youth oriented programming on air and a little consistency is all it would take to get some of that visibility it flaunted so much.

Well all of that is in the past and in the last three years Vibe has been on a steady climb even if a slow one. Eleven years of radio with cases of faulty leapfrogging is certainly worth celebrating. And CEO, Mike Cooke and his team decided to stretch out some, together with a few of the old voices that made 91.9 a hot spot.

The party was bad, though. A lot of the presenters were too ready to mingle and of course there were enough to ‘chicks’ to go round so it wasn’t like anybody had to play sniper to get a piece of the action. It is not a bad time to stop and reflect on what has gone before in order to create the right environment to surge forward. The reunion of both old 'vibers' and new ones at the Office Pub was probably the right platform to start afresh. Mike Cooke told JIVE that Vibe has always celebrated its birthday and that this was another of such occasions. He also said that other events have been scheduled for the celebration to commemorate the new focus of Vibe FM.

It was a beautiful sight to see both old friends and new ones come together to socialize for the sake of a common bond. One person who cannot be left out of the Vibe family is Kwame Faakye. His growth at Vibe was phenomenal, attracting good offers from other media houses. Though eventually, Atlantis Radio managed to ‘poach’ him, he seems eternally close to Vibe FM. He was visibly delighted to be among old friends again. They may always see each other but this was a special day. Chris Attoh, EddieBlay, Jon Germain came to hang out with the Vibe gang. Maybe this might be the beginning of a new Vibe FM.