In 2004, the leading radio station in Kumasi, FOX FM suffered a major blow when its leading Sports program lost some big names. The show had Sometymer as Host and Joe Laka as local news presenter and later co host.
Panel included Awal Mohammed The Professor(Historian), Offensive, Richard Osei Oware(Extra), Referee GK Manu, Ali Maradona(Kotoko rep) and Kwaku Adusei Kanawu(RIP), the Hearts of Oak rep.
FOX SPORTS was the most listened to program on radio in Kumasi and even George Oppong Weah said “Fox sports, no digidi no doubt” as an endorsement.
The host of the 10am -12noon Music show “Fox Midday Master Mix” was Joe Amee and ratings were dropping because of Lovin Cee on Kapital Brunch and Joojo Lemaire on LUV FM Metropolitan Mix.
Fox FM then decided to strategize to lead in the only day part they weren’t most listened to.
FOX SPORTS was presented by Sometymer on the FOX Morning Drive with Kwame Adinkrah at 7:15am and they came back with FOX SPORTS WORLD at 5pm – 6pm on Mondays and 5:30pm to 6pm Tuesday – Friday sponsored by “Maame Gyimah” at Cultural Center.
Ali Maradona and Kanawu were very popular brands on radio in Kumasi because of how both represented Kotoko and Hearts and went at each other.
FOX FM decided to pair the 2 with Joe Amee on ‘Midday Master Mix’ from 11-12noon to draw attention to the show with their popularity.
After sometime, Joe Laka joined the two and eventually started hosting them and the show became big and even had more people listening than the main FOX SPORTS UPDATE at 5:30pm.
Then with this huge popularity, when Kessben was set up in 2004, Joe Laka left FOX to Kessben FM.
He went along with Osei Oware and Awal Mohammed the Professor and decided to do Kessben Sports at brunch.
The sports started by FOX at brunch had also forced their biggest competitors Kapital Radio whom they dethroned as Kumasi’s no 1 radio station to start doing Sports on Brunch.
So Kessben Sports started immediately Master Richard finished the morning show at 9:30am and ended at 11am.
Yes 11am because Joojo Lemaire had also been poached from LUV FM to bolster Kessben and he was Programs Manager.
He did 11am-2pm after Kessben Sports.
Kessben Sports became so huge the program had to be pushed to 12noon and Joojo Lemaire moved to lunch time.
At this period, FOX FM was still no.1 and Afro Capitola had to fill the huge vacuum left with the exit of Joe Laka, Osei Oware and Awal Mohammed the Professor.
3 young men had started doing so well on Ashh FM and the afternoon timing of their sports meant, Kumasi tuned in after Kessben Sports.
They were Bright Kankam Boadu, Man Aprek and Sly the rumor man.
Fox FM acquired BKB and Man Aprek and also got Tom Crugger and Camacho from Spirit FM and an unknown voice in Kumasi PJ Mozee from Sunyani.
PJ was tasked with the foreign news presentation and in my lifetime listening to radio, I have not heard a presenter with more witty comments, one liners, tintintiniti like PJ on FOX.
He was the one that started “Sɛ wo kɔ German Bundesliga nsoa, SPVGG Uterhaching ne Freiburg be di kasobom” “ɛwɔ stadium of light nso, Chelsea bɛsesa won nkuku ne won kaka akɔ yɛ Sunderlandfoɔ pasapasa”.
PJ Mozee was that witty.
Now to the Day PJ MOZEE BECAME THE DARLING BOY OF KUMASI.
It was Saturday 13th November 2004 and Kumasi was buzzing on an early Saturday morning.
All football fans tuned in to their favorite Radio Stations.
NB: In Kumasi on Mondays, they start sports at 5:30am and end at 12am.
The occasion was the last group game of GROUP A of the FIRST EDITION OF THE CAF CONFEDERATIONS CUP between Asante Kotoko and Al Hilal Omdurman at Baba Yara.
A win for Kotoko will put them in pole position to play in the final against Hearts of Oak who play Cotonsport in Accra the next day and a draw secures them a final place.
On the day Kotoko beat Al Hilal 3-0 with goals from;
Nana Arhin Duah (9mins)
Michael “Ember Power” Osei (44mins)
Edmund Owusu Ansah “Owuo” (87mins)
There was huge jubilation in Kumasi but it was short lived because news filtered in that Enugu had played 0-0 in Angola.
This was because Kotoko now had 10 points with Goal difference of +3 and Enugu Rangers with 10 points and GD of +6.
There was huge debate over who had qualified to the finals and the jubilation in Kumasi was short lived as Radio stations started asking questions.
Radio stations all over Kumasi and Ghana were saying CAF was going to use H2H not GD so Kotoko had qualified.
You tune in to another radio station and they say Enugu had qualified with superior GD and H2H only come in after both teams are tied on GD.
On match day 1, Kotoko beat Enugu 3-1 and on Match Day 5, Enugu beat Kotoko 2-1 in Nigeria with Charles Taylor scoring to make it 2-1 in the 70th minute.
So by H2H rules Kotoko had qualified but the brouhaha and confusion was whether CAF H2H kicks in after GD or before.
Then Bright Kankam Boadu did the unimaginable(because it wasn’t easy in 2004 like now oo) by calling a top executive of Enugu Rangers who said they had qualified and didn’t know why Kotoko was jubilating after their game.
The chaos that 5pm on Kumasi radio was like Election 2008.
As a Kotoko fan, you will be listening to FOX or Kessben or Kapital(because Listowell is trusted to get some of these right) and a Hearts of Oak fan will come and tell you another radio station has said Enugu has qualified and you will switch to that dial but no concrete source.
I remember Kanawu throwing subtle jibes saying “Alatafoɔ bɛn CAF kyɛn Ghana ɔmo se ɔmo aqualify, wo te Ghana sɛ Kotoko aqualify. Yɛn Hearts deɛ ɔkyena ɛyɛ kwagyiwa” 
.
Herh Kwaku Adusei Kanawu (RIP).
See nobody hypes a colleague presenter better than Sometymer and only Kwame Adinkrah, Joe Laka and Lovin Cee come close.
Sometymer said PJ Mozee had exclusive and was making some calls to CAF and his sources blah blah blah and will be on soon to settle the matter.
Herh Sometymer.
The whole Kumasi was tuned in waiting for PJ Mozee and u know how PJ does it. Remember this was at a time internet penetration in Ghana was minimal so most listeners had no access to internet on their phones.
I remember moving from Internet cafe to another at Kwadaso refreshing CAF website to get updates whilst listening to radio.
Before PJ will speak, Sometymer intentionally kept delaying asking him if his source was right and credible and if even he was 99.9% sure, he should go back and get the 0.10% because Kumasi was in a pensive mood.
Charley only the Tain declaration has had me that way.
PJ Mozee then says Tymer should give him 5mins to receive some documents and people started to get angry at their antics .
PJ Mozee then starts by reading the CAF regulations for the tournament and says he’s spoken to a CAF source that says it’s H2H and it kicks in before GD because it was to prevent teams that have nothing to play for in last games from playing match of convenience blah blah blah.
PJ gave a comprehensive analysis with BKB citing certain examples to back it and concluded Kotoko had qualified for the final.
Whilst they were on it around 7pm, the CAF website was updated saying ASANTE KOTOKO MAKE FINAL OF FIRST CAF CONFEDERATIONS CUP.
And boom 
.
And that was how PJ MOZEE became the Darling boy of Kumasi that week and on Monday during FOX SPORTS, come and see fans from Kotoko supporters.
I remember one guy called and named him “PJ aka no deɛ ɛnoa nono”.
Those were really fun times.
The end.
Credit: Austine Woode (Tomato farmer- Akomadan)
