ASKiNG RADiO Tiv

ASKING RADIO AT 2 : A TRIBUTE

By Maik Ortserga

The year was 2015. I had resumed work at my desk as Executive Editor with Aboki Publishers, battling with an intimidating volume of a manuscript, flinging open the thesaurus every now an then to grab out relevant words for replacement in the text where a superfluity of adjectives fought desperately to keep pace with tall nouns. My concentration was suddenly punctured by my friend Tim Cuttings Agber who burst into the office to see me.

It was he who introduced me to the the unique online radio app of ASKING RADIO 98.5 SPEED FM. The operation of the app was quite simple. On logging into it, one had the option of selecting either the English or Tiv broadcast that ran for 24 hours.

Throughout that day I couldn’t drop my cell phone as I continued listening to reels upon reels of my favourite Tiv songs, exhausting my data in the process.

Who is the brain behind this magic? Tim had asked me to guess and I quickly plunged into the guess work, mentioning the names of members of the political class in Benue that I could think of while my friend continued to shake his head.

He then showed me a picture on his phone. It was the picture of a young man with densely forested hair. But recognition took a supreme effort at that moment.

When he mentioned the name 'King James Yiye,' an antenna stood up quickly in my subconscious. 'Is it the King whose voice intruded the air waves in Asso Fm in those days? The question had already eaten its own answer.

At this point, Tim Cuttings was already invited to be part of the team of presenters and instantly beckoned me aboard.

A brief visit King James Yiye’s residence where the studio was being operated at that time revealed the fact that the radio station had a lot of promise. King James revealed to us that he had already applied for the licence to operate a terrestrial radio.

When I finally saw the quality of buildings under construction at the permanent site on Anongur Agbecha Street in Judges Quarters, I became very sure that a blockbuster radio station was coming to town.

In the build years, Tim Cuttings and I had gone round Tiv land, with the support of King James, in search of quality content for the radio, especially, Asking Radio Tiv, which was already becoming a household name in every country of the globe where Tiv people reside.

It was, therefore, a thing of great joy when the licence was finally acquired and ASKING RADIO began its terrestrial broadcast on 23rd August 2022.

This personal anecdote throws some light on the beginning of ASKING RADIO 98.5 SPEED FM and how King James Yiye has stretched himself over the years to rescue the radio in Benue State, especially the indigenous language radio from the graveyard. It is a dream that King James sees himself as fulfilling through imaginative programming that can cover the Benue news adequately and tell us our own story.

What will celebrate today is the stubborn courage of one man whose vision gave us a model radio station, whose mission is to inform, educate and entertain in a manner that is quite refreshing. We salute the courage of our staff and our listeners who have remained with us through thick and thin.

Happy Two Years Anniversary to Asking Radio 98.5 SPEED FM.

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