Citi FM and Citi TV have brought to an end their special COVID-19 analysis programme aired every day at 3 pm on radio and TV.
The programme has been running since March 2020 giving Ghanaians unrivalled analysis of the novel Coronavirus disease.
The stations upon the onset of the disease in Ghana created the programme to provide a comprehensive analysis of the pandemic and measures put in place by the government in curbing the spread of the virus.
General Manager of Citi FM and Citi TV, Bernard Avle, said the programme has lived up to expectation.
“Here was a new disease, no one understood and was leading to serious decisions: border closures, social distancing, lockdown. We quickly had to educate ourselves on what we knew about it and we felt we needed to create special programs to give people daily updates on COVID-19,” he said explaining the rationale for introducing the programme.
The coverage was an hour daily TV and Radio show that updated the audience on the latest with the disease and gave an incisive analysis from the stations’ specially created COVID-19 coverage desk involving Kojo Akoto Boateng, Godfred Akoto Boafo, Selorm Adonoo, Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie and the CEO, Samuel Attah-Mensah.
The Head of New Media at Citi FM/TV, Kojo Akoto Boateng indicated that “We were the first station in Ghana to have really invested in infographics and real-time data on COVID-19 for our listeners and viewers. From the onset, people were depending on the John Hopkins data. We replicated something similar for Ghana which we put on our website”.
Citi TV and Citi FM also set aside over two hours of airtime a week to provide live coverage of the Ministry of Information’s COVID-19 briefings, documentaries and features.
According to management, although the show is ending today, June 30, 2020, it will be integrated into other programs of the stations to provide constant updates on the virus to both listeners and viewers.
For Bernard Avle, “even though we are bringing the special COVID coverage to an end, COVID is every day; even on the Citi Breakfast Show there will definitely be COVID stories to do, in our news, there will be COVID stories, on Point of View and on CNR so we are actually weaving COVID into our regular programming now”.
The show has been hosted by Vivian Kai Lokko, Frema Adunyame, Dziffa Akua Ametam and Abena Nyamekye- Ampadu.
The stations also went a step further to engage other institutions such as the Zoomlion Ghana Limited and Coastal Development Authority to embark on activities of disinfection and nose mask distribution in containing the spread of the disease.
The stations also embarked on a public sensitization campaign on the coronavirus pandemic in specific markets and communities in Accra.