The prestigious Radio Sweet FM broadcast on 88.7 FM in Douala, 100.5 FM in Yaoundé, has announced its new programme schedule featuring young talents from the Cameroonian cultural scene. We met Brice Albin, the radio’s new programme director, to find out what is at stake in this new adventure that promises to be spectacular in the Cameroonian media landscape.
After three years’ absence from the world of radio in Cameroon, why did you decide to take up the microphone again?
Brice Albin: I continued to do radio during these 3 years, as a correspondent for Couleurs Tropicales on RFI in Cameroon and by hosting specials with Claudy Siar in Paris, but for Cameroon, I was waiting for the right project, the right offer, and Sweet FM contacted me to propose me to take over the management of the channel.
What will be Sweet FM’s new strategy (digital, objectives, positioning) to capture an increasingly demanding audience?
Brice Albin: First of all, the format. We have made the choice of infotainment, an almost unique format in the current Cameroonian audiovisual landscape, a choice we are convinced of its relevance, especially in these complicated periods. In order to meet the new demands of listeners in Cameroon and its diaspora and the multiplication of content consumption media, we are launching a cross-media offer. In addition to our frequencies 88.7 FM in Douala, 100.5 FM in Yaoundé, and other frequencies to come in other major cities in the country, we deploy on the Internet in audio, text and video via our website Sweet FM, our application “SWEET FM” available on the Google Play Store and then on the App Store and our social networks @sweetfmlive. We strengthen our proximity to our listeners by reaching them wherever they are in audio, text and video with modern, relevant and entertaining content. By multiplying our distribution channels, we are consistently expanding our advertising offer. Brands will be able to communicate à la carte on our different media and reach a very large audience.
How did you get the idea of the “BHBClub”? What will be the added value of Valérie Ayena in this morning Show?
Brice Albin: We wanted to set up a good radio morning show to allow listeners to start their days in a good mood with music, news, humour and gifts, and the name of the show came all by itself. In the morning you have to have a good breakfast, and what greater symbol of the Cameroonian breakfast than the BHB, Bean Fritters, BHB, BHB… Club!
Why Valerie, because I believe in her and her talent and because she fits perfectly with the new Sweet FM project. In addition to her indisputable status as an African beauty queen since her coronation as Miss Cameroon in 2013, she has succeeded as a model internationally and as an entrepreneur on the continent, and with her energy, humour, general knowledge and intelligence, I am convinced that she will very quickly become a brilliant radio host and is the perfect choice for our morning infotainment.
How do you plan to balance your entrepreneurial life (Y-Prod) with your new responsibilities?
Brice Albin: That’s exactly what I did when I accepted this role at Sweet FM, because my company Y Prod produces audiovisual content, and the bhb club and a lot of the new Sweet FM programs are produced by Y Prod.
In your opinion, in the face of the growth of new media for broadcasting audio content, what is the future of “traditional radio” in Cameroon?
Brice Albin: Traditional radio has no future anywhere! And then, why limit itself to audio content? The world is changing, we have to adapt in order to continue to exist. Today the press offers online video and audio content in addition to text, television offers online text content, radio offers online audio, video and text content… Cross-media is the present and the future, a great opportunity to diversify its offer and therefore its audience.
How does it feel to be the new Station Manager of Sweet FM Radio ?
Brice Albin:
Even if I wear more and more, I don’t like the costumes (laughs).