Popular TV host and anchor, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire game show, Frank Edoho ventured into broadcasting after he was discouraged from doing rap music.
Although, the show ended up being rested, which resulted in a five-year hiatus, the fire Frank Edoho had ignited was still very much aglow.
In this interview, the charismatic broadcaster cum MC shared his memorable and intriguing moments on and off the show. Please enjoy it.
Who and where was Frank Edoho before the TV show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
I came from a humble background. Before I came to Lagos, I was in Calabar. I read Animal Science at University of Calabar but discovered there was no money in it. I then became a rapper, but people would say my voice looks older than my face. I asked myself, ‘what can I do with the voice outside raping? I ventured into broadcasting when I came to Lagos. I spent four years in Radio Nigeria as an On-Air-Personality. I cut my teeth in Radio Nigeria, Metro FM; they sent me on training in 2000 and I came back to be a radio announcer. I studied every aspect of broadcasting: news, news reading, commentary, documentary and voice over presentation. So, before I started Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, I was into radio broadcasting. I was an announcer on Metro FM 97.6 and it was a fabulous pedestal that prepared me for upcoming projects in broadcasting
At what point did Who Wants To Be A Millionaire come calling?
I spent a year in DBN. Little did I know that, just around the corner, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire would come calling. So, I was just a lesser-known radio announcer, and I enjoyed that anonymity until Who Wants To Be A Millionaire came on board, and everything changed.
What’s your experience on the TV game show, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
I remember the term ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’. I remember a guy who came for the show – part of the rules of the game was – if you don’t get up to question five, you can’t take the money except you walk away. So, at question three, his money was just N10,000 and he had used all his ‘lifelines’, ‘50-50’, ‘phone a friend’ and ‘ask the audience’. So, I asked what he intends to do, he decided to walk away. The guy came from Onitsha. He looked at me and said ‘what you don’t know, you don’t know’ and he walked away through the back door.
One day, someone saw me and said ‘you are Frank Edoho?’ I responded ‘yes’. Then he said ‘you look bigger in real life but you are small on screen’. I said that’s because your TV is very small. Also, my car had a flat tire and I had to change it. People were watching and they started making fun of me. There was this particular guy who made a jest of me. He looked at me and said ‘Frank, phone a friend, you have exhausted your lifelines’.
What is your view on intellectual property as regard the TV game show?
My experience as regard intellectual property, trade marks, patents and copyright was the popular TV game show I anchored back then. Who Wants to be a Millionaire started in 1999 in the United Kingdom, and some countries started watching it. Some countries went to do theirs without taking permission from the owner. That was copyright infringement. At the time the show got to Nigeria in 2004, about 128 countries were already showing the programme. We had to go to the producers in the UK to make enquiry and ask them to give us the right and license to operate. We paid some amount of money to get the franchise. This tells you the importance of intellectual property right, and it cannot be over emphasised.
What’s your advice to the young ones who aspire to be content creators?
The youth are so vibrant when it comes to content creation. Young ones should try to bring out an innovation that would change Nigeria ‘s future. Do you know the world has changed to the extent that 10 years ago, I was thinking of owning a radio station? But today, I am not thinking toward that direction, the world has moved on beyond that. Think of podcasting. Podcasting is working right now. So, who is going to put huge resources into radio when there are other means to transmit using technology? The biggest podcaster in the world today is Joe Rugan, who makes 100 million dollars just for him to sit down, smoke and have conversation with others. So, I have to set up a radio station, master everything and pay a whole bunch of talented people to be presenting? Someone is doing the same thing and he’s making money. He has set the example globally that I can have a table, two chairs and just have a conversation. Instead of being a TV presenter, build a YouTube channel and start making money. Let me give an example. When Who Wants To Be A Millionaire ended in 2017, I started doing lots of other things like photography and filmmaking. I noticed that the people were very angry and I had to device a means in replying them on my social media handles.
So, when Who Wants To Be A Millionaire got back, already 76 auditions had been done. After the 76 auditions, there was a question on the Big Brother show about something that had to do with suspense. A guy mentioned some names and I think someone mentioned my name that I was ‘the king of suspense’ and it started trending on social media platforms. This placed me at an advantage as I was announced as the host of the revamped Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, the highly acclaimed TV game show that’s making a comeback after a five-year hiatus.
Content creators sometimes promote negativity thus contributing to societal ills. What is your take on this?
In an open space like the Internet, it is very difficult to filter content especially content that are inappropriate and indecent for the kids. This boils down to upbringing. If you are brought up properly, you will know how to take down this content in your mind, the things to ingest and the things to avoid. Sadly, some content creators put out content without filter and without weighing the values. They are just interested in traffic without morality. We have to learn something. Sleazy content does not have to do with knowledge or what you study at the university. But when a content creator comes with flair, it would draw attention, as it would be trending especially controversial content. People trend for the wrong reason. So, we should be careful and responsible for what we put out. There would be content that you won’t get the attention of the people. So, content creators should be more responsible.
Source: The Sun
