Ghanaian media personalities
Through the beginning of Television, came the rise of the anchorman, presenters and hosts. Sitting behind a desk, intently gazing into the camera and reading the news every evening in a still and firm voice.
In the advent of time, Ghanaian born and Ghanaians living abroad have taken their talents to the world stage and here we recognize them some of the famous anchormen and presenters shining light on the Ghana flag.
Terry Baddoo
Baddoo was born in London, England, and earned a bachelor’s degree in Education from London University. He began his journalistic career as a features writer with Custom Car magazine in England and later worked for IPC magazines and on the launch of Britain’s first colour newspaper, Today.
In the mid-1980s he worked in BBC School’s television, then hosted the news and current affairs show Black Londoners on Radio London. Later, he joined BBC TV as a reporter and presenter of the BBC children’s news programme, Newsround, for which he reported from numerous global events, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of apartheid in South Africa, and the Barcelona Olympics. He subsequently worked for BBC News as a sports reporter and presenter on BBC Breakfast News and BBC World, and later freelanced for the satellite TV channel Sky as a football reporter and rugby features producer.
Abrantee Boateng
He is a radio and television presenter, club DJ and events promoter. He is known professionally as DJ Abrantee, the pioneer of the Afrobeats movement who branded and launched the world’s first-ever ‘Afrobeats’ Show on UK Radio on 11 April 2011. Abrantee is also one of the best-known voices of urban radio station Capital Xtra in the United Kingdom.
Born in Croydon to Akan parents, Abrantee Boateng grew up there until the family moved to East London when he was seven years old. He attended Stratford School in Forest Gate.
His interest in music was ignited during his teenage years by a cousin who had a sound system and introduced Boateng to his record collection and took him along to various events to experience DJing. He spent three years shadowing his cousin around clubs and venues in London. Following his cousin’s decision to leave the music business, Abrantee inherited his record collection.
In the early ’90s, he joined a group of DJs called 90% who were promoting events in London. Boateng is proud of being able to speak the Twi language, predominantly used in Akan territories within Ghana.
June Sarpong
June Konadu Sarpong OBE is a British television presenter and executive. She was a panellist on ITV’s Loose Women and is currently a panellist on the Sky News programme The Pledge. In November 2019, Sarpong was appointed as the BBC’s first Director of Creative Diversity. The bubbly host and TV presenter, June Sarpong OBE (born 31 May 1977), who was born in London’s East End to Ghanaian parents, is best known for her Cheeky Asides on UK Channel 4’s youth program T4. Her parents, both Ghanaian, separated when June Sarpong was seven. At the age of twenty-nine and after six years as a broadcaster, June was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2007 New Year Honors List for “services to Urban ”.
