After running Hitlist N Cruzin on TVC for 11 years, Mursty Adinoyi’s Emrose Adinoyi Productions is spreading its tentacles to African Independent Television. He recently introduced AIT Music+, which, he says, is in conjunction with the TV station. According to him, his vision for the programme is world-class.
“It’s wonderful not just because it’s showing in Europe. It’s the quality of what we’re giving. Look at the standard, you’ll believe me that it is one of the best things to happen to Africa. We’re producing with quality cameras, among the best you’ll find anywhere,” Adinoyi says in an interview.
The programme started in December 2017, and, according to the producer, is already gaining momentum. He boasts, “You don’t have advert placement unless you have eyeballs. So, if you have a programme that started in the second week of December and already started having adverts from the second edition, that tells you that immediately we aired the programme, viewership started increasing.”
On his interest in AIT, Adinoyi argues that the whole thing about the entertainment industry in Nigeria became what it is today because of the station. He adds, “But we have to redefine who we are as Africans. The best way to do it is the way we’re doing it right now. When you watch AIT Music+, there’s so much to gain from it. You’ll understand that the culture is there, the beauty of Africa is there. It’s not just about the videos we play. We have little breakers that, as the time goes on, we’ll keep introducing them gradually to show you the beauty of Africa. We have to maintain the development brought about by AIT.
How to maintain it is to create a programme that will as well do more in promoting African music to the world.
“As producers, we are discovering, creating and promoting stars. But we need to do more and create more stars because if you develop a single person, that person too will develop another and the chain reaction will lead to the development of so many people. So, that, to me, is a way to develop Africa. And why TV is important to develop Nigeria is that people look at it and do what they see on screen.
“Right here, we don’t take money to play music videos. Once your video is good, we’ll play it, and nobody will ask you for one naira. We’ll also have campus shows in the sense that we’ll organise shows for NYSC camps in major cities in Nigeria every year.”
Adinoyi concedes that getting airtime is not an easy thing. But he notes that retaining it is also not a child’s play.
He notes, “If you are privileged to have airtime, what do you do with it? Do you give good production? Do you owe your station? You see, initially, stations were not asking anybody to pay for airtime. But because independent producers kept abusing the opportunity and owing the stations, the management of the stations also began to tighten up. If you’re owing someone, when you have the money, you make payment.
“See, Hitlist N Cruzin started nine years ago with TVC. And, till today, we’re still running there. What it means is that we keep our promises. And when people know you’re sincere, they’ll want to do business with you. So, for us, having airtime is not hard if you are serious and sincere in your approach.”