2011 witnessed the birth of the RTP (Radio and Television Personality) Awards, where outstanding radio and television personalities were honoured for their contributions towards creating a vibrant media culture in Ghana. In all, 26 personalities whose innovativeness and unique presentation style had kept the Ghanaian populace glued to their radio and television sets were given recognition.

The awards ceremony returns this year, and from a recent press interaction with Big Events Ghana, organizers of the award, the 2012 edition would be a marked improvement on last year’s. Chief Executive Officer of Big Events, Mr. Prince Mckay disclosed that this year’s RTP Awards will be a ‘Festival’ which will be celebrated on two days and it will commence with a Media Forum.

Mr Mackay comments: “The satisfaction expressed by all the stakeholders has spurred us to make this year’s programme even bigger and better. And that is our reason for gathering here today. We wish to highlight a few add-ons to the RTP (Radio and Television Personality) Awards to make is a grander stage in order to spur a lot more creativity on the media platform. “

“Our first innovativeness has to do with broadening the scope of the programme. The RTP (Radio and Television Personality) Awards is now a festival that would be celebrated over two (2) days. The festival will be ushered with a Media Forum on the first day where remarkable media practitioners would give riveting talks. This would be followed by a ‘Celebrity funfair.’ This would be a ‘lounging’ programme in the evening of the first day where in the midst of a cocktail party, the MCs and Award presenters would be introduced to the public. The highlight of the ‘Celebrity funfair’ would be what we have termed the ‘Industry Awards.’”

The ‘Industry Awards’ has been introduced to seek a broader stakeholder support for the RTP (Radio and Television Personality) Festival. These awards would be given to the best radio personality in each of the ten regions of Ghana. All the nominations and voting would be done solely individuals working in radio. This is a peer-review exercise challenging presenters, producers and other workers within radio to nominate and vote for the best radio personality in the region they work in.

The second day of the festival would be the main awards presentation at the Conference Centre and the dates are the 20th and 23rd of June.

Mr Mackay explained, “This year, we have put mechanisms in place to allow Ghanaians abroad to participate in the voting process. This is extremely important since the bulk of them tune in to listen and watch radio and television programme via the internet and satellite television. They can vote on our website www.rtpawards.com. The website voting is only for Ghanaians in the Diaspora. The site has been configured to prevent voting by Ghanaians living in Ghana. As usual, voting in Ghana would be by text.”

“To also improve upon programming within radio and television, we have introduced a new award category that would reward some of the best programmes on our televisions and radios. This we believe would inspire team working and the media houses to become more innovative,” he added.

Below is the detailed list of categories for this year’s awards:

TV Category: Programmes Award

- Over-all Best Television Programme

- Television Entertainment Programme of the Year

- Television Sports Programme of the Year

- Television News Programme of the Year

- Television Reality Show of the Year

- Local Television Series of the Year

Radio Category: Programmes Award

- Over-all Best Radio Programme of the Year

- Radio Sports Programme of the Year

- Radio News Programme of the Year

Topmost Award:

- Radio and TV Personality of the Year – (Grand Prize)

Radio category: Personality Award

- Morning Show Host of the Year

- Mid-morning Show Host of the Year

- Late Afternoon Show Host of the Year

- Sports Show Host of the Year

- Best Female Radio Presenter of the Year

- Radio Newscaster of the Year (English)

- Radio Newscaster of the Year (Local Language)

- Talk Show Host of the Year

- Reggae show host of the Year

- Radio DJ of the Year

- Radio Entertainment Show Host of the Year

- Best Radio Presenter on Developmental Issues

- Radio Reporter of the Year

Television categories: Personality Awards

- Best Male Newscaster of the Year

- Best Female Newscaster of the Year

- Best Sports Show Host of the Year

- Best TV Presenter on Developmental Issues

- Best Current Affairs Host of the Year

- Best TV Female Presenter of the Year

- Best Female Entertainment Show Host of the Year

- Best Male Entertainment Show Host of the Year

- Television Reporter of the Year