The Day PJ Mozee Became “The Darling Boy” Of Kumasi – Austine Woode Recounts
Aside from the Golden Stool, one of the most worshipped and adored entities in the Ashanti Region is Kumasi Asante Kotoko SC.
It is for this reason that when Accra Hearts of Oak beat Kumasi Asante Kotoko somewhere in 2005 in the final of the CAF Confederations Cup, I walked from the Baba Yara Sports Stadium to Kotei and refused to eat my supper.
Prior to Asante Kotoko’s qualification into the final, something interesting had happened and Austine Woode recounts them in this account.
In 2004, the leading radio station in Kumasi, FOX FM suffered a major blow when its leading Sports program lost some big names.
The show had Sometymer as host and Joe Laka as local news presenter and later co-host. The panel included Awal Mohammed The Professor(Historian), Offensive, Richard Osei Oware (Extra), Referee GK Manu, Ali Maradona (Kotoko rep) and Kwaku Adusei Kanawu(RIP), the Hearts of Oak rep.
FOX SPORTS was the most listened to program on the radio in Kumasi and even George Oppong Weah said “Fox sports, no digidi no doubt” as an endorsement.
The host of the 10 am -12noon Music show “Fox Midday Master Mix” was Joe Amee and ratings were dropping because of Lovin Cee on Kapital Brunch and Joojo Lemaire on LUV FM Metropolitan Mix
Fox FM then decided to strategize to lead in the only day part they weren’t most listened to
FOX SPORTS was presented by Sometymer on the FOX Morning Drive with Kwame Adinkrah at 7:15 a.m. and they came back with FOX SPORTS WORLD at 5 p.m. – to 6 p.m. on Mondays and 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday – Fridays sponsored by “Maame Gyimah” at Cultural Center.
Ali Maradona and Kanawu were very popular brands on the radio in Kumasi because of how both represented Kotoko and Hearts and went at each other.
FOX FM decided to pair the 2 with Joe Amee on Midday Master Mix from 11-12noon to draw attention to the show with their popularity
After some time, Joe Laka joined the two and eventually started hosting them and the show became big and even had more people listening than the main FOX SPORTS UPDATE at 5:30 pm
Then with this huge popularity, when Kessben was set up in 2004, Joe Laka left FOX for Kessben FM
He went along with Osei Oware and Awal Mohammed the Professor and decided to do Kessben Sports at brunch.
The sports started by FOX at brunch had also forced their biggest competitor Kapital Radio whom they dethroned as Kumasi’s no 1 radio station to start doing Sports on Brunch.
So Kessben Sports started immediately Master Richard finished the morning show at 9:30 am and ended at 11 am. Yes, 11 a.m. because Joojo Lemaire had also been poached from LUV FM to bolster Kessben and he was the Programs Manager. He did 11 am-2 pm after Kessben Sports.
Kessben Sports became so huge the program had to be pushed to 12 noon and Joojo Lemaire moved to lunchtime.
At this period, FOX FM was still No.1 and Afro Capitola had to fill the huge vacuum left with the exit of Joe Laka, Osei Oware and Awal Mohammed the Professor.
Three (3) young men had started doing so well on Ashh FM and the afternoon timing of their sports meant, Kumasi tuned in after Kessben Sports. They were Bright Kankam Boadu, Man Aprek and Sly the rumour man.
Fox FM acquired BKB and Man Aprek and also got Tom Crugger and Camacho from Spirit FM and an unknown voice in Kumasi PJ Mozee from Sunyani.
PJ was tasked with the foreign news presentation and in my lifetime listening to the radio, I have not heard a presenter with more witty comments, one-liners, tintintiniti like PJ on FOX FM.
He was the one that started “Sɛ wo kɔ German Bundesliga nsoa, SPVGG Uterhaching ne Freiburg be di kasobom” “ɛwɔ stadium of light nso, Chelsea bɛsesa won nkuku ne won kaka akɔ yɛ Sunderlandfoɔ pasapasa”. PJ Mozee was that witty!
Now to the Day PJ MOZEE BECAME THE DARLING BOY OF KUMASI
It was Saturday 13th November 2004 and Kumasi was buzzing on an early Saturday morning. All football fans tuned in to their favourite radio Stations.
NB: In Kumasi on Mondays, they start sports at 5:30 am and end at 12 am
The occasion was the last group game of GROUP A of the FIRST EDITION OF THE CAF CONFEDERATIONS CUP between Asante Kotoko and Al Hilal Omdurman at Baba Yara.
A win for Kotoko will put them in pole position to play in the final against Hearts of Oak who play Cotonsport in Accra the next day and a draw secures them a final place.
On the day Kotoko beat Al Hilal 3-0 with goals from; Nana Arhin Duah (9mins), Michael “Ember Power” Osei (44mins) and Edmund Owusu Ansah “Owuo” (87mins).
There was huge jubilation in Kumasi but this was short-lived because news filtered in that Enugu had played 0-0 in Angola.
This was because Kotoko now had 10 points with a Goal difference of +3 and Enugu Rangers with 10 points and a goal difference of +6.
There was a huge debate over who had qualified for the finals and the jubilation in Kumasi was short-lived as radio stations started asking questions. Radio stations all over Kumasi and Ghana suggested CAF would use Head to Head not goal difference so Kotoko had qualified.
Different radio stations had different interpretations.
On match day 1, Kotoko beat Enugu 3-1 and on Match Day 5, Enugu beat Kotoko 2-1 in Nigeria with Charles Taylor scoring to make it 2-1 in the 70th minute.
So by H2H rules, Kotoko had qualified but the brouhaha and confusion was whether CAF’s H2H kicks in after GD or before.
Then Bright Kankam Boadu did the unimaginable (because it wasn’t easy in 2004 like now oo) by calling a top executive of Enugu Rangers who said they had qualified and didn’t know why Kotoko was jubilating after their game.
The chaos that 5 pm on Kumasi radio was like Election 2008.
As a Kotoko fan, you will be listening to FOX or Kessben or Kapital (because Listowell is trusted to get some of these right) and a Hearts of Oak fan will come and tell you another radio station has said Enugu has qualified and you will switch to that dial but no concrete source.
I remember Kanawu throwing subtle jibes saying “Alatafoɔ bɛn CAF kyɛn Ghana ɔmo se ɔmo aqualify, wo te Ghana sɛ Kotoko aqualify. Yɛn Hearts deɛ ɔkyena ɛyɛ kwagyiwa”
Herh Kwaku Adusei Kanawu (RIP).
See nobody hypes a colleague presenter better than Sometymer and only Kwame Adinkrah, Joe Laka and Lovin Cee come close. Sometymer said PJ Mozee had exclusive and was making some calls to CAF and his sources blah blah blah and will be on soon to settle the matter.
The whole Kumasi was tuned in waiting for PJ Mozee and you know how PJ does it. Remember this was at a time when internet penetration in Ghana was minimal so most listeners had no access to the internet on their phones.
I remember moving from one Internet cafe to another at Kwadaso refreshing the CAF website to get updates whilst listening to the radio.
Before PJ could speak, Sometymer intentionally kept delaying asking him if his source was right and credible and if even he was 99.9% sure, he should go back and get the 0.10% because Kumasi was in a pensive mood.
Charley only the Tain declaration has had me that way.
PJ Mozee then says Tymer should give him 5 minutes to receive some documents and people started to get angry at their antics.
PJ Mozee then starts by reading the CAF regulations for the tournament and says he’s spoken to a CAF source that says it’s H2H and it kicks in before GD because it was to prevent teams that have nothing to play for in the last games from playing a match of convenience blah blah blah.
PJ gave a comprehensive analysis with Bright Kankam Boadu citing certain examples to back it and concluded Kotoko had qualified for the final.
Whilst they were on it around 7 pm, the CAF website was updated saying “ASANTE KOTOKO MAKE FINAL OF FIRST CAF CONFEDERATIONS CUP” and boom!
That was how PJ MOZEE became the darling boy of Kumasi that week and on Monday during FOX SPORTS, come and see fans from Kotoko supporters.
I remember one guy called and named him “PJ aka no deɛ ɛnoa nono”
Those were really fun times.
Asante Kotoko qualified for the final of the first edition of the CAF CONFEDERATIONS CUP to meet arch-rivals Accra Hearts of Oak who beat Cotonsport 3-2 the following Sunday to top Group B with 13 points.
The final was moved to 2005 because of security measures Ghana was putting in place for the 2004 elections.
In the final, Asante Kotoko earned a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Accra and Hearts won the Cup on penalties by 8-7 after the second leg in Kumasi ended 1-1.
About the Author:
Austine Woode describes himself as a tomato farmer from Akomadan.
