Eugene Nyavor
Currently, the host of ‘Community Connect’ on 3FM, Johnnie Hughes is known nationwide as a versatile broadcaster. Asked how he would respond to a ‘who is Johnnie Hughes?’, he answered, “I’m a sharp young gun, I’m part of the enthusiastic forerunners of media and entertainment, arts and culture in Ghana.
I form part of the folks who believe that we must not just be Africans in black skin. I belong to the crop of people who think that it’s not about just saying it, it’s about living it. I look forward to speaking the best about Africa and all that is good about it. I’m a forward looking individual, I never say never, I achieve what I put my mind to and I get it done… and it comes with hard work.” And that is how the bona fide genius exercises his eloquence.
Who Is Johnnie Hughes
Award winning journalist. Radio and TV personality, Johnnie’s propulsion in the media realm commenced when he hosted the morning show on then Pravda Radio now Vision 1 FM. That proved to be the propeller to greater heights as is evidence now.
Johnnie went on to Viasat 1 to host the ‘Good Life Game Show’ which was then produced by George Quaye. He says of this, “The Good Life Game Show was one of the best things to have happened to me.
It was a project by the Center for Communications Program of the Johns Hopkins University, the USAID, the BCS Project and the Ghana Health Service. I had gone to pick up a cheque for KKD and I auditioned and got picked. It was an accidental audition.”
Having no plans of quitting radio, Johnnie Hughes was heard again on the airwaves when he had a brief stint with Pluzz FM at which time he juggled between that and being a regular panelist on ‘The Rundown Show’ on TV Africa.
He eventually took over as host from Yaw Sakyi. Johnnie also hosted the morning show known as Daybreak Africa and did other things including news commentary. Johnnie Hughes is very grateful to TV Africa because he had the chance to host two programs of substance.
Contrary to popular belief that he lobbied to land Yaw Sakyi’s job, Johnnie Hughes says that he was invited to host The Rundown Show. He said Yaw felt that he made some great submissions and suggested to him that he host the show. He did not have a television gig on his hand at the time so he accepted it. Of this Johnnie says, “I was invited to host the show and I did my best for a year and some eight or nine months.”
Johnnie Hughes Education Background
Delving into his educational life, Johnnie Hughes started off at St. Nicholas Preparatory school and moved on to the Kaneshie Anglican Junior High School. You should know that he remembers the motto of every school he has attended and uses them to guide his path.
For Senior High, Johnnie says he was interested in Accra Academy so he went there. His father’s long time dream was for him to offer Science and become a Medical Doctor or a Pharmacist.
Unfortunately Accra Academy offered him Visual Arts. And it turned out that “a certain person in the headmistress office wanted a 5000 cedis or so at the time” before agreeing to let him read Science.
His father, a former Director of Projects Development and Industry at the Ghana Prisons Service, who did not condone bribery led him out of the school and sent him to Holy Trinity Cathedral Senior High School where he had already been offered Pure Science. At HOTCASS, Johnnie was SRC rep for form 1 and 2. He was elected Compound Prefect and also SRC Vice President, and was also a key member of the debating team that won an award at the National Debate.
He was also the President of the Ghana Olympic Committee and was part of the few select people that held the Queens baton during the Golden Jubilee Olympic Baton Relay and got a certificate from the British High Commissioner at the time. Johnnie Hughes was in Secondary School between 2000 and 2002.
He later went on to the Ghana Institute of Journalism. A Facebook page dedicated to him notes that he is certified in Journalism and Media Studies, and Communications (with Public Relations, Advertising, and Marketing) by The Institute of Commercial Management, UK. Johnnie Hughes has also successfully completed the British Council’s Master-Class for Producers and Presenters for Radio and Television where he was unanimously voted the overall best student.
Johnnie Hughes Media Career
Prior to professional work on television and radio. Johnnie Hughes was part of the Benverj International Band (BIB) that participated in the first ever Bands Alive live band competition on TV3 In 2008. He was adjudged the Most Exciting Performer for nine consecutive weeks. He is not just a singer. Johnnie is a poet also. Along with two others, Johnny was awarded the Best Poetry Act at Kiddafest in 2001. He is the 2016 Pentasi ‘B’ Universal Inspirational Poet Awardee.
Johnnie Hughes looks up to the man known as ‘The Finest’, Kwesi Kyei Darkwa for mentorship. It doesn’t hurt that he knows KKD on a personal level. KKD is like a father to Johnnie Hughes. He met KKD in 2008 after impressing the man during the Bands Alive show. The following year KKD gave him the chance to host the ‘Valentine Special’ on GTV.
Johnny says about KKD: “clearly I look up to him not just because he is fashionable but because he is also knowledgeable and he is able to sharpen and hone people to achieve a lot of things. I can only be grateful to him because aside the training, he saw something in me and pushed it. And he has taught me a lot of things from fashion to living life to dealing with people and resource management.”
The quick witted and smooth talking anchor believes in love and says he is involved with a woman. Though he doesn’t reveal her name, he says of her, “she is a fantastic young lady and she makes some very good palm soup that you can’t eat with your shoes on. You need to remove them so you can tweak your toes while you eat.” He went on to emphasize that he has plans for marriage though he doesn’t think that every relationship is intended to end in marriage. He says if many people knew this, it would help them.
Johnnie Hughes absolutely loves Kojo Antwi’s songs and views him as a really interesting persona, but his all time favorite musician is Amandzeba Nat Brew. He says he likes Amandzeba because of his voice [which he compares to that of Celine Dion and Nat King Cole combined] and intriguing lyrics very well knitted together to form special songs that are mostly geared towards development.
Johnnie Hughes says in ten years he would be married, he would own his business empire and would be helping people.
He wants to be remembered as the man who did the best for himself and for the world when he had the opportunity to do so. That is number one on a tall list of things he wants to be remembered for.
Other things include: the intensively creative young man, multi talented sharp young gun who took life seriously, lived full and died empty; the man who shot for the moon and because he missed, landed among the stars; the black brother who spoke his mind without fear and favor, the man who spoke with a lot of rhetorical flourish and dialectical materialism and made sense as well.
Hughes says of himself, “I sing, I write, I read well, my mom tells me I speak well. The girls haven’t told me I look well but I know one day it will come”. Johnnie Hughes is a man with a lot of confidence and arguably the finest broadcaster in Ghana.
Source : ghlinks.com.gh
