By Seye Joseph, MCS
Popular Nigerian-based American On-Air Personality, Dan Foster ( who died on Wednesday, June 17, 2020) has revealed how he got his first radio job in the country while he was still in America.
Foster in an interview with The Punch Newspaper in 2014 said that he never knew he was coming to Nigeria until when he was contacted.
“It was Chris Obosi that contacted me from Cool FM for my tape that I had put out on the Internet. I had got hits all over when I put my stuff on the internet. So I came down in 2000 when I finally made up my mind that this is where I wanted to be. I actually thought it was Virgin Island where I had worked before then. But it was Victoria Island in Lagos. I got the mixed up”, he said.
On why he keeps moving from one station to another, Foster who had worked with Cool FM, Inspiration FM and now City FM said the résumé of a radio presenter is usually a two-year thing.
According to him, nobody wants to take somebody who has been at one radio station for 15 years because he has no varied experience.
“You would want to get a resume that says someone has been to this station and that station. You want somebody who has wide experience in a variety of places.
“Eight years at Cool FM was way too long in one place. I went to Inspiration FM and now City FM. In fact, I am almost set to move again unless something comes up. It is like being in the military. Some people might look at it as not being stable but they don’t understand the nature of the business. They don’t know what that person is branding or setting up. But then, I am even for the highest bidder. I sign a two-year contract. If you can beat the contract, I am available,” Foster stated.
Foster – popularly known as The Big Dawg and Top Dawg according to Wikipedia was brought up with his three siblings in Washington by their father – their mother had died when he was ten – but partly raised in Baltimore by his grandmother.
As a teenager, Foster was a rebellious young man, but soon joined the Marines and attended Morgan State University where he studied Broadcasting and Drama.
Foster worked with numerous radio stations including Cathy Hughes Radio One, Mix 106.5 both in America, and Virgin Island-based WTBN before moving to Nigeria in 2000 where he joined Cool FM Lagos, quickly becoming popular with Nigerian listeners. A year later, he received an award for Best Radio Presenter of the year. He also won 2003, 2004, and 2005 Nigeria Media Merit Awards for ‘Best Radio Personality’.
In September 2009, Foster left Cool FM for a new radio station Inspiration FM, but left in 2014 to join City FM.