Interview
hit fm
Cross River State hottest radio station.
God fearing and endowed with a great depth of wisdom, a vetaran broadcaster and
astute politician, Mr. Patrick Ugbe is the quintessential man who is admired by people
from all walks of life because of his humble demeanor that reveals nothing about the
strides and achievements he has recorded so far.
He is the founder of Hit Fm, which is the first privately owned radio station in Cross
River State. Mr. Ugbe is a gentleman and an entrepreneur who strongly believes in the
power of passion and perseverance.
C
an you tell us a bit about Patrick
Ugbe? I was born about fifty
years ago, grew up and had my
education between Obudu and Calabar, I
did my National Youth Service in Lagos
and started my broadcasting career with
NTA2 Channel 5 Lagos. Sometime in the
early 90's, I returned to Cross River State
to assist in the creation of a state owned
Television station. Once again I left Cross
River State in 1997 to Minage Television
which was one of the first private
broadcasting outfits to operate in
Nigeria. I worked with Minage from
1997 to 1999 when some of my colleagues
and I teamed up to set up our own private
production outfit – the DBS Media. I
again returned home in 2007 when I
received my first appointment to serve as
the Chief Press Secretary / Special
Assistant on Media to Senator Liyel
Imoke, who was the governor at that
time. Having served in that capacity for
some years, I received another
appointment, this time as the
Commissioner for Information and
during the second tenure of Senator
Liyel Imoke, I was appointed
Commissioner for Youths and Sports
Development. I ventured deeper into
politics by offering to serve my people
but that didn't materialize and I went
back at the end of that tenure to into
private business and that effort is what
has now become Hit FM.
You have served in the public service as a
press secretary to the Governor during the
Liyel Imoke administration, and a
Commissioner for Information and
Commissioner for Sports and Youth
development respectively, would you say
your experiences then, had a major role to
play in your decision
to establish of a radio
station? Well, I'll say
that my experience
as a broadcaster
encouraged me to set
up this enterprise. I
have always dreamt
of owning a
broadcast outfit,
which was why my
colleagues from
Minage and I setup a
b r o a d c a s t
production outfit as I
earlier pointed out.
That outfit was
established with the
sole aim of providing
content to existing
broadcast stations, deep inside of me, I
still had that dream to own a broadcast
outfit and that is what has happened
here.
As a successful media entrepreneur, how
would you define success and what would
you say are the three top skills an aspiring
entrepreneur needs in order to be
successful in business? Success is
general, when you