Carol Ofori's love for radio started on campus and she has never looked back.
“It has always been something I have loved and really worked hard to keep doing well in.”
The motivational speaker started her commercial radio career with Kaya FM on a month-long learnership and over the years she has worked at Metro FM, EastCoast Radio and is now six weeks into her show 'The Weekend Favour'- on Radio 2000.
“It’s so amazing, I enjoy every single minute of it. I feel like I am at home. From the audience to the music, I love everything about the brand and doing the show.”
Ofori has also spread her wings into television having done the first season of 'Raising Babies 101' on SABC 2, a talk series on children between the ages of 0 and 5-years-old.
Ofori is also a voice-over artist, a qualified make-up artist and a part-time lecturer.
“It’s important to keep my eggs in different baskets and making sure that I am exploring different avenues. Right now I have the radio gig, I do a lot of blogging on my site as well and freelance writing.”
Carol Ofori. Picture: Katlego Mokubye
But the most important of her jobs is that of being a mom to her 4-year-old.
“I’m a mom and a wife and that takes up a lot of my time. I try and keep a nice balanced life between career and family. The family outweighs the career at this point.”
Presenting 'Raising Babies 101' has also helped her parent better.
“We shot the show about two years ago and then the first run was in 2018 and the repeats were now in 2019. It was just incredible learning about the different challenges that I will face with my child between the ages of 0 and 5. I learnt so much about taking care of them psychologically- how they operate and how they think.”
Her 16-year career in radio has seen her go from campus radio to retail radio and finally getting that big break at 947 in 2004.
“Right now I am hosting a weekend breakfast show. Ideally, my dream is to do a weekday show and that’s the ultimate goal I am working towards but right now everything I am doing is exciting and I am enjoying every moment.”
She added that women were still at the backfoot of most industries.
“We are not at all on the same footing as men. There has been lots of strides being made by radio stations to be more inclusive of women and believing more in women and giving them more stronger radio positions. But I do believe we are a far cry from what I believe is fair and balanced.”
Her advice for young women who are looking at a career in radio is to focus on the goal.
“The important thing is to be sure that this is what you want to do because anything you want, that you feel is in your heart and it is your calling will be challenging. There will be tough times, it will have you in tears and it will have you doubting so be sure.
"When you do go for it, know that no one is going to pat you on the back every time you do something. You need to keep going and keep your head above water all the time. Even if there is negativity, you still have to be positive and keep yourself going.