Afojeare Campbell, aka DJ Gosporella, has been into disc jockeying for over 30 years. Recently, he berthed an on-line radio station, Gosporella FM. In this, exclusive interview with Gloria Oluwadiya, Jennifer Orji and Juliet Ikeokwu (all interns at YES INTERNATIONAL! Magazine), he spoke on what prompted it, where he’s headed with the station and more. Enjoy…
Why Gosporella FM?
The name Gosperella is already a brand and so it’s only necessary that when God says we should set up a radio station, it should bear the name of the brand. I mean, I think it will be a little bit off course if I deviate from the “necessary”. The necessary being that the Gosporella name was divinely given. So, there’s also Gosporella TV on the way. Everything about the Gosporella brand will be Gosporella.
At what stage in your life did you decide to be a DJ?
I have been a DJ for as long as I can remember o. I am the son of a king. In my house, there is a lot of music and aside the praise singers and all that, we also had the disc player in those days called changer that you had to hold, put the record, on top of it. You have to wind it for it to work (Laughs). We had that in our homestead. Every once a week or so, we used to have a family gathering and my elder cousin was the DJ. I took interest in it because I was always watching what he was doing. So, at maybe age 7 or 10, I started operating that same changer. From there, I graduated into becoming a full fledged DJ at that time because I would move from one place to the other and when I come, I would be the one in charge of music. So, for me, being a DJ has always been there and I think if I am to go by what God said to me when He called me into the Gosporella ministry: that He has trained me long enough for what He created me for. DJing is my purpose of existence. That is what I am created for; to do it for God. But I had to do the work before I was commissioned into doing this.
For how long have you been doing this?
Professionally, this is my 30th year as a DJ (Deejay). Like I said, I had been doing what is called DJ at that time, at age 7 or 10. So, if you add ten to 30, that is 40 years of my life.
Is it just gospel music that your online radio station will focus on?
Presently, it is strictly gospel music and now a whole lot of people tend not to understand what gospel music is. When you say gospel music, they have this impression that they are talking about church music and all that. No; they are two different things. Church music is for Christians who are already born again. Gospel means goodnews, gospel music is for people on the street mainly. Yes. The Christians can identify with gospel music because gospel music is good news, but the ones that can identify with it mostly are the people on the street, who are yet to become born again Christians. Christianity in this town has been boxed into a corner where people who are yet to become born again Christians see it as the people who do not know what they are doing in this life or how would I put it? Okay, they live a drab life because they are Christians. You don’t know how to party because you are a Christian. They don’t know how to enjoy life, because they are Christians. They live a particular way of life. Yes, you are supposed to live a particular way of life, but I have always said that before you were born again, you were living a life, but when you become born again, you begin to live a highlife. See, the difference now is the ‘high’. You discovered that there were things you knew nothing about before that you now know. There is wisdom that only God can give that you now have. And that wisdom enables you to live a highlife than you were living before. So, I do strictly gospel music; music for the street, but Christians will enjoy it. I have always said that nobody can call Jesus Christ the Lord without the spirit of God involved. The Holy Spirit must have enabled you. And the scripture says “salt water and pure water cannot come from the same source”. God will never force you to stay within. He calls you and it is now left for you to say yes. So, that time that you give Him the opportunity to stick, whatever comes out at that time, I believe is good news. So, it is gospel music. You will find out that for me, I will play music from secular artistes, but it is gospel. Even they don’t know that is gospel, because they think they are just singing. But I think God took charge of their spirit as at that time for them to sing good songs like Surulere from Dr. Sid and Don Jazzy. That is a very good song. We will play stuff like that with lots of music from gospel music artistes because today, gospel music is no longer the way it used to be. There is a whole lot of stuff in the market that now I even see Christians that still invite secular DJs to come to their events. It is out of laziness. When I say laziness, I mean you didn’t take time to find out and discover that you have no need for a secular DJ and secular music anymore. All you need now is gospel music, which is good music that will edify you. Bible says “faith cometh by hearing”. What you hear matters a lot. That is why when I see a whole lot of Christians misbehaving, I know where it is coming from. What do you take in? The lesson that you take in everyday through music, movies, through radio, definitely, must have an effect on you. But if you listen to pure music, news, things that edify, your spirit will be edified and what will come out of you will be good. So, yes, I am strictly a gospel music DJ.
Aside gospel music, do you have other programmes you do on the online radio?
Our sell off line is music, lifestyle and entertainment. What that simply means is that we do gospel music, we do a whole lot of lifestyle-inclined programmes. Lifestyle has shows that will take care of your health, we talk about sports, entertainment in all its ramifications. We will report the good ones and take on comedy. We are taking punch lines from some of the best comedians around and intermittently on our shows there will be punch lines from these comedians and all that. So, definitely, yes. That is our strong point now. We are not doing gospel like every other person is going to be doing it or they have been doing it. We are doing gospel from another perspective; we have liberty to do what God has sent us to do. There is freedom as long as you use it well. And we tend to use it well because we have knowledge. When you have knowledge, you have power. So, we have the knowledge of what is good, and of course, this is not something we sat down and told ourselves we wanted to do because everybody is doing an online radio, online this and online that. We were called to come and do this. We intend to do it well. We intend to use it to make a statement that anything that is God is good. We intend to use it to make a statement that Christians know the best. Christians give the best. That Christians are the ones who should be celebrated. We intend to use this to educate people. We intend to use this to entrench Christianity as a lifestyle and not Sunday, Sunday medicine. Like people will go to church and do everything in God’s way, but the moment you get into your car, you change. You are a Christian on Sunday and when you leave church, you don’t have a religion. Everything you do in life has principle. I have been in this business now for a very long time. I am not going to say because I know something, I am just going to hit it off immediately. No. Gosporella FM is a baby and we intend to grow the baby using every means that God has given unto us and friends like Azuh Arinze. For instance, YES INTERNATIONAL! Magazine. The name Yes! is gospel, but you cannot call YES magazine a gospel magazine at the same time. Mr. Azuh Arinze will not report anything that is not edifying. So, friends like that from Encomium, Nigezie, Hip TV, all these people, we have known each other for a very long time. We want to collaborate with a whole lot of them to push out something that will edify people and also give people the knowledge that being a Christian is the best thing to happen to anybody.
What is the reason behind your choice of an online radio and not the normal radio station?
Let’s just say money. I found out that for you to even get the license to run a terrestrial radio station, you will need 100 million naira just for the license and then you need about 20 million to put the mast down and all that. That kind of money, we don’t have it yet. Secondly, the world is going I.T. Even terrestrial radio stations now have their online platforms. Why? Because they know that everybody is going there. The mallam on the street has a device with his earpiece. You don’t see a mallam doing his work with a transistor radio anymore. They don’t use all those things anymore. If everything is going I.T and everything is being computerized, I believe that in the next 5 years, online is where everything is going to be and so we have gone ahead to start; before other people will begin to realize this, we are there already. And then, I believe God will not send me into a territory that is not worth it. I believe God has seen something ahead, that is why He asked somebody to tell me to set up an online radio station. I did not sit down to say I wanted to start. It was somebody who called me up to say hey! Set up an online radio station. After a while, I said why are you telling me? He said he didn’t know (Laughs) and I’m like, okay. That was an answer to a prayer because we had actually prayed ourselves black and blue early in the morning of that same day looking for a way out. We wanted to move forward from where we were. We had been there for a while and we got tired of doing the same thing. So, we needed another challenge and God answered us from London (Laughs). It is something that God said we should do. That is why when people say to me your radio station, I say I don’t have one; that it belongs to God. I am just there trying to direct and manage people to do what God said I should do. It doesn’t belong to me.
Can you explain how you worked hard to get to this level in an industry where we have so many secular DJs?
Consistency. Seeth thou a man diligent in his business, he shall not sit before mere men, but he shall eat with kings. Whatever you do, do it with all thy might. I am a barefoot prophet. I hear go, I don’t hear come, and those are the people God use for His purpose. You must be headstrong, you must have liver. No matter what is happening, you say this is what God says I will do. Sometimes when I am facing challenges, except it is not God that says I should do this, guys, everyone can go. I will stay here. Even if I die, I die. That is it. A lot of people say Gosporella, I don’t get it. Is it not this same industry? How? Gospel how? But I am like even I don’t know. But one thing I know I have is the I can do spirit. I never give up. If you go into the studio, you will see one picture I hung there. No excuses. There is no excuse for failure. Did God say yes? If yes, I say back to him when everything is difficult. Dad, what are you saying? You are no longer possible, abi? Try God with that (Laughs). He said to me all things are possible. So, I say to Him, you are no longer possible, abi? (Laughs). He gets very angry and does something from another angle. So, that is how it has always been. There have been difficult times. Don’t get me wrong. But because I have knowledge of what God has said to me; He said it to so many people, but some people don’t just want to hear it. He said in this world, I will face tribulations. Tribulations mean wahala, but don’t worry, I will overcome the world for you. Sometimes you need to interpret the Bible locally, so that you can understand. Tribulation is wahala. Jesus says you will face tribulation, so when I see Christians saying this wahala is too much, they don’t understand. You should get the understanding, then you are living a higher life. Everything is possible to you if you believe. So, it is not me, it is the spirit inside of me that helps me. Because I face a whole lot of wahala doing this. The devil used to box me into a corner. Now, I don give am knock out. He doesn’t come anymore (Laughs). The ones that I see now are small, small demons that I eat for breakfast (Laughs).
What is the best way to remain relevant as a DJ?
If I tell you that, I will be giving out my trade secret. So, I always say to people who ask me that question: if there is anybody who is asking you what DJ Gosporella has been doing for the past 30 years that makes him relevant, give him my number, he calls me, he pays me and then I tell him. Because that is a trade secret. You have to find it out. I found it. But how to stay relevant. I discovered it 30 years ago as a DJ. Lots of people do not understand what it means to be a celebrity. When it enters into your head, you are a dead man already. Even before you know it. So, let me stop talking. I need to be paid for the rest (Laughs).
What do you like about being a DJ?
Being a DJ gives you freedom. Back in the days, everybody wakes up early to go to work. The DJ is sleeping while they are in the office. He is enjoying himself. When they are coming back all tired and all that, the DJ is taking his bath, going to the office. When he gets there, the club must be cool. So, he enters an air conditioned office. If the whole place is hot, the DJ’s boot must be cool because that is where everything that runs the club is. So, you find out that the DJ enjoys himself. Then, he is doing the job he loves, he gets paid and there are so many things at his disposal. So, basically, the DJ enjoys his life.
Where do you see Gosporella FM in five years?
Gosporella FM in five years will be on top and we are never going down because it is a continuous climb; because we are setting a pace.
NB: First published October 2014