As the maiden edition of the Wale Olomu Memorial Awards (WOMA) ceremony kicks off on Saturday, 9 December, 2023, former PMAN President and Chairman of Collective Society of Nigeria, Chief Tony Okoroji; ace broadcaster, radio owner, music mogul and promoter, Otunba Kenny Ogungbe; and velvety-voiced award winning Afropop singer and producer, Paul ‘Play’ Dairo are set for the first edition of the round table discussion ahead of the awards.
The trio of Okoroji, Ogungbe and Dairo, according to the Chairman of WOMA’s Steering Committee, Tokunbo Ojekunle, will be discussing the theme, “Business of Music: Artiste Vs Label Relations, Accountable Royalties and Other Matters”.
Ojekunle also revealed that the first set of five awardees for the Special Recognition Awards would be unveiled during the live presentations ahead of the Roundtable chat on the two-hour Saturday morning radio show, ‘The Vintage Talkshow’, on the stable of TopRadio 90.9 FM. Only one recipient is expected to be named for the Lifetime Achievement category. The Nigerian music industry awaits with bated breath the lucky names for the two award categories as the organisers have assured that WOMA is set to start a new concept in music award.
In order to give this first of its kind on-air-award the necessary razzmatazz, the Steering Committee has appointed a versatile music producer, Julius Olagoroye (aka Julie King) as its new Technical Adviser. Olagoroye has logged over two decades in the Nigerian music and movie industries deploying his talent and expertise in churning out several hits of Nigerian artistes.
In another vein, the Ojekunle-led committee has inaugurated a three-member Media Committee to assist the Media Adviser Ayodele Lawal. In a letter confirming new members, the steering committee wrote: “The Media Committee shall be entrusted with the responsibility of collating, assessing and deploying relevant and timely information concerning the twin events in a way that will project the image, objective and integrity of the unique award concept…”.
The members of the sub-committee are seasoned journalist, one-time Deputy Chief Press Secretary to late Governor Lam Adeshina of Oyo State, and publisher of Parrot Xtra in Ibadan, Oyo State, Yinka Agboola; assistant group entertainment editor of The Nation newspapers, Gbenga Baron Bada; and young, enterprising media practitioner and publisher of City Pulse online magazine, Ayo Mojoyin.