Larry Izamoje – Brila Sports
Larry Izamoje was born in Onitsha in 1962 to a family of nine, Lawrence Osadomey Izamoje who is the second son of his parents is a native of Ekpon, a town in Igueben Local Government Area of Edo State. His education started at Dogho Primary School, Warri, Delta State in 1968 from where he got admitted to Orerokpe Grammar School and then University of Lagos in 1981 where he obtained first and second degrees in Sociology.
He grew up in Warri where as a teenager, he hawked plantain on the streets for his mother who was a petty trader. When Larry was not hawking for his mother, he assisted his father in his cosmetics distribution work.
He grew with one thing in mind to become a star. That dream of becoming a star was what led him into playing table tennis for his school at the secondary level. When tennis could not lead him to his dream of becoming a star, he dropped table tennis for soccer. He kept playing even after admission into the higher institution. It was in 1982 while playing for his hall in one of the inter-hall matches as the sports secretary of Makama Bida hall that tragedy struck. This marked an end to his playing career, though he played and earned monthly, playing for WRECA (Water Resources Engineering Construction Agency) during his NYSC days.
With his leg out of action, he pressed on with his mouth. He went to Yaba market, bought a cheap microphone, carried his cassette deck, went to University of Lagos playing field and started running commentaries. Some laughed at him. He paid little attention and persisted in what he loved doing. It was during one of his commentaries that somebody suggested he should go to Ernest Okonkwo, Nigeria’s legendary football commentator. And so to Ernest Okonkwo he went after his masters in 1985. And within 20 minutes of talking with Okonkwo, he took him and gave him all the polishing he needed.
During his NYSC he served as Editorial Board member of Kano State NYSC Newsletter. He joined Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) in 1985 and was attached to the outside Broadcast Unit earning N15. Between 1986 and 1990, he held several positions at the Concord Press on the invitation of Trigo Egbegi who was the sports editor of the group then. He rose to become the deputy Group Sports Editor in Concord. He later that year joined The Mail as sports editor and after one year joined DBN Television.
While working in DBN, one or two things did not go down well with him so he decided to resign. After leaving DBN, he decided to set up his own office. He looked for a small room at Ijaiye, opposite the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, NIJ, Ogba. He got a one-room office. With no money for furniture, he went to Ikeja market and bought a table, 2 chairs, and an old typewriter for N2000, all at second hand and drove everything to the office in a second hand Volkswagen Beetle. They then got some second hand planks which they repainted and used for partitioning.
One of the challenges he faced was how to come about a business name. He decided to take the first three letters from the wife’s name (Bridget) and two letters from his name (Larry) to form BRILA. That was how they started the first business called Brilla Sports Video Club in 1992.
For two years of running the sports video club, only one student of NIJ became a member of the club. The dream of being on air was not realized until 6 months after the company took off, with Ogun State Broadcasting Corporation (OGBC). He paid with his own money for the first 6 months. He travelled from Lagos to Abeokuta everyday on his own expenses to present just a fifteen minutes programme because all the companies he approached for sponsorship rejected it instantly. None believed they could do sports on radio. OGBC rejected the idea of sports on radio because they couldn’t imagine an FM station talking sports in the morning. And that’s how Brilla married sports with music. They played music and talked over it while standing. OGBC
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