The core of the professionalism of Ketonen, who died on Saturday, was genuine interest in the interviewee and creating a warm atmosphere, colleagues recall.
On Saturday A radio host who died at the age of 59 Olga Ketonen the core of his professionalism was genuine interest in the interviewee and creating a warm atmosphere in the interview situation, say colleagues who worked with him.
“When the interviewer really listens to the interviewee, especially in a fast-paced radio broadcast, then you get extraneous things out in a completely different way and the atmosphere stays warm,” says a presenter-journalist working at Yleisradio Mikko Peltola.
“I myself have been interviewed once, and if the interviewer clearly likes doing his job and is interested, it's nice to answer the questions and give something of himself.”
Arable land and Ketonen were in the same editorial office at Yleisradio for a long time.
“Olga was the driving force behind the Radiomafia channel when I went there in 2000. Me and Juuso Myllyrinne we were young people in our twenties, and when we came to the parade ground on a weekday morning, Olga was always on our side,” says Mikko Peltola.
“When you come to a work community like that, which was full of radio stars and I myself was a young bloke, it warms you when the conkers are on your side and you feel welcome.”
Not all of the channel's veterans had the same warm attitude towards the young radio producers, Peltola recalls.
“I remember Olga specifically as warm. Even Olga's speaking voice was personable, as a person she came close and was very warm-hearted. It seemed that even though he was a big radio star, he still listened to what others had to say.”
Tomi Saarinen ran Radiomafia with Ketonen Press clubprogram in its last months before the channel changed to YleX in January 2003. Nowadays, he is the CEO of Live Nation Finland.
“I was very lucky in my twenties to be able to work with a person I had already listened to and looked up to before. My first memory of Olga is that in the summer of 2002 we made a program from the Hietaniemi cemetery. It was a live broadcast with the theme of death. In this context, it feels wild,” says Tomi Saarinen.
“Olga was exceptionally approachable and empathetic, the kind of person who is interested in you. That made Olga a great interviewer. He had an extraordinary ability to be interested in others and he welcomed people with open arms. That was his superpower.”
A ketone always focused on the essentials, and did not waste energy on, for example, taking care of the technical issues of the radio broadcast, says Saarinen.
“The recipient is not interested in anything other than how the program sounds. He made sure that the content was curated. He was exceptionally good at that sport. It was because he was genuinely interested in the interviewee, not just because an interview has to be done. There is an awfully big difference, and it was heard in the things he did.”
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