Mike Eghan

Biography Born on 14 March 1936 in Sekondi-Takoradi, Gold Coast (present-day Ghana), the fifth of nine siblings, Eghan was inspired by his civil servant father Ben Eghan's passion for radio to join the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) in 1961, after giving up a job with Barclays Bank that had been secured for him.

In 1965, he went to Britain, where he worked with the BBC Africa Service, hosting the programme Music with African Beat for four years. Photographs of Eghan taken during this time feature among the iconic work of veteran Ghanaian photographer James Barnor. Leaving the BBC, Eghan returned home to work with GBC, wanting to contribute to the development of Ghana and raise his children there.

Eghan's popular 1970s talk show, The Mike Eghan Show, featured guests including Miriam Makeba, Ephraim Amu and Captain J. H. Tachie-Menson.

Eghan died on 5 June 2025, at the age of 89. A tribute by Cameron Duodu described Eghan as "bonhomie personified" with an "unerring professional eye".

Awards and recognition James Barnor's iconic photograph "Mike Eghan at Piccadilly Circus, London" featured on the cover of the catalogue for the 2012 Tate Britain exhibition Another London: International Photographers Capture London Life 1930–1980; a copy of the photograph is also held in the UK government art collection at 10 Downing Street. Eghan and Barnor meeting was reimagined in a play entitled DRUM, by Jacob Roberts-Mensah, which was staged at The Omnibus Theatre in Clapham, south London, in September 2022.

A documentary film in honour of Eghan, produced by Andrew Gyawu-Mensah, was screened in March 2017.

Eghan's awards included the Grand Medal in acknowledgement of his meritorious service in the media.