The Kimathi Street based station launched a series of newspaper ads showing just how much nonsense there is on radio today, promising to bring ‘sense’. From the wording, it was clear the target was Classic 105, and particularly the duo of Maina and King’ang’i, who together bring us the most listened to radio show in the country.
Now, the battle has gone to TV. Nation is using its might to hammer their Waiyaki Way neighbours, with the latest being a calculated news report yesterday. In both its Swahili and English bulletins last night, NTV carried a story by the Media Council as one of the lead stories, which was clearly targeting Maina and King’ang’i, inadvertently (or probably not) raising the profile of their new station.
From the report, Media Council of Kenya CEO Haron Mwangi released some interesting findings. Among them were that 78% of Kenyans believe that morning callers are fake and paid. Maina’s show is particularly famous for these callers.
Mr. Harun also talked of a leading radio presenter who revealed to the board that she has never seen a code of conduct booklet. Apparently, more than 85% of radio presenters have no training in journalism.
Among those surveyed by MCK, 54% said that obscenities are a turn off, with a similar percentage feeling that the hosts are not usually incharge. Another 58% said discussions are not constructive.
It will be interesting to watch how this develops.
