“Good morning. This is your favourite radio station... now, what will you do if your wife… ati your boyfriend did whaat?… Ladies, how can you allow your man… so you’re in the spouse exchange programme; how does it work…”
This is a familiar menu from our FM stations – Nairobi is eroticised.
And that is why, when Easy FM matured and reverted to the good old trusted Nation FM brand, a section of society sighed with relief.
The promise to engage the audience with decorum and intellect, to tackle significant issues of the day, is a spray of fresh air in a country chocking with the putrid stink of loutish and erotic talk.
The new Nation FM’s format is a bold exit from the seductive trappings of cheap chatter and clutter that is the country’s airwaves. It is also timely to provide a discursive forum as the regional states seeks stronger integration.
Yet, this is not to say the erotic talk is going anywhere. The reason is simple. It is like illicit liquor. The more it is condemned the more the hopeless lad goes for it. Like the miserable drunkard, the average radio listener is seeking an escapist route from reality.
Understanding how the audience uses and gets gratification from the media vis-a-vis its psychological predisposition shows listeners need to escape, to tackle the taboo, to be wild, and to get models to emulate. We need some gossip, to hear of scandals, to celebrate the fall of the high and mighty … vicariously though.
The radio format that fits the profile of an information poor listener is the kind that is in majority FM stations. The all-news format, or a hybrid of news and serious talk, has never had a way around here. This is because everyone is dying for high ratings with little financial and professional investment. The millions sustained by advertisers complicity to this moral corruption pays little heed to the value systems that sustain a society.
This is transgression against our moral contours. Yet, even the purveyors of these contraventions seem to be too naive to fathom the complexity of the harm — socially and psychologically — visited on audiences. This is a classical capitalistic design where the means for profits has no room for prophets. First in this game, it is more tempting to be obnoxious than sobre. Second, you do not need an army of reporters, producers or hosts. Third, the approach does not require specialised training, if you can sing and have the temerity to be vulgar, the job is yours for the taking. Last, the audience too does not want to invest their intellect in internalising content.
Yet, radio is a critical tool for society. It is the most omnipresent medium — from the mobile phone to the matatus and the boda bodas. Malls tune into these stations and connect speakers right into washrooms.
The airwaves are a public good and should thus be used to advance the civility and the quality of life of the population. That has not been the case for the plateful of sex has not allowed anyone to interrogate serious issues.
But what we need is wit and erudite probing techniques of those behind the mic. Needed is a station that will transcend erotics and ethnic stereotyping to hold the leaders to account, to interpret policies, and to help shape ideas.
That is why the Nation FM has a gold mine at its disposal. There is a niche that well, enjoys entertainment, but in moderation. There is a pool of Kenyans who enjoy intelligent and honourable discourses.
This group has money to spend and advertisers will find it a niche that is not reached by any of the FMs in town. Converging the print, radio, TV online and even mobile, will give the new station all the edge it requires as a formidable centre of regional excellence in radio journalism. It is here that opinions and policies will be shaped. If well utilised, this will be a great public sphere for rational-critical discourses, highly desirable for a nation in social economic and political transition.
A huge chunk of the populace wants to hear the voice of its leaders and policy makers. It also needs certain assurances and avenues to vent out what is hurting inside. That is what Nation FM should now be dishing out. Circus is good, but we also need some bread.
However, what Nation FM needs to do is to shun the temptation of bringing on board the so-called “celebs” as its face and debaters. Serious people, who would tune into say the BBC, VoA, or Radio Netherlands, will not trust a clown to unpack, say,the relevance of the standard gauge railway or to elucidate policy and phenomena.
Give the brainy the mic and you will smile all the way to the bank.
Originally published in Daily Nation
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