Another Internet Radio

It is not only becoming trendy but also exciting to see Malawians turning to using the Internet as an additional platofrom for broadcasting. Yesterday I listened to a new Internet station called Radio Chambo (www.radiochambo.com). It says it is "Malawi's Internet Radio Station for Political Heavy Hitters."

This puts the number of online radio stations with Malawi input to six after Radio Yako, Radio Maria, Power 101, Capital Radio and Kwacha FM.

The interesting thing though is that this latest one is a third by Malawians in the Diaspora after Radio Yako introduced in 2006 and Kwacha FM in early 2007. This is a great development quite welcometo broadcasting landscape in Malawi and beyond.

The other three (Radio Maria, Capital Radio and Power 101) are all in Malawi and of course broadcasting online with different amounts of time and quality. In fact in real sense it is only Radio Maria that is streaming audio in real time for considerable lengths.

Having been to Radio Chambo's homepage and listening for over an hour, it is easy for a broadcaster like to me to make some preliminary conclusions on the content direction and identity of the station.

I wonder why the home page leaves out Muluzi in its introduction by only refering to Malawi's first president Dr Kamuzu Banda and then the incumbent Dr Mutharika. It says:

LEARN ABOUT MALAWI'S CURRENT LEADER
He took office on May 24, 2004, after
winning a disputed presidential election. Mutharika was the son of a primary
school headmaster. He was educated at the University of Delhi, India, where he
gained a master's degree in economics.

LEARN ABOUT KAMUZU - Kamuzu Banda
was born near Kasungu in Malawi (then British Central Africa) to Mphonongo Banda
and his wife Akupingamnyama Phiri. His date of birth is unknown, and as it took
place at a time when there was no birth registration, it is impossible to state
a precise year.

I found it difficult not to associate it to one of the broadcasters in Malawi especially that the programmes played aired earlier on MBC also on top of being an MBC production. May
be a disclaimer would help us not to arrive at such conclusions which of course is not a problem at all.

Anyhow this is good news and I am sure it will be very exciting. As the 2009 presidential and parliamentary elections come closer, it will be interesting to see how broadcasters stay true to their identity.

Radio Chambo welcome to the arena and congrats at this great initiative! You can be assured you have a critical listener in me as long as my Internet connections allow.

First Time on Air

The 11th and 12th March are eventful days for me as since 1990, I remember two special things in my life. Last year I wrote extensively about 12th March and this time, I can pull out a short portion from autiobiagraphy and blog about the day I first went on air.

It was on Sunday 11th March 1990. I explain below how it let to that.

I arrived at Rumphi Secondary School with fears of being teased, bullied and beaten. I went to my hostel (Viphya) with my newly bought bag, half empty but some corner filled with locally prepared pop corn, two trousers only and one short trouser.

There were two guys (names withheld) who teased me during the first week. At times I still find painful to remember what they did. The first asked me to lie down flat and then jump. He also asked me to carry some stuff in the hostel.

The other day, his friend came and shouted at me in the face. He told me to close my eyes, and then asked for what I had brought from home to school and went away.

During the first two weeks we had a quiz where I came top of the form one class.I was then chosen to represent my Form One class at the MBC Top of the Class Quiz competition scheduled for later that October.

The Quiz competition was sponsored by one of the chain stores called Peoples Trading Centre (PTC). They made secondary schools to compete in four rounds. MBC had a quiz master in the name of Brightson Kalirani and Jeffrey Kazembe. The quiz could be prerecorded and then aired for 50 minutes on the state radio MBC. So being a Top of the Class member meant you were perceived to be one of the best in the nation.

In our first encounter, we had a tripartite facing St Patrick’s Seminary Secondary and Phwezi Boys Private Secondary at Phwezi on 24 October 1989. It was to air on 11 March 1990.I represented Form One and I scored 5 out of 12 for my class but then we lost at the end of the six rounds. Phwezi beat St Patrick’s Seminary and us. I was happy to have been exposed though we lost in the preliminary round.

It was during this recording of the competition that I met late Brightson Kalirani, one of the MBC presenters that I had met and admired years earlier. I first met him when he visited Mphompha in 1981 to record local music by Mr. Gehena Kanyenda.

The next four years were to take me to a mixture of success and failure in the quiz competition as a member of Rumphi Secondary School Quiz team. We competed against Ekwendeni Girls Secondary in 1990, Mary Mount Girls Secondary School, Nkhata Bay Secondary School in 1991, Chilumba Secondary School in 1992 and Bandawe Secondary School in 1993.

The quiz team kept changing each year with the departure of form four representative. Overall, I had the following team members over the four years: Schaeffer Chirambo, Joseph Chavura and Alick Mtika while I was in form one. Brussels Mughogho, Jairos Kondowe and Thom Longwe joined the team as I moved to older classes.

In the picture, you see me representing form four when we took on Bandawe Secondary School in 1993 on our home ground.

A lot of sacrifice and hard work was needed for the quiz team. As members, we were respected on campus but also expected to do well in our individual subjects if our dreams of going to the only university (of Malawi) were to be realized.

Help With Some Contacts for Radio Programme

Some of you might be aware of a radio programme on Trans World Radio in Malawi called AMalawi Kunja kwa Malawi which I am responsible for. I need your help with people you would recommend to take part in this weekly programme.

In Chichewa, and fifteen minutes long, it is a platform to let Malawians in Diasporas share with listeners in Malawi something about their lives, their work, studies, stay and the countries they are living in. Malawians abroad are interviewed to share personal experiences as well official positions on issues that affect them where they are and at home. I believe that in a small way this programme provides an opportunity for information sharing. I am aware that some brethren on this forum have taken part before.

Having run for a year already, Malawians featured have included students, musicians, business persons, lawyers, nurses, development consultants, ICT Specialists, accountants, medical doctor, missionaries, professors, engineers, home executives, etc based in various countries on all the continents.

I am at this point interested in additional people who can be willing to appear in the programme. They key thing is they have to be Malawian in the diaspora and feel free to offer yourself too if you are in the diaspora. Since there is generally a good number of Malawians in UK, South Africa and US, I would place priority on featuring those outside these three countries.

Please do write me a personal email on victorkaonga@gmail.com with your contacts copied to radio@twrmw.org.

Thank you for reading and considering my request.