Lekopanye Mooketsi
22 August 2008
Gaborone — The "loud" youth radio station, YaRona FM, will be celebrating its ninth anniversary on August 30. The radio station's bash will be hosted at Orange Farm in Oodi.
YaRona FM and Gabz FM were the only country's private radio stations until last year when another station, Duma FM started operating. it was first licensed in 1998, but only started broadcasting the following year.
The man who has to be credited with the birth of the radio station, is Percy Raditladi who was the founding station manager. He was the midwife as the radio station suffered labour pains until he steered it to its infancy.
"It has been an interesting nine years," says the station's sales and marketing manager, Robin Chivazve
Recalling their short history, Chivazve says after they were granted a licence, they started broadcasting signals by playing music only for six months.
Their big day came on August 26, 1999, when they were doing the first live broadcast. "On that day we opened up the mikes and spoke to Batswana. It was amazing. I was there on the first day," said Chivazve who was one of the pioneer presenters and DJs of the radio station.
Chivazve, who has always been part of the radio station family, speaks about the tremendous growth that they have experienced. The radio station started with about 12 or 15 employees, "I think there are 36 now. The growth has been phenomenal."
For Chivazve the radio station is a true example of citizen empowerment. "When we started part of the business was owned by South African shareholders," he says, indicating that the South Africans are now a minority.
The DJ turned marketing executive, says YaRona FM has always been a youth radio station. "A lot of people are quick to write off our importance in society. But we are serious as everybody else. The only thing is that we have brought young people on the platform to express themselves.
Not everybody likes us. Some people think that we are too loud, too free and too adventurous. That is how we are as a broadcaster. We are not apologetic," he says as a matter of fact.
For Chivazve, the radio station's milestone was when they went national this year. In the past, the Gaborone-based radio station had been operating as a regional broadcaster.
It was quite a process, preparing for the national broadcasting licence. The initial steps for putting together a tender for national broadcasting took more than two years.
Chivazve says they were always confident that they would be awarded a tender for national broadcasing. They were given 12 months to do a roll out.
"That in itself was a challenging process," he says. Even though they have been granted a national broadcasting licence, they are not yet covering the whole country.
The station is only broadcasting in Lobatse, Francistown, Palapye and Selebi-Phikwe. It will soon be available to listeners in Maun.
Chivazve estimates that all the areas that they are covering represent 60 percent of the country's population.
He speaks about plans to cover other areas like Orapa and Gantsi.
Although it is a welcome development, Chivazve sees national broadcasting as costly and complicated. He says it will take them 10 years to cover the entire country. The national broadcasting licence is valid for 15 years.
But for Chivazve, they have made huge strides to reach more people in the country.
They decided to host their bash in Gaborone because they recently launched in the new areas that they are covering. "We felt it would not be a bad idea to celebrate in Gaborone," he says.
According to him, all the YaRona FM personalities will attend the bash. As part of the celebrations, 96.9 YaRona FM listeners will each receive birthday cake. "It is a way of sharing the birthday joy."
For Chivazve, YaRona FM has every reason to celebrate.
But it has not been smooth sailing for the station.
"We have seen so many businesses come and go since 1999. We have every reason to celebrate because we have survived.
The private media always has challenges that the government does not to worry about," he says.
Chivazve says YaRona FM started from humble beginnings, operating from a modest house in Extension II. "Looking back, there is every reason to celebrate. We have come a long way," he reflects from their offices at Fairgrounds shopping mall.
Chivazve says the euphoria that was experienced after they launched in certain parts of the country, showed that YaRona FM is one of the most popular local radio stations.
Business people were making enquires about the station hosting outside - broadcasts at shopping malls in the areas where the station was launched. To make their presence felt, the radio personality says, they intend to open offices in places like Francistown and Maun.
Chivazve says they regard other private radio station as their brothers in arms. "We regard them as our partners. It is upon us to work together," he says, adding that they do not regard the government-run radio stations as enemies.
For Chivazve, the biggest challenge facing the industry is lack of media research. He cites countries like South Africa where radio stations receive data on a weekly basis.
The information, he says, is important for them to make the necessary changes in their line-ups.
And where does he see YaRona FM in the next five years? "I believe in five years we will continue to dominate as a visible and audible brand in the society.
The strength of our brand is that everybody knows what we stand for."
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