Skyz Metro FM dominates airwaves - BY MTHANDAZO NYONI SKYZ Metro FM is an award-winning - NewsDay Zimbabwe
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X10 NewsDay | Friday June 15 2018
Skyz Metro FM dominates airwaves . . .
BY MTHANDAZO NYONI educational and informative. The station falls under Fairtalk Communica- tion and telling of the stories that show excellence that
S
The station provides music, culture, news and tions, which also owns Breeze FM in Victoria Falls. had not been celebrated.
KYZ Metro FM is an award-winning current affairs to listeners not only in Bulawayo, Fair Talk Communications chief executive offic- The stations have allowed voices that had remained
commercial radio station based in the but further at a 60km radius around the city. er Qhubani Moyo said the two radio stations had in the shadows to be amplified, not just to be heard,
city of Bulawayo. Its business model is Its team of radio professionals and manage- come in as an important platform to celebrate but also assist and influence communities to grow, he
not only commercial, but communal as ment is dedicated to providing the crème de la amongst other things, the ethnic, linguistic, racial, said.
well. crème of radio content. musical and sporting diversity of the region. “The stations have become an acceptable platform
It is inspired by its location in the community In 2017, the city’s first commercial radio sta- He said the levels of acceptance of the stations for interaction and transformation of communities for
and consequently, its desire is to offer fun, inter- tion celebrated its first anniversary, highlighting a were a living testimony that the region was thirsty the better. We are also excited that we have a solid lis-
esting family-oriented programming that is both dream come true. for a radio platform that is dedicated to promo- tenership in the Diaspora and clear testimony that we
are the telepathic link for Zimbabweans working out
there but contributing immensely for their family live-
lihoods at home as well as making an immense contri-
bution to national development,” Moyo said.
“Our huge listenership base has provided a vibrant
and valuable network for business as we reach out and
interact with over a million listeners in the region. I am
excited that within a year we have made so much im-
pact and won accolades and awards as well as a per-
manent place in the hearts of our listeners and adver-
tisers.”
Moyo said they would never look back, as they aim
to keep on growing and serving the best programmes.
The local radio station has created an advertising
platform which it wants local businesspeople to ex-
ploit.
Being a metro station, Skyz Metro FM brings a num-
ber of advantages that can be harnessed to bring val-
ue to the campaign:
A captured audience — Skyz Metro FM has estab-
lished itself as the station of choice in the areas cov-
ered.
Based on internal surveys and indicative informa-
tion the station has a listenership of around +500 000
in the following areas: Bulawayo, Umzingwane, Mato-
bo, Umguza, parts of Bubi, Tsholotsho, Gwanda and In-
siza districts.
Diaspora audience — Zimbabweans are a foreign
people, many of whom live in the diaspora, having left
home in pursuit of greener pastures.
Many of these Zimbabweans, in particular those
hailing from the southern region tune in via stream
and catch up with “home” via the radio’s online stream.
Data collated from on online streams has shown an
excess of well over 40 000 unique gadgets from vary-
ing parts of the globe that connect with Skyz Metro FM
on a daily basis.
Strength in the use of local languages — Skyz Metro
FM prides itself in the use of local languages. The sta-
tion uses the following languages, Ndebele, Shona,
Kalanga, Sothu and English.
They also take pride in giving the local languages in
particular meaningful airtime in the prime slots with
the drive time show being a vernacular show.
The other shows mix the languages in a manner
that ensures all the listeners are catered for.
Community oriented programming — The station’s
programming is geared towards uplifting the commu-
nities that we serve and as which creates an opportu-
nity for seamless integration of the voter registration
campaign.
Skyz Metro FM team on stage at the BAAs after
retaining the Outstanding Mainstream Media Award
in two years running
NewsDay | Friday June 15 2018 X11
SKYZ METRO FM SUPPLEMENT
Skyz Metro FM team in 2017 that pioneered a new sound into the homes of
Bulawayo and surrounding areas
International
radio stations
in Africa
T
he hegemony of inter- nological, cultural ‘superiority’
national radio stations [...] and therefore the superiority
in Africa is based on the of their civilisation”).
failure of public media, Bourges is himself the author
challenged today by the of a work entitled Décoloniser
rise of private radio stations. l’information (“decolonising infor-
Pluralism comes to Sub-Saharan mation”) and was fully aware that
international radio stations the radio station, whose reins he
Sub-Saharan Africa is listen- was taking was called “Le poste
ing intently to the outside world. colonial” (“the colonial radio sta-
No other region in the world is so tion”) before the war, prior to be-
open to international information ing changed in 1940 to “La Voix de
and yet so dependent on foreign la France” (“the voice of France”).
broadcasters. He, therefore, took on the task
Of all the radio stations that are of transforming the image and the
listened to in Africa, only one, Afri- content of this radio station, going
ca N°1, can claim to be pan-African; as far as turning it into an interna-
but this station is far behind the ra- tional information tool able to ri-
dio stations of the former colonial val the BBC, which, thanks to its
powers, like France or the United independence and its influence, is
Kingdom, which have set up hun- held up as a model.
dreds of transmitters throughout At this time, international radio
the continent to broadcast Radio stations broadcast in short-wave
France Internationale and the BBC only were the only alternative to
World Service. the controls placed on the popu-
The United States also has a sig- lation’s access to information by
nificant presence with the Voice of their respective African govern-
America and, a short time ago Chi- ments.
na Radio International started to They are perceived as a pallia-
rapidly increase its presence. tive to the lack of democracy. No-
Finally, several countries that body could imagine then that the
have been through severe crises advent of media pluralism in Afri-
have radio stations that have been ca would lead to these internation-
created or helped off the ground by al radio stations achieving even
the United Nations, such as Radio greater audience figures.
Okapi, the most listened-to station The decline of pan-African radio
at the moment in the Democratic At the start of this same year,
Republic of the Congo. 1981, the Gabonese government,
Hervé Bourges, appointed in 1981 with the support of France,
to the helm of Radio France Inter- launched Africa N°1, which sees it-
nationale, was known at the time self as a Pan-African, French-lan-
as the advisor of the director-gen- guage radio station.
eral of Unesco, Amadou Mahtar This radio station was more Af-
Mbow, who supported the project rican and more popular than RFI,
for a “New world information and reaching over 20 million listeners
communication order” (in an ap- in French-speaking Africa, and
peal published by Unesco in 1977, was, from the 1990s through the
the following can be read: “Devel- early 2000s, the fifth-largest global
oping countries continue […] to radio station.
‘consume’ world information gen- In 2002, Africa N°1 was still at
erally created by developed coun- the top of the audience ratings in
tries and which tends to maintain Lomé, ahead of RFI.
people in the third world in a cer- But this successful era ended
tain state of alienation and, at the that very year with the withdrawal
same time Western people in dan- of the main shareholder of Africa
gerous ignorance of the circum- N°1, SOFIRAD (Société financière
stances in these countries, while de radiodiffusionor radio broad-
comforting them in their smug as- casting financial company), which
surance of their industrial, tech- l TO X12
X12 NewsDay | Friday June 15 2018
SKYZ METRO FM SUPPLEMENT
International radio
stations in Africa
l FROM X11
managed holdings by the French state in “peripher-
al radio stations”, as well as RMC-Moyen Orient (Radio
Monte Carlo, Middle East) and Moroccan radio station
Médi 1, and which held 40 % of its capital.
The shares in this company were bought by Libya,
whose “guide”, Mouammar Kaddafi, has always been
open about his Pan-African ambitions.
But while awaiting the investment announced by
this new shareholder, Africa N°1 lost ground through-
out French-speaking Africa.
This drop can be explained by the out-of-date trans-
mitters, the impact on the programmes of cutting the
staffing in half, and can probably also be traced back
to a loss of credibility due to the reputation of Libya
as a rogue state, a title that it has never managed to
rid itself of.
On its own territory in Libreville, in November 2009,
Africa N°1 achieved a market share half that of Radio
France Internationale, while its peak audience rating in
another African capital did not exceed 8% (in Yaoun-
dé).
The dream of becoming an African Al Jazeera, which
appears to have influenced the decision by Libya to
buy out Africa N°1, now seems out of reach.
The challenge for African languages
BBC Africa and RFI each have their own private do-
main, but the BBC managed until 2009 to stay ahead of
RFI in Niger thanks to its programmes in Hausa.
The great strength of this British broadcaster is the
wide range of languages (33 in total, compared with
13 at RFI) and in particular, the fact that it is broadcast
in five African languages: Hausa, Somali, Kinyarwanda,
Kirundi and Swahili.
In East Africa, the BBC is listened to more in Swahili
than in English.
Radio France Internationale took a long time to look
at broadcasting in African languages and did not start
programmes in Hausa until 2007 and in Swahili in
2010.
Thanks to this new policy, the French broadcaster is
back at the top in Niger, where the BBC enjoyed the
biggest audience ratings for the past 20 years, while
RFI has converted to African languages, Deutsche
Welle already broadcast in Amharic as well as Hausa
and Swahili.
The Voice of America goes out in 10 languages. In the
north of Nigeria, where people are still very much used
to listening to shortwave radio, 45 % of listeners tune
in at least once a week.
Towards rapid expansion of private African radio
stations
The huge presence of international or UN radio sta-
tions in Africa and their substantial impact on the pub-
lic are the symptoms of a failure of public service me-
dia on the continent.
Seen as partisan, propagandist or simply mollifying
entities, public African radio stations are barely credi-
ble in most countries.
In the short term, private radio stations must in-
crease in importance and become more professional
in order for the national media to start to tentatively
win over the public once again.
The success of radio stations such as the Nation Me-
dia group in Kenya, or Radio Futurs Média, launched
by musician Youssou Ndour in Senegal (with a level
of professionalism way over the average in both cas-
es), appears to be the precursor for a questioning of
the domination of international radio stations in Afri-
ca. — Online
NewsDay | Friday June 15 2018 X13
SKYZ METRO FM SUPPLEMENT
Radio stations resemble newspapers in that both report news and both serve as
platforms for the spreading of views
Zimbabwe still
needs diverse radio
D
URING the World Ra- ami FM.
dio Day commemora- This brings to four the radio sta-
tions this year, MISA tions being run by the group, in-
reminded to the gov- cluding the national commercial
ernment of Zimbabwe radio station Star FM.
on the need for genuine transfor- The state controlled public
mation of the entire broadcasting broadcaster, ZBC, runs four radio
sector to allow for diversity in ra- stations.
dio broadcasting in the country. The Broadcasting Authority of
This year’s commemorations Zimbabwe has still not, made a call
were held under the theme, Ra- for the licensing of community ra-
dio, Sports and Cultural Diversity. dio, as government continues to
In its announcement of the theme prevaricate on the subject.
this year, the United Nations Edu- BSA must go
cational, Scientific and Cultural MISA Zimbabwe maintains that
Organisation (Unesco) invited all the root cause of the challenges in
bodies and related organisations the sector lie in the archaic Broad-
to celebrate radio and its contribu- casting Services Act (BSA), which
tion to democratic debate through was enacted more than two dec-
information, entertainment and ades ago, and is no longer justicia-
audience interaction. ble to regulate the ever-changing
Still no diversity broadcasting industry.
Though successive surveys and The repeal of the BSA, is even
research papers indicate that radio more important now than ever,
is the medium of communication with the apparent transformation
that attracts the attention of the of the sector as it continues to con-
national population, the industry verge with the telecommunica-
is by and large an oligopoly. tions industry.
Its ownership is in very view A competitive broadcasting reg-
hands of the ruling elite. The com- ulatory framework is an opportu-
ing in of two national commer- nity for government to embrace
cial broadcasting stations in 2012, the benefits of the expansion and
namely Star FM and ZiFM Stereo, impact of radio services in Zimba-
broke the monopoly of the Zim- bwe through alternative transmis-
babwe Broadcasting Corporation sion and reception of broadcasts to
(ZBC) and created an impression the entire population.
of the dawn of new era in broad- The BSA must be replaced by a
casting. law that among other critical is-
Yet a closer look of ownership sues, converges the regulation of
points back to the ruling elite and the broadcasting and telecommu-
government owned companies. nications sectors, guards against
The same is true for the urban- monopolies through cross owner-
based provincial commercial radio ship and allows for periodic appli-
stations which added a semblance cations for broadcasting services.
of diversity to Zimbabwe’s radio That way diverse radio broad-
sector through decentralisation. casting will be made available to
Unfortunately, the ownership, a cross section of interest and ge-
content and editorial policy of the ographic communities in Zimba-
radio stations does not reflect di- bwe.
versity in most cases. Liberalised radio broadcasting
The majority of the radio li- services have the potential to stim-
censed whose operations com- ulate the country’s socio-economic
menced in 2015, fall under state- and political developmental thrust
controlled, Zimpapers Group. as the citizens make informed de-
These include Harare Metropol- cisions and contribute towards the
itan’s CapiTalk FM, Mutare’s Dia- national debates.
mond FM and Kariba’s Nyaminy- — Misa
X14 NewsDay | Friday June 15 2018
SKYZ METRO FM SUPPLEMENT
Solatek congratulates Skyz
T
he managing direc- 2018. Skyz Metro FM. Our branch network is set both the east and the south
tor and founder of So- They say that birds of the same These we have been proud- up for your convenience with; equally. Call 0026329273366/7
latek Marketing Melu- feather fly together. Our mis- ly rubbing shoulders with. It Kelvin branch being the main and 0026329261965
si S Moyo and the rest sion statement clarifies that its goes without saying that hav- branch, located on 13997 Ze- Gwanda branch is the mid-
of the family would like achievement is through smart ing been associating with such nzele Cresent Kelvin North, dle of, arguably, the busiest
to congratulate Skyz Metro FM on synergies with strategic partners winners (currently our cus- Bulawayo and is right in the road in the country connect-
winning the Outstanding Main- — and such partners are all our tomers are enjoying an array middle of Bulawayo’s four bus- ing Southern African Devel-
stream Media award at the BAA’s valued customers and the likes of of prizes from concurrently iest taxi routes, that is, Khami opment Community to the
running promotions) it natu- Road for those who commute South African Beitbridge bor-
rally followed that the covet- between the city centre and der. This one serves as a re-
ed Zimbabwe National Cham- the likes of Pumula South, lief those who had travel all
ber of Commerce Matabele- Mpopoma and Nkulumane. the way back to Musina or
land Small-to-Medium Enter- Hyde Park Road for those Bulawayo whenever there
prises of the Year award last who commute between the had been a breakdown. Call
Friday be awarded to Solatek city centre and the likes of 00263774335787
Marketing. Mpopoma, Iminyela, Mabuth- Ongoing drastic price re-
This is an achievement that weni, Pelandaba, Lobengula duction exercise
truly humbles and at the same Extension, Magwegwe and the We have reduced our prices
time challenges us to dig more Pumulas. drastically across the board.
into our potential in giving Nketa Drive for those who For instance, piston rings for
our customers and all oth- commute from D’Square Pulsar 1300s Sentra 1,3 GL and
er stakeholders what they de- through Mpopoma, Tshabala- Langley 1300GL were cut from
serve. la and Nkulumane to Emgan- $51 to $31, just for you.
In this season of winning do wini. Notable price reductions are
not be left out. Buy from So- Masiyephambili Drive for also in piston rings for Nissan
latek and stand a chance to connecting Emganwini, Nku- GA14DS GA15 (from $87 to $57),
win one of the following priz- lumane, Nketa, Tshabalala, Mazda 323 E3 ($33 from $53),
es, T’s and C’s apply, courte- Pelandaba, Magwegwe, Loben- Mazda 323 E5 13 (from $40 to
sy of Engen Lubes and HP gula, Emakhandeni, Luveve $26), Mazda F6 ($38 from $56),
Lubes t/a Castrol, a smart- and Cowdray Park. Mazda B3 (from $56 to $39), Ford
phone, a braai set, a bluetooth Second Avenue and 13th Av- or Mazda B2200 R2 (from $105 to
car set, a car shade, a solar enue branches are both two $72), Mazda B25 WL (from $127
lantern, a cap and a T-shirt. avenues into town from either to $83), Toyota 4Y ($29 from $43)
Found out more on these and side of town so as to reach out and Toyota 2L (from $89 to $54).
more via our App/Call Hotline to both south and north equal- Pistons with rings for Toy-
+263785036577. For a truly out- ly. They also are both on Jason ota 4Y are currently pegged
standing customer experience Moyo Street, the very middle at $29 from $45, while big end
pay us a visit. street among the eleven city bearings for Toyota 1RZ are $29
Where can you find us? centre streets, so as to serve from $44.
WITH SOLATEK “YOU DRIVE HOME”
Mr Melusi S. Moyo the Managing Director and
Founder of Solatek Marketing and the rest of the
Solatek family would like to congratulate SKYZ
METRO on winning the OUTSTANDING
MAINSTREAM MEDIA AWARD at the BAA's 2018.
Visit us at: 13997 Zenzele Cres, Kelvin North, Bulawayo
Cnr 2nd Avenue & Jason Moyo, Bulawayo
Cnr 13th Avenue & Jason Moyo, Bulawayo
Marpac Complex, Gwanda
Hotline: +263 785 036 577
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