| :: CNBC Africa upon us
12 May 2008
CNBC Africa, the new
station is finally 24/7. Yay. I have been watching this station
when they were still only on KBC.
They had a one hour segment every day from 9am to 10am. This was
always quite enjoyable to watch. The show has several segments
and I used to enjoy watching it religiously (translated: when
I could if you figure that the bloody show is on in the early
morning). That breakfast show is a business one and CNBC really
has branded itself in my eyes as the business network for the
peeps.
Apart from the usual business news and information from the main
bourse Nairobi Jo'burg and Lagos my favourite segment had to be
Peter Ndoro a Miro in the South Africa studio
would ask what the main stories from Richard Crompton
an Odiero in Nairobi. Crompton also doubles as the Nairobi Bureau
chief for CNBC Africa. It was always great to watch and the Crompton
fellow always picked some pretty cool stories about what was happening.
He may not be Kenyan but the pal definitely has a passion for
this country and it translated in his newspaper review. And at
least he would give a review of stories from ALL newspapers (yup
that includes the Nairobi Star) which was great. Ndoro also tried
his best to appeal to his audience and looked to trying to learn
Swahili and would always start his show with a hearty "Jambo!"
I wish that someone would please tell him that once you utter
the word jambo in this city, we all go into tourist alert and
give a great fake smile. When we are conversing in Sheng (NOBODY
in Nairobi speaks that strange tongue Swahili) we would probably
start a conversation with Sasa or Niaje (refer to the Kenya's
guide to Kenya by a Kenyan). Any way it was a pretty cool partnership
like Maina and King’angi in the morning on Classic.
Another good part would be to listen to a Nigerian correspondent
(woiyee I have tried remembering his name but with no avail).
The guy has some pretty good energy as he introduced us to Nigeria.
That pal alone has made realise that perhaps western media has
given that country a pretty bad rap. Whoever your name is dude
is, now I have psyche to visit the "heart of Africa"
(although is we must talk about semantics, Kenya is the heart
of Africa and if you don't believe me we can get into a whole
argument which I assure you you will lose). The final part of
that morning show was horrible! They had this horrible woman who
would interview business leaders just before they opened the Jo'burg
Securities exchange (hoping I go that right). The poor dudes (they
never seemed to be women) would try to get in a word in edgewise
as she would give her gospel on what she thought was ailing the
SA economy or what was right. All of her interviews seemed to
have the same script. She introduces her guest and throughout
the show, the guest would try and get to a word in edgewise and
eventually give up and join the rest of us as she waxed on and
on about whatever. It was not pretty my guy.
CNBC also had a screening of "Kenya This week" every
week on Saturday at 4pm (I think). I would watch this assuming
my Arsenal schedule allowed seeing as it was presented by Terry
Anne Chebet. I have been watching her career as she walked
the boards at phoenix and to KBC all the way to CNBC. And CNBC
really couldn't nave picked someone with more passion to run the
show (except perhaps Junior, Wasanii bar's favourite son).Off
course I had some advance knowledge that CNBC Africa was on its
way in a more full time capacity than what that twice a week.
The aforementioned Terry Anne had invited me for a cocktail by
CNBC in December at the Palacina and I wasn't really planning
on missing it. First thing I learnt was that Palacina is not a
drinking venue. The place people were drinking were in actual
fact the Moon place some random Chinese restaurant behind the
Palacina apartments in the Hurlingham area. I ran into a few CNBC
Africa ushers who werocamud (welcomed!) us to the place. And whilst
here, Terry Anne introduced me to Richard Crompton the gentleman
that made me see my city every morning in a different way. I also
met quite a few people but the core of the audience was CNBC Africa,
Capital FM and their clients especially in the media buyer categories.
It was a great time at the place and I was grateful for the invitation.
They launched officially their new TV at the Serena in March
and I missed the event. Partly because I was at the Mtandariko
and partly (I suspect) I had finally been written off as the dude
who catalogues life in Nairobi. I did watch a bit of that week
of "Kenya This Week" and they did a special show about
their launch. Every business personality seemed to be at the Serena
that Thursday. I'm pretty sure I saw Michael Joseph
(of Safaricom
silly!) and US Ambassador Michael Rannenburger
(who looks like if he had his way would have Kenya as the 51st
state)on the show. I saw a few other fellows I refuse to commit
to seeing as I am making this posting so long after that event.
Now that CBNC Africa is a 24 hour channel what do they have on
offer. Business to the max. So much business that if you are a
normal human being you can only take so much of the channel at
a go. The channel has not one but two tickers crossing the bottom
of the screen giving stock information from all over the world.
They have loads of TV shows (proving that 24 hours is a long long
time) and they have feeds with CNBC Europe and CNBC in the US
too. It’s a valuable resource for those who need to plug
into world business in a different way.
And off course during the weekend, they have the ever popular
Jay Leno marathon where you watch several episodes of “The
Tonight Show with Jay Leno”. The marathon ends with an episode
of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien that strange Irish American
fellow who has all the coolest guests and is strangely compelling
watching.
One of my favourite things is during breaks in shows. Apart from
the numerous charts which show different currencies against one
another say Rand Versus Dollar or Rand Vs Yen (They seem to love
the Rand these CNBC fellows... it will be your ultimate downfall
if you are claiming to be African), they have more. They have
these small segments where they show wild animals and then tell
you how to operate. It’s hard to explain till you see it.
For instance, you will see an image of a huge shark looking ominous
and then you get a small tagline saying, “be a big fish.”
Or a cheetah chasing some game and then at the corner of the screen
you see the words, “focused, precise, effective.”
Good stuff!
There is so much more that channel has offer and I really will
not spend the rest of my evening cataloguing them. Try their
website. One unique feature of the TV channel (this is me
doing the review after all) you wonder is perhaps they named it
all wrong. They would probably should have called it PYT Africa.
Apart from that weird gadget guy (which I figure no girl in her
right mind would have auditioned for) most shows are presented
by Pretty Young Things (PYT's) from "Kenya This Week"
with luscious Terry Anne to "Nigeria This Week" with
one hot sexy Naija lady. And there is that Red Carpet Babe (show
is pretty cool for lifestyle watchers) and the Kaleidoscope one.
Every show on has a PYT! I am not complaining.
So should you watch CNBC Africa? Why by all means yes. It’s
really international. I can see them fighting it but the channel
is very South Africa centric but don't hold it against them. Yet....
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