| :: Capital FM's is 10th
25 September, 2006
Capital FM.
This is one of the biggest forces to reshape the Kenyan
cultural landscape over the last forty years. The contribution
of Capital FM is enormous. Where was Kenya before Capital
FM? I don’t like thinking about those dark days. In
those days there was only KBC
which had several frequencies broadcast to many groups.
They were the vernacular frequencies and then the National
frequencies. The National ones included National Service
that was broadcast in Swahili and the General Service that
had an English broadcast. Being Nairobi bred meant that
one listened to the General Service. I grew up listening
to Lunch time music, Sundowner, Late Date and other such
named radio shows. Lunch time music was on at Lunch time
(duh!) and featured instrumental type music. Sundowner was
songs by the likes of Abba (can you feel the drums Fernando?).
Late date was what Kenyans strangely refer to as blues but
the rest of the world refers to as ballads.
A personal favourite was John Karani with
Saturday Night Show (SNS). In this show John would play
the favourite songs from the last week. He had a popular
segment where he would dictate the words to the song of
the week. It was silly how some would compare notes on the
song they were dictated to last Saturday. Also popular was
Reggae time with "Crucial" Jeff Mwangemi.
|
|
Nameless should be kissing Lynda Holts big toe
|
In 1996 the airwaves were set to be freed from the government
monopoly. There was a new radio station that was meant to hit
the Kenyan airways and the rumour was that it was to be called
Capital FM. To counter this new threat to the government hegemony,
the mandarins at KBC started a new radio station they called Capital
FM. The new station was on twenty four hours a day, seven days
a week and had the latest music from around the world with an
emphasis on black American R & B and hip hop. It was an instant
success.
Meanwhile the private station that was being set up went to court
and to fight for the right to use the name Capital FM which they
had registered first. They got their name back and started broadcasting.
KBC had to choose a new name for their FM station and they chose
Metro. Thus begun one of
the greatest rivalries in media of the mid to the late 90's. It
was amazing how families would get into major arguments as to
whether they would listen to Metro or Capital FM. Capital FM came
with a whole new team to present their shows. They included the
likes of Bob Kioko, Phil Mathews, Caroline Mutoko
and more.
While Metro FM specialised in American oriented music with R&B
and hip hop, Capital went the other route and played rock and
other “white music”. They specialised in the music
of Oasis, The Corrs, Nirvana, Third Eye Blind and the like. For
the first time in Kenya’s history you could listen to the
radio and not have to be exposed to the likes of New Edition,
Atlantic Starr and the like. It was a new concept and was a huge
success.
KBC radio stations would before Capital days play mainly Lingala
as their African music offering. That was the main reason why
the biggest stars in Kenya were the likes of Franco, Pepe Kalle,
Kanda Bongoman, Arlus Mabele, Kofi Olomide and the like –
all Congolese. For African music, Capital FM flipped the script
on KBC and played the new Kenyan upstarts that would never make
it to KBC or Metro FM play lists. For this, I thank Capital FM
whole heartedly. This was the first place that many Kenyans heard
the likes of Kalamashaka, Hardstone, Shadez O’ Black,
Pete Odera, LYFE and other such Kenyan artists. In fact,
current heartthrob Nameless was discovered when
Muthoni Bwika ran a radio competition. The idea
was that listeners would call in and sing and Tedd Josiah
“the man who discovered Kalamashaka“ would select
one listener and do a single that would be played on radio. And
off course Nameless was the hands down winner with his “megarider”.
Capital FM weren’t just changing our music. They changed
the radio business for good. They brought the radio promo in to
Kenya. It wasn’t just Phil Mathews their
breakfast DJ calling people in the morning and yelling "amuka!"
into the phone. There was a method to their madness. The whole
idea was for listeners to call in a get a chance to win a prize.
One of the ways was to play a mystery voice on radio and then
listeners were asked to call in and identify the voice. The winner
was meant to win a small sum of money say Kshs500. If they failed
to win, the Kshs500 would be placed in a jackpot for the next
day. On day two a caller would be playing for Kshs1,000 and day
three Kshs1,500 and so on. As days went by and the jackpot grew,
it was amazing how dudes would go nuts as they tried to win. I
remember on one of the promos, I recognised Cher's voice in the
mystery voice competition. I paid no heed to it until I heard
that the prize money had gone up to 10,000/=. By the time that
the money was won (I gave up counting when the cash got to twenty
something thousand) I was an emotional wreck. I vowed never to
play a radio game ever again.
They also introduced a whole range and product and services with
their radio platform. They launched “Capital Scene”
a magazine, Capital Pagers, Capital Realtime a cybercafé
and more such ventures. They also had this Capital Crew that would
attend parties. The number of crazy new ideas coming out of the
Lynda Holt led radio station was amazing.
On a personal note my highest achievement as a Capital FM listener
was when my letter was read on air. I was so proud! Muthoni
Bwika had been unable to make it and a “new dude”
called Maina Kageni had done "hits not homework"
in her stead. I sent an email explaining how I was distraught
not hearing her on air the night before and she was so touched
by my letter she read it on air. Ever since that day, I have always
had a soft spot for Muthoni. You will never hear this author talking
negatively against the “queen of Nyahunyo” as she
was referred to in her capital FM days.
And as the years went by, new FM radio stations kept popping
up and these radio stations preferred using Capital FM presenters
as they were tried and tested. However Capital FM to their eternal
credit always seemed to be the ones to train and use new talent
even as their management and ownership changed. Case in point
Marcus and Leo before Leo left. Only Capital
FM would have had the guts to introduce a new concept with fresh
new voices hitherto unheard of before. Any other FM station would
have first asked where this fellow had been before they dare test
them. Capital FM guys are kinda like Arsene Wenger
the Arsenal Coach who always
seems to pick unknown talent and groom it to do amazing things
on the football pitch.
To Capital FM I say happy birthday. Keep on Keeping on. Thank
you for a decade of the radio revolution. I played 5678. I won’t
win jack I know but it’s the least I can do.
>> Related Links
:: Capital
FM
:: KBC
:: Metro
:: Arsenal
<< Back Home
| All Categories |
Talk to Nairobiliving.com! >>
|
