Radio personality, Mubanga Nkonde, on why radio is her first love

Female radio personality Mubanga Nkonde known as ‘The Black Koko’ says radio is still an effective means of reaching out to the masses.

She’s been indulged in radio for six years now, and shares her short journey down the road of what it takes to be a good radio presenter.

Nkonde says her passion for radio moved her to venture into it, regardless of the environment at the time.

“I have always been passionate about media, and when I was young I always dreamt of been a journalist doing news and radio, the time and opportunity I had to start doing radio was everything for me. I tried my luck in the Copperbelt with Sun FM but because my parents moved a lot so I had to relocate cities and moved to Kasama were I started doing radio with Northern Fm 90.1 for a year, then I came to Kabwe were I joined Power FM, the people’s station,” she says.

Nkonde revealed that being able to express and connect with the masses on a different level was one thing she loved about radio.

“What I love about radio presenting is that it gives me the opportunity to speak to masses, to connect with a lot of people on a different level, and feel trusted by someone to give you accurate news and also gives me the opportunity to express myself personally in a way that I can’t explain myself to individuals, so it gives me a chance to express myself to a different type of people as a whole,” she says.

Nkonde says being a radio presenter is far off from pretending to have a good ascent, but stressed that expressing yourself in a way that affects the listener was more important.

“Being a good radio presenter is all about trusting yourself, being you, not trying to hard, and a lot of people think that being a good radio presenter is about faking your ascent and doing things that other people wouldn’t understand, and people attach it to a lot of things but I feel its about being yourself and expressing yourself the
way you could talk to a friend, so you talk to the people just as you talk to your best friend, and that’s something I love about it,” she says.

She says that radio has continued to make strides in the media facet in Zambia, as it is still effective in the manner in which it reaches the masses.

“I think radio is actually very effective, because a lot of people like to listen to radio especially in the rural areas, its like radio has the power to change people’s mind sets as when one hears a song on the radio, by the end of the day a lot of people are listening to it because they heard it from radio, so I feel it has a positive effect,” she says.

Nkonde urged all who were aspiring to become radio presenters to keep pushing as the sky was not the limit.

“The sky is never the limit, there is always another level of your limit, you can always be what you want to be as long as you put your mind to it. One friend told me, you are who you want to be, so every time you set your mind on something, make sure you do the best that you can.

“Being a radio presenter has taught me that you have to train yourself to do better than yesterday,” she says.

Contributed by Harbguy Mwambazi

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