Ghetto Radio: Giving a voice to the youth and keeping it real

Ghetto Radio. From the name, you can tell it does not target the same audience as majority of radio stations in the country.

Everybody wants to target the youth but no one does it quite like Ghetto Radio. Their target audience is the youth all right, but those on the lower end of the economic spectrum.

To them, this is not a public relations scheme, they stay true to the ghettos and you can tell from the people who sell the shows – the presenters.

Listen to any show and you will instantly feel the difference. There are no fancy foreign or borrowed accents here; street slang reigns supreme. And if you want to know how old you are, listen for just 10 minutes.

Ghetto Radio is “street” to the core. Its presenters are youth who grew up in areas such as Mathare, Ziwani, Kibera, Majengo and Dandora.

Where else do you get presenters with names like Rangi ya Thao, Rapcha tha Sayantist, X-Domain or Cafulicious or show names like Niaje Niaje, Goteana na Ghetto Radio and Fika Mtaani?

A walk into their studio just shows you this is not your usual fancy multi-million shilling affair. Here, refurbished computers placed on tables – not desks – are what the presenters and reporters use to do their research and file their stories.

Contrary to what you would expect from a station called Ghetto Radio, there is order and professionalism and leading this group of upcoming professionals is Mwafrika aka Mwaf, a well known Kenyan freestyle underground rapper turned radio presenter. Mwaf hosts the morning show with Rapcha, the station’s funny man.

Set up in 2006 as a youth station, Ghetto Radio’s aim was to represent youths from the slums and other lower end estates.

According to Mwaf, the station targets youth of up to 24 years and their aim is to give voice to those who do not enjoy the comfort of the suburbs.

“We are part of the Ghetto Radio Foundation based in Holland, whose aim is to have such stations across Africa and they started in Kenya before they roll out to South Africa, Senegal, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Uganda,” says Mwaf.

“We are society driven, we check out the trends and happenings and how they impact on the youth and try to make sense of them.”

The station’s funding comes from Oxfam Novi and the Doen Foundation while their equipment and technical support is provided by FunX and 3FM, stations based in The Netherlands. Their frequency, 89.5, is owned by Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC).

“Here, we keep it real, from the music to the talk, we tell it as is and we do not sugar-coat the issues. We are giving the youth a voice and we have to be real with them,” says Mwafrika.

“We also look at issues differently. When we talk about say, Mariga, we talk about the school where he started his passion – Kamukunji – and we go there and try to talk to the people, we localise the story down to the roots.”

He says the recruiting of presenters was based on talent but having grown up in the ghetto was an added advantage.

“You must have grown up in the kind of neighbourhoods we represent,” he says.

“You cannot talk about the ghetto if you haven’t experienced them, and that is why we wanted people our audience would relate to.”

Initial challenges included removing the negative connotations the name is associated with and getting talent.

“People associate the name ghetto with poverty, crime and other ills, and we knew we had a peculiar name in a way. To tell people we are not ghetto, we have ambitions and are skilled and professional,” he adds.

Mwaf owes his entry to Ghetto Radio to Angel Wainaina, the actress and radio presenter who was killed last year in the Nakumatt Downtown fire tragedy.

“I was at Y-FM and I was contemplating quitting radio when she told me about the station saying she thought I would fit in perfectly. I followed her advice and went to Holland for three months where I had intensive training on radio, especially this market. And here I am,” he says.

Its donors

The station has been on the rise and Mwafrika foresees Ghetto Radio being independent from its donors in as early as next year if the current trend continues.

One of the station’s fiercest rivals is Homeboyz Radio, a youth station owned by the Homeboyz Deejays outfit.

“We do compete with Homeboyz because we all target the youth but unlike them, we target the lower end youths while they go for uptown. We respect them and we are always learning a thing or two from them. I hope they do the same from us,” he says.

Some of their successes can be linked to the Safaricom advertisement which featured Mwafrika and Rapcha. Mwaf says this must be a sign that advertisers have seen an avenue to reach the youth.

“Our audience has broadened, we have uptown youths tuning in and, by default, people with Japanese cars with the AM frequency can tune in to 89.5 because that’s where it ends,” he says smiling.

He says the future is bright and foresees a major growth in the coming future.

Even then, he says, the station will remain true to its objective: giving the youth a credible voice.

pmwaniki@ke.nationmedia.com