When radio ‘slept’ at midnight and ‘woke up’ in the morning

By Franko Kundu

When I was still young, pictures were black and white and cameramen were very few. Then I fell in love with radio yaani redio.

The gadget was limited to very few grown up people those days. The one in the picture below is a Philips brand.

My father, Daniel Lusaka had bought two of them while working for the defunct East African Posts and Telecommunication Corporation near Rang’ala in the now Siaya County.

Other radio brands in the market then included Sanyo. It was sort of a wooden box with a plastic pipe to hold the batteries. Eveready was the power that gave life to the radio.

Later on while in primary school in Bungoma I would listen to the whole news bulletins at home then update my classmates the following day during break time.

They liked it so much to an extend that some nicknamed me, “redio bila makaa.”

That way, we came to appreciate pure languages (English and Kiswahili), the geography and current affairs. Sheng was not for us.

I remember those days when radio would also fall ‘asleep’ at midnight after a day’s service to the nation before ‘waking up’ at 5am the following day.

The whole country remained silent for five hours of the night.

Then radio and listerners woke up the same time to contribute to “ujenzi wa taifa. Amkeni kumekucha” was almost the signature tune of Sauti ya Kenya or Voice of Kenya.

There was this audio signal tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, that was played for about ten minutes at 4am before the continuity announcer’s voice was heard.

It could be Anunda Sakwa, the late Bill Omalla, Gladys Erude now based in the US, the late brother Said Ali Matano then veteran news readers like Martin Nyongesa King’asia among others.

Later on when I joined Kenya Institute of Mass Communication, my technical lecturer told me tiiiiiiiiii sound is called a 1kilohert tone.

Its primary duty was to balance audio imput prior to live transmission.

Then the announcer proceeded to inform listeners about “masafa marefu na kadhalika”

“Wasikilizaji wetu wa Kisumu itimiapo saa tatu badilisheni mitabendi kutoka kilohertz hii hadi nyingine”; the announcer would advise.

Otherwise your radio would go mute later on. FM was not there.

Just like we have Jogoo House, Takwimu House, Sheria House, Mtihani House, Utalii House, Maji House, Mazingira House, we had only one Broadcasting House in Kenya established around 1928 along Harry Thuku road.

It was KBS. It changed to VOK then KBC in 1989 through an Act of Parliament.

Other media houses too have their own good names.

I thought you should know: What does FM stand for, if I may ask?

You can also Read MEDIA REVIEW: What bleeds no longer leads