The pioneers of FM radio

Roger Mugisha
On 29, July 1996 Roger Mugisha made his way to Radio Sanyu. He had just joined Makerere University and was friends with Robert Ogwal, famously known as Rasta Rob MC. He kept in company of Rasta Rob whose bag he carried.

Radio Sanyu had brought the glamour of FM entertainment to Kampala. It played the latest music and aired information tailored to a young audience. Mugisha had met Rasta Rob at Peter Sematimba’s Dungeon Studios, the then top recording studio. He voiced advertisements and did any other gig that was required of him.
Soon there was a massive walk out by workers from Sanyu and Mugisha found placement there.

“When Rasta Rob and the others left, I was taken on as a presenter,” Mugisha recalls.

Sematimba liked Mugisha’s voice when he voiced adverts at his studio. “He had even promised me a job when Radio Buganda, which later became Central Broadcasting Service (CBS), opened,” Mugisha recalls.
But Sanyu came first. “Marion Etiang-Busingye, who was General Manager at Sanyu, gave me a chance to try out,” the 36-year-old presenter recounts. He took the opportunity by creating a niche with his signature voice, charisma, humour and a grasp of love issues.

Mugisha was bold on radio. One night, he opened up to the world about Sharon Mazowe, his girlfriend then. Talking about their affair was bringing private matters to the public and not many people could do it at the time.

With the fame (and notoriety), Mugisha rebranded and became ‘The Shadow,’ a title that allowed the world see his other side as an entertainer.
His radio journey began at Sanyu in July 1996 but took him to Capital Radio and then to Kfm, where he is today.
Christine Mawadri
She is currently the Programmes Director at Sanyu FM, a position she takes on 20 years after she first stepped in the station. Christine Mawadri was one of the first presenters at Sanyu.

“I first went on air towards the end of December 1994. I had just left Makerere University, looking for exciting opportunities and radio was one of them,” she recalls.

At university she had done Fine Art. When Sanyu opened, she went for a voice test which she passed and was taken on. Her first day on air. “It was a mixture of nervousness and excitement because I could not believe I was talking on the microphone,” Mawadri recounts.

“During orientation, we were given a 360-degree perspective to radio. Your voice just got you through the door but you had to bring something new to the table.

At the time the audience had been listening to Radio Uganda, BBC and Voice of America and were widely read. You could not go on radio to become a continuity announcer,” she explains, adding: “Since internet was a rare privilege, we read any magazine we laid hands on.”

Mawadri worked at Sanyu up to May 1995 when the headhunters at Capital FM took her and offered her almost 12 times her previous pay. Sanyu introduced Mawadri to radio and Capital built her brand as a star presenter.

“At Capital I found systems that had to be adhered to. There was a Programmes Director (Hubb Gale), and I attribute much of my radio experience to him. At Sanyu, I could manipulate the playlist but at Capital it was researched,” she adds.

Mawadri replaced Peter Sematimba on the Hot 7 at Seven, which she did for a few months, around the time Irene Ochwo left.

“It is not easy to get chemistry with a co-presenter despite your differences, and getting it right to the point of appealing to your audience,” she explains about her debut Capital FM’s Big Breakfast show.
Alex-Christine tag team was a strong because they were creative.
Mawadri says radio has moved from just you and your radio set to you and your phone because you have headsets and internet plus other competing gadgets.

Chris Ireland
He joined Radio Sanyu as an accountant before the radio went on air. When the equipment arrived and John Katto started looking for presenters, Ireland presented himself and was given the opportunity.

“I had a lot of knowledge about music because I come from a family of musicians. My father performed in the British governor’s band,” he says. Born in South India, he is Anglo-Indian.

“Recently, I walked into a radio studio and everything was written on the blackboard. They were like robots. In our time, people tuned in for the personality. If people liked Alex they would tune in to listen to him,” Ireland compares the times. As a soothing presenter, Ireland broke out with the nickname Darling Deejay Chris.

“At that time we did not have specific programmes. Gradually, Katto learnt that they had to have specific programmes and presenters rather than play music. Sanyu recruited more deejays like the late Chazio, Rasta Rob, Mawadri then, Alex and I were fired on New Year’s Eve,” Ireland recounts.

He says Alex was out deejaying and he (Ireland) was doing the
New Year’s Eve show.

“Alex was supposed to start the six o’clock show the next morning and I would do the nine o’clock show. He did not make it and I was not there either. When I reported, Katto told me he did not want us anymore. I remember, CTV had come to do filming about radio in Uganda and they were filming us not knowing we had been fired,” Ireland says.

Radio then was an infectious part of life. Ndawula and Ireland would do end of year shows live on radio and people tuned in. They would use sound effects to make listeners believe they were swarmed with crowds in studio.

“People asked , ‘where is the party, can we come?’ And we were in studio. We were almost free to say what we wanted to say. I think some people did not like Alex because he said what he felt,” 45-year-old Ireland adds.
His career in radio ended when the Madhvani Group offered him a job as sales representative.

Rasta Rob MC
At the time when every presenter felt good about presenting in English, Rasta Rob MC decided to be different. He did his thing in Luganda, Swahili, Langi and a bit of English, and he was energetic.

The Spectrum Show, 6-9pm on Sanyu FM was unlike any other at the time. It sought to speak to the radio listeners downtown on a station that largely spoke to the urban youth.

“There were four of us; Alex Ndawula, Chris Ireland and Chazio, at Radio Sanyu, the first FM radio station in Uganda,” he states.
He was one of the celebrities radio made. In his signature round shades, faded jeans and jacket, Rasta Rob would park his Toyota Levin and stand at a street corner and a crowd starts to form.

Perhaps swag dates back to celebrities like him. He went on to join motor rallying and before we knew it he was gone. He was originally a club deejay at Charlie Lubega’s Ange Noir and Soul Disco.

In fact it was Lubega who told Rasta Rob about Sanyu’s opening. “He told me I should go do an interview and see what happens. So I went and saw John Katto. He was station the manager. When I introduced myself he said I was the kind of person he needed,” Rasta Rob, born Robert Ogwal, recollects.

Katto asked Rob to record a demo which was a piece of cake for him. “So I went and did a tape and I took it to him. Katto was impressed and I was hired. I was very excited,” Rob recalls.

He was nervous the first time he went on air. “I even mis-introduced the first song I played on air. I was excited and confused.”
Years later, he left for the UK where he studied Broadcast Journalism. Life out there was tough because of the weather, plus the cultural challenges. To survive he would work in clubs out there. He returned in 2009 and now works at Super FM.