BEN KANGWA looks at  best practices of music presentation on radio

FROM the onset, I want to state that playing music as a DJ at a disco house or at a function is totally different compared to playing music on radio.
A disco house would usually attract people who enjoy listening to a majority particular type of music. The person in charge of playing the music would usually “play the beat according to the mood in the house.”  It is “free style”. The freedom of what to do and say whether correctly or wrongly is far too wide.
In the mid 1980s, I was once assigned to do a story on fashion and disco by my editor at the Zambia Daily Mail when I was doing my journalism internship.
I visited a place that was heavily crowded with all sorts dressed up disco enthusiasts happily dancing away.
The dance floor was lit with psychedelic lights and special effects of theatrical smoke and fog, music was blurring and none of revellers cared less about the DJ except for the music.
Soon the DJ would increase the volume to a distorted level and at some point make some weird unexpected announcements that had no place for this gathering.
Worse still, the DJ would unexpectedly cross fade one song to the other at will and talk over songs the first groove to the last.
Not all DJs are the same. On the other side of town, there would be another DJ who would be completely the opposite of where I would have been first.
This would be a lady DJ who would keep the music levels at acceptable standards, who would smoothly change the ‘beat’ without interference, who would make right announcements at the right and would not use phrases that would be out of place.
For a radio music presenter, music is played for an imagined audience whose taste is different. What may appeal to one listener may not appeal to the other.
The need to play music that will generally cut across different listeners comes into play. Time of broadcast is also very critical.
Is the show in the early morning as in a breakfast show? If it is, then it would be fast paced and punctuated with quick announcements.
If it is a show that would be presented during lunch break, the music would ordinarily be smooth or would it be “drive time” when a majority of listeners are commuting back to their homes?
After taking all this into consideration, the next step would be to prepare a playlist, pre-listen the music to be played “knock out” a script to fit in with the broadcast time.
The use of scripts is very important as it guides the music presenter as to how the show will start, what will be said before the next song is played, when and at what point an announcement would be made, when the next commercial spot would be played and finally how the programme will end.
The more music presenters make use of scripts, the more they sound professional and the more they avoid the use of the same words and phrases during a musical presentation.
Exposure as to how other music presenters locally and internationally ‘do their thing’ is also a best teacher as it helps in knowing the best practices of music presentation.
To illustrate the do’s and don’ts of a radio music presenter, I wish to draw from my personal experience.
I remember as a young teenager listening to the LM Hit Parade broadcast from Lourenco Marques Radio (LM Radio) in Mozambique.
I would also tune to Radio 5 from South Africa and Radio 3 from Salisbury (now Harare) on a two band transistor radio.
I just could not resist the temptation of falling in love with radio and more so musical programmes.
My favourite music presenter was Brian Matthew of the famed ‘Top of the Pops’, a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Transcription Service programme that was broadcast by radio stations around the world including Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC).
He was and is the best example of how a good radio music presenter should be. His opening and closing theme of Top of the Pops was a Commodores song ‘Machine Gun’.
Brian used his voice under the theme (Voice under as it is called) introducing the songs for the programme in an effortless and smooth manner, leaving an impression to many upcoming music presenters across the globe.
As my love affair with music radio blossomed, it was presenters such as the ‘Groove Maker’ Leonard Kantumoya with his fast-foot stomping rythmes and rhymes early ‘breakfast show’ that made me realise that one could learn much more than just music on radio.
The ‘Groove Maker’ was very rich in English vocabulary.
I also could not have imagined waking up and going to school  without listening to Fred Chunga’s show featuring the Beatles, Elvis Presely or the Everley Brothers, Joseph Kuluneta with a blend of country and rock music, Monday morning’s ‘Happy Boy’ Peter Mweemba always ready to throw in a Thin Lizzy’s ‘The Boys Are Back in Town, cool Harold Besa with Abba’s ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’ Other members of the team  included, ‘Beat Master’ Emmanuel Kunda, ‘Reggae Master’ Marc Boti, Folk tress Margaret Zimba Phiri, Doris Mulenga was much more inclined to Van Morrison songs. ‘Son of Law’, Lawson Chishimba was a Van Halen fan.
Most of all, it was listening to Matteo Phiri, popularly known as ‘Matt P’ that made me realize that a lot of radio music presentation is about pace; it is as much about silence as it is about sound.
It is about ‘talking the script and not reading the script’. The ‘Schweppes’ radio show presented by the ‘Phiri boys’, that was Matteo and Mannasseh Phiri had the language, the chemistry, the jokes, the sighs, the laughter and the phrases, all well scripted. They spoke naturally as though they had no scripts to read from.
Most gifted presenters can say little, yet have the listener hanging on every word. Matt P is a lesson to upcoming radio music presenters on how to connect with people.
If you look back, his listeners have lived and still live through some of the most creative and entertaining moments in Zambia’s radio’s history since Independence.
Take for instance the use of the phrase “Kukambasitilesa, manjekakambidwe” and many other phrases in similar fashion such as “Don’t argue, you were not there!” Add the Pick-A-Lot show with a Congolese mimic ‘Jose’ that also attracted a lot of listenership for the Zambia Broadcasting Services and more revenue for the sponsors.
The late multi-talented Timmy Mvula towered the whole radio entertainment and vigorously campaigned for and promoted Zambian music.
Who could fail to be moved by a letter request programme “This Is My Song” whose theme started with a 1979 Charlie Dore hit single ‘Pilot of the Airwaves’ whose 15 seconds lyrics were as follows: “Pilot of the airwaves, here is my request. You don’t have to play it, but I hope you will do your best. I have been listening to your show on the radio, and you seem like a friend to me.” The programme ran for more than ten years nonstop.
By the time Mvula passed on, more than 5000 “This Is My Song “ letter requests were in his office file to be read but this was never to be and instead they were stored in the ZNBC archives in the hope some other music presenter would pick up the pieces were he left.
What lessons then can the hundreds of music presenters on radio in Zambia learn from the players of yester-year.
Swithiin Hangaala, a seasoned broadcaster and Chairperson of Zambezi FM believes that   research on the music, on the musicians to be featured is a must.
“Music presenters need to have a lot of information on the artistes they feature. It is not good to just introduce and back announce a song and move to the next one.
Creativity is the key to pleasant listening and to growing listenership. Practice makes perfect. I would urge the music presenters to rehearse and if possible record dummy programmes which they can listen to in order to improve.”
Ben Kangwa is a broadcast journalist and media consultant
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If only those who read news on radio understood the gravity of casting the news for the masses, they would be more serious.
According to last week’s guidelines from Ben Kangwa; “The responsibility that the radio station carries in the process of finally making the announcement is one that eventually rests on the newscaster or news presenter.
The newscaster communicates the news as accurately and in a simple manner to the listener.To be successful, a newscaster needs good communication skills including an easily understandable “on-air” delivery.
The news presenter also needs to be professional and most importantly ‘sound trustworthy.”
By this definition, radio fans would confirm the mediocrity that has gone on air for most private radio stations.
Other key tips include; Newscasters make sure they got familiar with pronunciation of new words and names.
Mispronouncing local and foreign names is the worst thing a worthy newscaster can do.
Radio 1
This column joined many fans of Ifyabukaya bemba radio drama programme in morning Elizabeth Nanda who played Bana Modedi, she died and was buried on February 4, 2015.
Death has robbed radio yet another voice, may her soul rest in peace.
Radio 2
Patrick Nyangulu kept radio fans abreast of what was happening at the just-ended Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals.
Wherever Patrick could have been reporting from, the sound effects were as clear as if coming live from the stadium. It was quite an innovation for ZNBC to cater for those who could not watch the matches on television.
BBC
As the AFCON progressed, the BBC was live with commentaries from Equatorial Guinea, it was interesting to hear English commentators pronounce African names accurately.
Hope our local broadcasters can learn to accurately call out names correctly rather than sounding like they do not speak local languages.
PHOENIX
Alif Kalipinde presented a different touch of Gospel Show last Sunday playing danceable tunes, different from Paddy Mukando’s selection.
ICENGELO
What happened to Secrets of Success programme which is aired on Sundays at 09:00 hours on Radio Icengelo?
RADIO DAY
February 13, is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Radio Day aimed at celebrating radio, why we love it and why we need it today more than ever.
It is a day to remember the unique power of radio to touch lives and bring people together across every corner of the globe.
This year’s theme; Youth and Radio is, therefore, appropriate especially that there more youths involved in radio as presenters, producers and deejays today than before. We join in celebration!
Stay tuned, don’t touch that dial! – jackmwewa@gmail.com 0955115777