Radio presenters along with its employers have been ridiculed off late by Namibian musicians for not playing their music. You often hear musicians charging that radio presenters are subjective in their airplay, and that they are “haters”.
Let us take a rare (rare because musicians hardly seem to grasp the element of research) trip to Dr. Namwandi forte-EDUCATION! What is radio? Radio is the radiation (wireless transmission) of electromagnetic signals through the atmosphere or free space. ( Wikipedia) Every radio station has a target market. Define Target Market: A target market is a group of customers towards which a business has decided to aim its marketing efforts, and ultimately its merchandise. A well-defined target market is the first element to a marketing strategy (Google).
This said, musicians need to understand each radio stations’ target market. A musician specialising in Oviritje cannot expect Radio Wave to air their music regardless of how good or hyped the musician or their song is. A musician specialising in Rock cannot expect Damara Nama service to air their music regardless of how great or hyped the musician or their song is. We can go on all day with classic examples.
Still on the educational drive, musicians need to understand that every show has a target market. Dj Paulo Jordan from The Kizomba Music explosion show on Energy100fm will lose his job if station manager gets wind of him playing anything else but Kizomba, and its abstract genres. Nashawn from the Olupale Square on Unam Radio will be in the deep waters of Swakopmund if his station manager hears him play anything else but Namibian music. We can go on all day with classic examples. Musicians also need to understand that music selection is different from station to station. There are stations that have a programmer that dictates to the playlist. Other stations task the presenter to dictate to the playlist. Other stations solely rest it on the listeners to dictate to the playlist.
Musicians have a nasty habit of expecting every presenter to air their music. It’s practically impossible because we are yet to see a musician in Namibia that has all the genres in one album (unless it costs the consumer a N$1000.00-sartire). It is just ridiculously silly to think that your Hip Hop song will be aired during the death announcement slot on the Oshiwambo service.
Thus the key questions musicians should entertain before releasing a record are:
- Who am I targeting with this song/album
- Assuming that we have identified the target, which media house has access to my market?
- What are the procedures that one needs to follow to get your song aired?
Once you have these questions covered, everything will fall into place.
Song of the week: Female Donkey: axaba ne ba
Flop of the week: Atukatuka: Mwene
NSK is an awards-winning entertainer. Notable accolades are: a) UNAM RADIO 2011: Best New Comer Presenter of the year, b) UNAM RADIO 2011: Best Presenter of the year, c) NAMA’s 2014: Nominee for Entertainment DJ of the year and d) ENERGY100FM 2014: Best Presenter of the year.
@naobebsekind(twitter) NSK #GMTM (facebook)