One FM’s Tina Kaggia: Doing her bit to build Kenya’s entertainment industry

I’ve just had the pleasure of having an afternoon tet-a-tet with the beautiful Tina Kaggia about a myriad of topics.

One of the said topics that we discussed was the fact that Kenyan emcees feel that our local stations do not show own love. I put her to task to explain why this is the case if indeed it is.

She calmly explained to me that while indeed this has been the case for a long time, (even MCSK gave a report that stated the same) but according to her, One FM is not in the business of discriminating against our own.

Not one to be easily put off by a simple answer, i pressed on. What exactly are One FM’s criteria for what it considers to be good music? What exactly does good music entail?

I was rather shocked to find out that One FM’s only criteria is quality. If the song is of good sound quality, it doesn’t matter what language you sing it in, it will be played. Ofcourse there was the simple matter of whether or not the song would fall under the “urban” banner but that is no deterrent.

I was actually taken aback! And when she realised just how unconvinced i was (i mean, really? Certain anonymous stations that exclusively play foreign music had me thinking otherwise) then the rest of the lads in the office chimed in there agreement with what Tina was asserting.

Apparently, my radio ignorance didn’t allow me to see the truth but Tina Kaggia is clearly doing her bit for the entertainment industry. When the truth is told, very few radio presenters will be remembered for building the homegrown talent.

That means that if you have some music, aslong as it is quality music -not a pair of gorilla banging their heads against drums, you need to get it to One FM, have it earmarked for the lovely Tina and have all your friends listen in.