By Spy Uganda
For decades, old and experienced presenters have been overrated and paid 10 times higher than ‘up-coming’ ones. But now, with new technologies emerging every day, these old folks are finding it difficult to compete with the new kids on the block. Because their brains may not grasp these techs as fast as their youthful mates. This was actually more emphasized in Next Media CEO Kin Kariisa’s short but precise statement that saw over 30 workers slashed. Kin, after slashing the old folks who had failed to transform with the current high-tech needs after several trials, surprised many when he again announced over 50 new job slots. Many had thought he simply wanted to reduce costs, but announcing new more jobs in the tech departments than those shut down, proved most critics wrong, because if he wanted to save, now here he was announcing more expenditures.
We also saw Nation Media Group (NMG) headquartered in Kenya, CNN among others take drastic, similar steps. Elon Musk of Twitter was even the first to go this way.
Now, this morning, the old but gold presenters at Kisementi-based radio station, Capital FM have started collecting their personal staff, seemingly preparing for very unpleasant information from the administration office anytime!
“Gwe, mwana, first tell me, most times Gaetano Kaggwa and @Lucky Mbabazi normally leave their personal belongings like headsets, and cups in their drawers, how come this time they’re moving with them in their cars?” Our well-placed Spy at Kisementi observed and later called us for an update following Patrick Quarcoo’s internal memo released this morning.
Quarcoo is the Chief Executive Officer of Capital FM and a partner with Pike.
The memo reads in part; ‘‘As you may have observed in the recent past, there has been a shift in the media industry over time forced us to make changes in our business model, to maintain our competitive company. As Management, we have been faced with a situation that requires critical business decisions made to ensure business continuity.”
It further adds, ”We will therefore be reorganizing our internal operation the process, we may declare numerous positions redundant based on the new structure. Further communication in this regard will be communicated by your respective Group HR Manager.”
Radio Africa Ltd owns a signature brand, Capital radio, Kenya’s Star Newspaper, East Africa Fm, Beat FM, Classic 105 FM, and recently launched Kiss Fm.
