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| Entertainment |
| What’s up DJs? |
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by
Our Reporter, 13 August 2004
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15:33:22
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“Hello Khola, what’s goin’ down!”
“Huh?,”
“I’m sayin’, what’ the hell’s going down,” blurts out the Disc Jockey, apparently oblivious to the fact the Khola (Caller) does not understand what he or she is saying.
And that’s a typical call-in programme from one of multiple radio stations in the country.
These days, if you tune in to the many radio stations in the country, you will be greeted by either a DJ, whose accent almost sounds that of an African-American or a song whose lyrics are a thorn in the flesh — not fit for public consumption, especially that children may pick up some of the swear words in the song, just among other things.
In fact, some have complained that some radio DJs lack seriousness in the way they handle programmes on the radio.
“Lately, the air-waves are no longer ear-pleasing as there is always the fear that a certain hyperactive DJ will say or play something inappropriate that will influence either unruly behaviour, loss of dignity or self-respect,” complained Nicole Masauli, director of programmes for Capital FM.
Some of the DJs are so loud that even reducing the volume of your radio doesn’t help. Yet others, when entrusted with the responsibility of reading news, the scenario take a turn from informing towards mockery.
Worse still, some fail to pronounce some of the words and repeatedly say “sorry” before eventually cooking up their own pronunciations.
But some prominent radio personalities like MBC’s Steve Liwewe Banda and Martin Chilimampunga believe the ushering in of private radio stations which claim to target the youth could be part of the problem.
“The conduct of some DJ’s is indeed against the norm. A DJ must audition a song, know its lyrics and be part and parcel of the song before playing it, be very careful with the language by being as clear as possible because a radio personality speaks to the unseen guest,” said Martin Chilimampunga, controller of programmes for MBC Radio II.
Top DJs, Chilimampunga said, never talk over music, they only speak during the instrumental part of a song and not when the lyrics have started because that disturbs the listener. But sadly, that is what is actually happening on the local scene.
But Chilimampunga said this is due to the fact that some DJ’s have problems with differentiating between a club and radio DJ, saying that a radio DJ speaks to an unseen guest.
“You don’t have to be loud neither do you need to speak too much, because the microphone can always pick your sound, and on radio, you are speaking to an individual” added Liwewe Banda, MBC Radio II’s principal announcer.
But FM 101 DJ Chantal Ramara, a.k.a Sister Fire, said there is nothing wrong with being loud on the radio.
“Actually loud, is a wrong word. It’s about being vibrant and fresh, people are used to the idea of news presentation as being dull. I agree radio is personal but you have to be vibrant to stimulate the senses of the listener,” she said.
As a solution, Liwewe Banda suggested DJs should run away from slang words, listen to top international radio stations like the BBC and developing a culture of reading and having a DJ nursery like Radio II’s Fun line mix programme which has produced the likes of DJ Joy Natho of MBC Radio II.
To improve news casting, Masauli suggested that trained journalists (those who actually write and compile news) should be let to present the news to “let news be news and entertainment be what it is — entertainment”.
In terms of songs to be played, Chilimampunga proposes self censorship as the solution as is the case with MBC where the controller of programmes has to listen to all the music played to rate it before it is played.
Meanwhile, songs, including those banned in their home of origin like Chakumbuyo (sex from behind), a Zambian song, continue to enjoy air time on some stations when their rightful place is probably the clubs.
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