The ongoing talent haemorrhage at the cash-strapped Standard Group has hit Radio Maisha‘s nerve centre.
On Thursday, February, Kenyans.co.ke established that two top managers at the leading radio station have quit with almost ten journalists set to leave in the coming days.
According to an insider, who spoke to this writer, Radio Maisha‘s Programmes Controller Lynda Oriaso is the latest to disembark what appears to be a sinking ship.
The source confirmed that Oriaso, a celebrated radio presenter, left days after news editor Geoffrey Mung’ou also bid the station goodbye.
Photo collage between empty KTN News studio and TV47 building.
KTN News/ TV47
The two are said to have been poached by Radio47, which is set to hit the airwaves soon.
“Both of them are heading to Radio 47, a station launched by TV47, set to fully launch operations on Wednesday, March 1,” the insider disclosed.
Other journalists who left Radio Maisha in January 2023 include news reader Beatrice Maganga, as well as producers Irene Kaimuri and Eric Wambugu. The two producers were the engine of production at the Mombasa-road-based radio station.
A current employee at the Standard Group, the informant, disclosed that nearly 75 per cent of the staff at the radio station had planned to leave at the end of January.
“10 staff will be moving to Radio47. Others chose to stay because they were concerned about the job security given that the station poaching them is a start-up,” the source stated.
Radio47 is said to have taken advantage of the desperate situation at the Standard Group and offered irresistible and enviable perks to earmarked journalists.
“We have heard that a number of them will take home more than double what they earned as salary here,” the informal confided.
Notably, some of the staff maintained their loyalty to Radio Maisha and explained that they were happy at the station and would stick around.
On January 18, a source at TV47 confirmed that plans to establish a new radio station which would broadcast in the Swahili language were in top gear.
Managers of Cape Media are said to be on a poaching spree, with an aim of deflating Radio Maisha, which boasts of top Swahili Presenters in the industry.
Standard Group has been in the red for years, and previous efforts to trim the payroll could not salvage the giant listed firm.
In November, the company issued a redundancy notice to its staff, informing them of impending layoffs in a bid to remain afloat.
The exit of Oriaso now means that Standard Group’s Head of Radio Tom Japanni will have to steer the ship single-handedly as the company navigates the crisis.
Oriaso, a graduate of Maseno University, joined Radio Maisha in 2015 as a presenter before rising through the ranks to become the Programmes Controller.
A photo of the Newly opened TV47 studio on October 11
TV47
Discussion about this post