Tension as Nation Media plans to sack radio staff

Tension is high at the radio division of Nation Media Group over an impending lay-off that will target mainly reporters.  NMG runs two radio stations – Nation FM (formerly EasyFM), which broadcasts in English and QFM, which delivers news and programmes in Kiswahili.

The two radio stations, based at the Nation centre, employ close to 50 journalists and half of them are likely to go in the planned sacking that is to be executed any time soon, according to credible sources. This will be the biggest restructuring by NGM of the radio division, which is said to be performing below targets. Radio staff salaries are paid from Nation newspaper revenues.

Nation FM has been struggling to win the urban audience and advertising for years. Last year, it had to go back to its original Nation FM name after a rebrand to EasyFM failed to deliver commercial value.  It recently brought in Jimmy Gathu to shore up its ratings after Angela Angwenyi exited, but sources say there hasn’t been any improvement.

QFM, one of the newest national radio stations in the country, has been making inroads in the Kiswahili audience segment, but not fast enough to catch up with the big players in the market such as Radio Citizen, KBC, Milele FM and radio Jambo.

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With over 200 radio channels in Kenya – national, regional and community radios – the onslaught of vernacular radio stations is also evident. Regional radio stations are shaping the radio landscape, with 46% of all radio listeners tuning in to vernacular and 20-25% of them exclusively, according to figures from the Government Advertising Agency (GAA). 

This leaves a small audience and advertising pie for the urban radio stations to fight over, with Royal Media’s Radio Citizen and Radio Africa Group’s Radio Jambo and Classic taking the top three slots of national popularity. Citizen also tops in Rift Valley and Western followed by Kass and West FM respectively. In Central, Kenya Inooro tops followed by Kememe while Nyanza is dominated by Ramogi then Lake Victoria.

Nation FM and QFM do not feature as dominant in any of these regions.

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