Joseph Beyanga bows out of KFM after 20 years (2024)

• Adieu. As KFM marks 20 years, Joseph Beyanga, the head of radio too leaves the stage. He talks about his 23-year-journey on radio and rising through the ranks.

He discovered radio before he could milk a cow. By the time Joseph Beyanga was born, his father, Emmanuel Batsikana, was a master mason who had learnt the craft as an apprentice to Indian engineers in the 1940s and 50s.

The old man ran a large farm in Bushenyi, as well as Harambe Builders, a construction company he set up with his brothers. It was one of the first native-owned construction companies in western Uganda.

For Batsikana, keeping up with the goings on around the country and the world was a survival requirement.

Civil wars were raging across the continent, apartheid was still going strong in South Africa, and some ‘bandits’ were hiding in the bushes of Luweero, fighting the Uganda government. Batsikana had much to lose if he did not keep on the news pulse and one way of doing this was to listen to news from as many radio stations as he could find.

Watching his father, little Beyanga figured that whatever those radio voices were saying must be vital. So, he started paying attention. As he grew older, he could tell off head which radio stations his father loved listening to at which time of day. So he made it his job to tune the radio for his father:

Focus on Africa on the BBC, 6pm. Swahili/English news on DW, 6.30pm. English news on Radio Moscow, 7 pm. Runyankole news on Radio Uganda, 7.30 pm. This was shortwave radio. One had to keep next to the set, re-adjusting the knob ever so slightly to keep the sound crisp. Just like a radio producer might do behind the scenes.

As a teenager, Beyanga grew slightly more responsible, his father would let him and his siblings have the radio after the news, to listen to deep into the night. This was on condition that in the morning, as Beyanga left the house to milk the cows, he would put the radio set back in the bedroom before the 6.30 am BBC news.

When he left Bushenyi for Mbarara High School, his love for the media was blooming. In the absence of radio at school, Beyanga transferred his love to print media. The Weekly Monitor (later Daily Monitor) had just been born and he read it with relish.

“It didn’t take long for me to know all the writers by name and style. Charles Ssemogerere, Peter Mwesige, Onapito Ekomoloit, Dismas Nkunda… that was the time of the RPA war in Rwanda. We followed the CA [Constituent Assembly] debate in the Monitor. I told myself that when I grew up, I would love to work for The Monitor,” Beyanga says.

University days
In his first year at university, Beyanga came in contact with classmates who worked at radio stations.

“Roger Mugisha, aka, Shadow was already at Sanyu FM, Daniel Vianney at Capital Radio, Jamie the Handyman on Radio One… all these were in my first-year class,” Beyanga says.

He started hanging out with these peers. Soon, he would meet Denis Matanda of Radio One and Martin Sempa who was then hosting Spectrum on Radio One. One thing led to another and Beyanga got a job on Radio One as the producer of Spectrum in 1997.

Beyanga started producing Spectrum, a 25-minute current affairs talk show. His job was to physically knock on large mahogany doors behind which were Uganda’s movers and shakers of the time; Vice President Specioza Wandira Kazibwe, Prime Minister Eriya Kategaya, other ministers and many more. This was the only way as mobile phones were barely existent then.

Leaving Radio One
The year 1999 portended big global changes. Computer technology was spreading like wildfire and Kampala was now home to Uganda’s first internet café (Uganda Online, opposite Fido Dido). The second one, Cyberdom, was on the way.

“Cyberdom opened at Commercial Plaza. The café was owned by Nina Mbabazi, Amama’s daughter. We had hosted her on Radio One as one of the young people who were making a difference. She asked me to come by and, she gave me the job of managing her business,” Beyanga says.

By the time he left Radio One in 1999, Spectrum was a full-hour show. He left the station because he hates committing to two things at the same time. His departure from Radio One coincided with his completion of his undergraduate degree at Makerere University.

Moving to Monitor FM
It was while he was managing this internet café that he met name Andrew Mwenda, The Monitor journalist. This was not the first time the two met. Beyanga had met Mwenda on Spectrum as the latter was a regular on the show.

“Mwenda was doing his Master’s in London, and so he would come to Cyberdom to do research and communicate with his professors, I assume,” Beyanga says.

Mwenda told Beyanga that The Monitor was in the process of building a radio station and asked him to consider working with them. He would not pass up that chance. His dream was on the horizon. Before the announcement, he had just about given up on that dream because he had concluded that writing was not his thing. But he was back on track.

The said radio station, as it turned out, was being built across the road from Cyberdom, at Crown House on Kampala Road.

Beyanga would cross the road and spend long periods watching the engineers set up the studio where Monitor FM would be housed. He asked questions and exchanged ideas because of his background.

“When the studio was completed, they started interviewing people for different roles. I also was interviewed although I do not remember putting in an application. I was hired as a production assistant, my job being to produce commercials,” he recounts.

Monitor FM went on air in February 2001. The equipment was part analogue and part digital. This was t in the middle of a major technological transition for radio. A bit of computer here, but cassette players everywhere. Much music was still on cassette tapes. Beyanga started building the music database on top of his job as a commercials producer. So long as there was work to be done, he did it.

Producing Andrew Mwenda Live
The start of the talk show Andrew Mwenda Live, was the most interesting – with a couple of glitches that many listeners had no idea about.

“On Monday, March 5, 2001, Andrew Mwenda came into the studio. It was a few minutes to the start of the first episode of Andrew Mwenda Live and he had no producer. The first guest, Yona Kanyomozi, was already seated. So, I jumped in, just to help him run the machines, because I had a background.

“Mwenda goes on air and speaks into the mic: ‘Good evening and welcome to Andrew Mwenda Live. This is going to be the hottest talk show in the land’.

“Then he ran out of words, so I ran a sweeper. Then we had a short chat and worked out a few things and formatted the show while it was on air,” Beyanga says.

That format would go on to deliver one of the top radio talk shows in the country. One month after he had started producing Andrew Mwenda Live, out of his volition, he offered to produce Score Line with Mark Ssali and Allan Ssekamate.

“One day, Mark Ssali strays into the studio and he is like, I am starting my show. Can you please come and help us with the machines? I said, oh you don’t have a producer? He said, no. I said I am in,” he recounts.

Beyanga would carry out his tasks as a commercial producer, run around Kampala City collecting music to build the library, produce Score Line from 6pm to 7pm and also produce Andrew Mwenda Live between 7pm and 8pm. He would later produce Anne Kiiza’s The Late Show which ran between 9pm and midnight.

Beyanga was driven more by his passion than anything else.

At some point, the production manager Gabriel Kakuru just saw what Beyanga was doing and he said, ‘Joseph you are doing a good job, please go on and take up all my responsibilities’. Kakuru then told the bosses, ‘You should make him the head of production because he does all the work. Let me go do some other work’. That is how Beyanga became head of production.

The big debates
Some of the most memorable moments on the show Andrew Mwenda Live include the vagin* Monologues debate between Martin Sempa and Miria Matembe, the fiery debate between Nobert Mao and Kizza Besigye, the blockbuster between Noble Mayombo and Kizza Besigye, the debate between Okumu Reagan and Shaban Bantariza, Besigye vs Tinyefuza, and many others.

Some of the great names that appeared on the show include former Zambia presidents Kenneth Kaunda and Frederick Chiluba, Liberia’s Johnson Sirleaf, the then Mozambique president, BBC’s Liz Doucette and Chris Bickerton.

But for Beyanga, the one that truly stood out was the day Mwenda interviewed former president Apollo Milton Obote by phone from Zambia on September 21, 2001.

“I still remember that day. Wow. We shut down Kampala. I mean, I cannot just describe the way the whole two hours went,” he says.

The most painful was the debate between Mwenda and General Tinyefuza [now David Sejjusa], according to Beyanga.

“We were pumped up for that show. Andrew had piles of confidential documents.

So, Andrew came on and pop, pop. Tinyefuza’s comeback line was, ‘Andrew, those are things tomato sellers in Nakasero are discussing. He’s like, if you are saying that is a confidential document, how come you have it? That guy punched. It is one show where I say, Andrew was clobbered.”

Andrew Mwenda Live became a monumental show a few months after launch and helped Monitor FM to become the biggest news radio.

The two young men rode on the groundswell of passion, delivering quality content to the country, for a solid five years without pay.

Monitor FM becomes KFM
The time came in 2004 when Monitor FM needed to change and become more competitive. There was need to transition the radio from a news radio into an infotainment radio. The process of change was rather secretive. Beyanga was one of about six people who knew this and did not tell anyone about what was in store. Not even his then-girlfriend, Carol Alyek.

On September 9, 2004, Monitor FM became 93.3KFM. With new imaging, fresh music, and celebrated presenters, the station grew to become popular. Sweepers that would play on the revamped station such as, “Precise, to the point and accurate. 933 KFM,” were Beyanga’s creations.

For the next 20 years, Beyanga worked his way up from production manager to programmes controller to head of radio programming and finally to head of radio managing 93.3 KFM and 90.4 Dembe FM. His pride and joy during this time, among many things, has been getting great presenters, such as Brian Mulondo and Malaika Nnyanzi whose on-air chemistry was unmatched. He also says getting “new kids” such as Faiza Salima, Bareija Collins aka Emeka, Aggie Uwase and Gistin Angarukiremu on board has been fulfilling to see.

As the KFM brand makes 20 years this year, having conceived, birthed and raised the brand, Beyanga bows out knowing that KFM is a man of his own. Because a good parent will not babysit a man, so to speak. He leaves the brand stronger than ever, at least according to him.

“Over the years, I promised myself that I would never leave the station except for when it was doing exceptionally well. We have the best team. Every slot has the best possible talent. I am confident that the best is yet to come,” he says.

Highlights
Some of the most memorable moments on the show Andrew Mwenda Live include the vagin* Monologues debate between Martin Sempa and Miria Matembe; the fiery debate between Nobert Mao and Kizza Besigye; the blockbuster between Noble Mayombo and Kizza Besigye; the debate between Reagan Okumu and Shaban Bantariza, Besigye vs Tinyefuza (now David Sejusa), and many others.

Some of the great names that appeared on the Andrew Mwenda Live show include former Zambia presidents Kenneth Kaunda and Frederick Chiluba, Liberia’s Johnson Sirleaf, the then Mozambique president, BBC’s Liz Doucette and Chris Bickerton.

Did you know...
Joseph Beyanga left Radio One in 1999, Spectrum was a full-hour show.

His departure coincided with his completion of his undergraduate degree at Makerere University.

“When the studio(Monitor FM) was completed, they started interviewing people for different roles. I also was interviewed although I do not remember putting in an application. I was hired as a production assistant, my job being to produce commercials,” he recounts.