THE Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) yesterday grilled Kingstons Holdings officials and questioned their capacity to run a viable commercial radio station in Harare given the discrepancies in their presentation and application letter. STAFF REPORTER
Kingstons chief executive officer Kiitumetsi Zawanda and her team had a torrid time trying to convince the commissioners that they were up to the game after BAZ officials highlighted several discrepancies in the company’s documents.
On the application form, the company indicated that its proposed radio station would run as Kingstons Entertainment, but yesterday the officials identified it as Knowledge Enterprise.
The radio, if their licence is granted, will trade as KE100.4 FM, a name that will change depending on what frequency number they get from BAZ.
“There is a discrepancy that I see. In your presentation, you said you are KE100.4FM on Page 8 of the application. We came here under the promise that as you said, the name KE100.4 means Kingstons Entertainment. KE is a subsidiary of Kingstons Holdings so I came here to ask questions on Kingstons Entertainment,” said BAZ commissioner Vimbai Chivaura.
Zawanda admitted the discrepancy adding that the change was precipitated by the view that there was need for a catchy prefix.
“Ours will have a special emphasis on education. Knowledge Enterprise to us is big business. KE means Knowledge Enterprise while 100.4 FM is the frequency. We might change if we get a licence and BAZ give us another one,” said Zawanda.
Commissioner Edward Dube asked Kingstons why they were failing to sell their model to ZBC since they all fell under the Ministry of Media, Information and Broadcasting Services and give other private players a chance.
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But Zawanda said: “ZBC at this stage is our competition. We are in no relations save for our paternity. We are seeking a big piece of the cake.”
Her response, however, was crushed by Chivaura who noted that despite her claims, the application indicated that Kingstons would be sourcing its musical content from ZBC.
Kingstons is one of the three players vying for the capital city’s sole commercial radio licence. The other two are Carryslot (Pvt) Ltd trading as Capital FM and falling under Alpha Media Holdings; and Yes Frequency Modulation (Pvt) Ltd trading as Yes FM.
