K24 Is Set To Relaunch This Week And This Is Why Massawe Jappani, Alphonse Oladipo and Ofweneke Had To Be Sacked

This relaunch is months late due to the fact the station was ‘bloated’. Back when Ian Fernandez made his way out of NTV to join a struggling K24, he had planned to overhaul the whole system and fine tune it to run smoothly and effectively.

However, there was one major stumbling block: FINANCES. The big boys at Mediamax declined to release funds for the relaunch arguing that there was no money and that if the relaunch was to take place, he (Ian) should cut his costs by 40%! And this is the point where the sackings witnessed a few weeks ago had to come in. Some people had to be let go because of the high wage bill compared to the revenue. When the hammer finally dropped, it affected both Radio and TV.

However, it was difficult to select which presenters would be let go, and so like any management would do, Mediamax had to scrutinize the performers and non-performers. This was difficult for the management because most staff members were/are performers, and so the second axing method was thrown into play;salaries. One of the first victim of this elimination process was Maggie Waithera who co-hosted the mid-morning show with Mogaka on Milele FM. Back when Maggie left Radio Citizen to join Milele, she was on a high pay grade and so Mediamax just had to match her salary with her skills/qualifications.

Massawe Jappani was also on the forefront to go but not because of incompetence nor a high salary. All factors considered Massawe is a crowd puller and a darling of the public. But why did she have to go? Well, Massawe is known for standing her ground and is not easily pushed over. She’s as straight as a bullet and will tell you off when you cross her or backbite her. This did not go down well with some of the top dogs who saw her as ‘defiant’ and that was good enough to make her lose her job.

For Alphonse Oladipo, ‘he was on his way out’ the moment he was plucked from reading news on TV to hosting the morning show. He had very little experience for radio and so he was just thrown under the bus. So there’s no way he would have been spared in this round of sacking. Others like Dr. Ofweneke, it’s simply ‘a victim of circumstances’. Since Oladipo had been shown the door yet he was Ofweneke’s co-host, he also had to leave.

With others drawn from the K24 also shown the door, the ‘bloat’ was healed. So now the board has released funds to fund the relaunch of K24 which should be this week or the next. Keep it here for more