The Owners of KISS 100 & Classic 105 Comment on the Media Wars

When William Pike and Patrick Quarcoo, the heads at Radio Africa Group appeared on Aly-Khan Satchu’s Mindspeak, Mr. Quarcoo answered a question about the media wars and poaching.

“There’s nobody who works for me who isn’t happy. When I came into the market, the average presenter was paid between Kshs. 25,000 and 35,000. Today, they drive cars I can’t afford. Maina Kageni has a Hummer–it’s true–a big black one. So, you tell me, is that bad?

When my competitors poach from me, it’s never a problem. I think when you’re starting you have to have good people. Remember, I got a license withdrawn. And second, a very powerful man was out of town for two weeks. And I was told, you have to launch within two weeks because if he comes back, he might change the old man’s mind. So, I had to find people and I found good people.

But I think on the balance if you look at all radio stations, if you look at Radio Jambo, literally the 13 people on it, every one of them is completely new. And some of them are literally from Mathare Valley. Actually, yes, completely new.

If you look at Kiss 100 now, we’ve got completely young people now who we’ve developed on our own. East FM, we’ve put a lot of young people on. Classic 105, we’ve developed a whole slew of people. So yeah, I did a few things in the past and I’m willing to do it again.”