DJ XP - KEEPIN' WANANCHI IN THE MIX

HOME COMMENTS | PHOTOS | EVENTS | MIXOLOGY | VIDEOS | ARTICLES | CONTACT | LOGIN| REGISTER

...... SIKU ZINAEEEEENDA!
Yet again another year gone missing! ...... Haiyaye si I thought I was in high school just the other year? Now within a few years, I'll be clocking tatu sufuri! I'll be a guka so soon.

   10 years ago at around a time like this of the year hardly 18 yrs old, I felt like I was on top of the world having graduated from high school, coz freedom had just arrived knocking 'hodi hodi' kwa mlango style! I'd bet you 100$ chances are that at exactly this time of day in 1997, I was not on top of world; .... rather instead - " I was on top of the roof " of our house on the second floor!

   A life of being in love with YAGI is the life I led. Being stack on the roof holding a MAST operating a " kichini chini " FM radio station in the heart of city - BURUBURU. Transmission power had to be set on the 'low low'. (Ogopa CCK) It was the order of the day just for the fun of it yet knowing the risks of being electrocuted (again) during the rainy season as the antenna ended up acting as a lightning arrestor during heavy thunderstorms.

Then electronics was still my greatest hobby. It had become more addictive in high school (HIGHIE EEH!) at a students recreation club named PHYSIOELECTRONICS CLUB which met every Wednesday afternoon. Schoolmates made fun of our club's members, that if one got into a conversations with us, they risked being electrocuted by the conversation itself!

   Most notable members with like minds in our club were Samson Oluoch, Raymond Jaoko & Clement Rapudo (BEAT YA CLEMO / CALIF RECORDS).

   Broadcasting recorded material from MD's / DC's / VA's finest 93.9 KISS FM & WPGC 95.5 courtesy of Nyamweya (Thanks Bro.) was the carrier of the day. Will post all the mixes soon. Remembering the famous WKYS presenters' lines like " Drugs Make You A Loser, User & Abuser ".

   The station had no name & I kept the changing frequency every once in but it always remained between 99MHZ - 100MHZ (so no interference, plus other benefits LOL). Few close friends knew the true origin of the air waves, & ... newbie's believed their radios were " radio za nguvu " receiving an FM signal from a USA radio station, .... but confusion came in their heads weekdays (Monday - Friday) between 6.00PM - 6.30PM .

   Ala? Jimmy Jam on station ya stato? esh! not the original American Jimmy Jam, rather the alias Kenyan Jimmy Jam (Jimmy Gathu). PS. If you don't know Jimmy Jam, more about him is available here JIMMY JAM. (The success of many World artists most notably Janet Jackson was all behind him. Check the list of songs.)

   For months, the station was the hottest inventions (besides 58 ma3s') to invade the air in Buru Phase 3 & 5 close range,........ until for certain reasons in 1998 daddy said quote " the idea was all cool Ongeri, but it has to stop." There went the underground FM station dreams of a little idle electronic rascal.

   The neighborhood switched back to ' TWO FOUR DOUBLE FOUR SIX FOUR ' which was gradually igniting then to be the " charcoal iron box " of the block! What would one expect with acts like radio host Phil Mathews presenting the breakfast show shouting AMUKA every morning (instead of amka), plus stating on that ka radio jingle " Capital FM playing you hits bigger than the potholes on Juja Road ". That was Phil Mathews - Insane!

101.9 METRO FM (Kenya's 1st private owned radio station opened back in 1996) was beginning to lose air to 244464, despite having great radio presenters like Anne Lemayan. (Fast Track music program presenter back then .... what we call HOUSE music.)

   Competition between the two radio stations i.e. Metro FM & Capital FM hereinafter referred 244464 (Capital FM's Tel. # back then), grew stiffer approximately a year later when the latter unleashed "Capital road shows" thanks to Tony Patti with his hewas (Sound System). To make the the competition heavier, they came with new radio shows here & there but the carrier of the day was a program titled SPEEDY CD which aired weekdays from 9AM-10AM.

   A thought SPEEDY CD brings fun memories. Mention 2 words - "Speedy CD" to the following peeps if you know them & look at their faces - Robin Mathenge, Francis Gicheri, Stella Opore, L. Osunga, L. Githinji, .......... the list continues.

75% of all the winning answers ever aired on the entire life of the speedy CD program came indirectly from me. Abba - Dancing Queen, Amy Grant - Baby Baby, Dru Hill - Sleeping in My Bed, All Saints - Stand By Me, Blackstreet - Booty Call, Hootie & The Blowish - ......

   Here is how the program worked; a song was played at a very high speed (mind you - HIGH SPEED), leave alone the high speed cassette dubbing speed we know of! ..... This one was over twice the speed of high speed dubbing! All one could here is ' pukuru pakara pukuru pakara ' but hey guess what? Capital expected listeners to be able to identify a song's title & it's artist/s. If you were a Capital damu then, then you know what kind of answers people gave when they called Capital Studios.

   The Prize for correct answer was 500Kshs. If no one got the answer right within the 1hr the program aired, the prize went up by 500 bob more to the next day (weekdays only) to be 1000Kshs, then 1500Kshs, 2000Kshs ........ & like wise until the weekday when someone got the correct answer. Now that was grabbing attention badly.

   Whenever a listener called CapitalFM's studios way early at 9.00AM-9.50AM & gave them the correct answer, they would ask for the callers name & telephone number & then towards the end of the program at around 9.55PM, they would call the listener back & put him/her live on air. Basically the idea was they did not want to kill the program's flava early by someone calling in & giving out the answer 10 minutes from start of program. They wanted it to seem like " someone finally got the answer towards the end of the program "

   All of us 'jobless corners / pavement' vijanas were now on the grind trying to get the shillings but the biggest problem was coming up with the answers for the speedy CD songs, since the tracks were playing way too fast for one to hear anything.

I had to find a solution. I went ahead & modified a cassette deck for this project, since adjusting the motors rheostat / potentiometer was only partially solving the problem - i.e. to get the music to play at a regular speed.

   Biashara was all good. Jobless corner was no longer for us. 244464 was the number to dial even though it was hard to go through 15 minutes after program start as the lines would be busy.

   Come the 2nd airing of the program I won 500Kshs (ABBA's - Dancing Queen), (they do the necessary i.e. return call & put listener me on air) next day 500Kshs. (Amy Grant's - Baby Baby) (again they call & I'm put on air) & so on ..... but little did I know there was going to be an unforeseen barrier so soon.

   After having won cash only 3 times in a row & went to collect casho for the 3rd time, the same dark lady (probably programs co-coordinator at Capital) asks me in an amazed manner " It's you again? Anyways here, sign here " she hands me cash release form.

   As I'm signing the paper, Dennis Ndavi of Capital FM (Buru 4) walks into the studio past the receptionist & I look the down coz he never knew why I was there thus if we salamiad each other this lady would have thought Ndavi was leaking answers which was something he couldn't have done even if he knew the answers.

   Come next ' biashara ' day less than 10 minutes to the program I call in to give the correct answer. I'm put to speak off air to former presenter Zain Verjee (now with CNN International). I introduce my self as Charles & without even going further she's asks " Is this Charles from BuruBuru Tel # 78XX26? " Yes, I exclaimed & gave here the speedy answer. OK, we will call you back towards the end of the program stay put.

   Wololo. Wapi! It reaches 9.50AM. All listeners / callers being put on air were the one's with wrong answers. I started doubting I'd receive a call from them. Time to pull a quick 'Plan B'. I go over to our digz fence & start calling my buddy Robin (7UP Shop) & to tell him the answer. He dashes to call 244464. It's getting closer to 10AM & unfortunately he fails to get through the busy lines.

   Zain Verjee goes on air & says her favorite MULA quote - " no one gets the Mula today & so the jackpot rolls over to 1000 Bob ", then the kawaida capital jingle song which went like ... " The best mix of music capital 98.4 FMmmm " plays meaning it's the hour (10AM). Reality hit me ni kubaya.

   Now the Plan B still had to work bana. Robin Mathenge (7UP SHOP BURU 3) was always already up 9.00AM already done doing jobo for his paroz from 6.00AM (delivery contract with KCC to resell / distribute milk to nearly all grocery shops in Eastland's area).

   He calls capital at the very beginning of the program & gets through. Zain Verjee tells him he has the correct answer & she was going to call him back towards the end of the program which she does & ask Robin to be ready to go on air & reduce the radio volume on the background to prevent feedback noise / echos. She goes ahead & plays the speedy CD once again for him (to make it look like here had called in the last minute) & he give the correct answer & Zain was like " Congratulations we have a winner...... "

   Next day airing of speedy CD comes. I call in early coz I thought that the incident two days previously was an error that's why they never called me. Guess what? I loose again, despite having given the correct answer, the capital dudes never called me back! That is when I realized being a Charles calling from 78XX26 was a problem.

   Come next day towards the end of the program, Stella, my younger sister gets to call them towards the end of the program & guess what ? She gets casho 1000 Bob! Poor me.

   Ever since then I went to become commission basis. The next speedy CD winner was none other than man like my buddy Lloyd the man behind UMOJAENTERTAINMENT.COM He scoops 1500 Bob.

   Next comes the toughest speedy CD, a Ndombolo ya Solomon (Solo) speedy CD. It's so tought that even Martin Makasi (Dj Mato) did not know the answer. So it times to look for a Ndombolo figure & an answer comes to mind. The barber who operated a barber shop @ akina Dickie's.

Well, after playing for the barber a rectified speed recording of the speedy CD, he mentioned he had forgotten the artist but that he knew the title of the song (cannot remember the title french language was/is not for me quite frankly).

Paka akitoka panya hutawala. As soon as I left the barber shop, word is that the barber went ahead & told his pals chilling in the barber shop that he knew the full details - Artist & Name of Song. His cunning friend get him to speak out. The rest is history. All I cana say it was a marathon to the neighboring telephone bureau (akina Gichuki's) to make that 244464 call. The busy barber is stuck behind with a client. Mambo ya buru ni mengi. Hungries!