Ferial Haffajee : In your ear
Nothemba Madumo is no shock-jock. Her Kaya Lifestyle on Gauteng’s Kaya FM is the epitome of easy listening.
Aired each day between 9am and noon, Madumo’s blend of cool music and inspirational talk now has a loyal audience, according to the latest All Media Product Survey (Amps) figures. That was music to the ears of the station’s management in a trade where listenership figures generally tail off after the morning rush.
“We see something of a phenomenon,” says station manager Lucia Venter. “Nearly all stations peak at the beginning of the day and drop sharply thereafter. Kaya’s audience trend indicates a ‘Table Mountain’ effect, where there is an increase from early to mid-morning, which is maintained in a plateau-type effect.”
There’s nothing flat about Madumo’s show, however. A graduate of Bop-TV and radio, Madumo trained with Solid Gold. She’s an accomplished producer and that’s self- evident from the ease with which she manages the studio, switching from playing a disc to talking to her audience in a deep bass voice – with an American drawl – which is quite similar in style to Tim Modise, Bob Mabena and other radio luminaries who got their first chance behind the mike at Radio Bop.
You’re not likely to hear kwaito or hip-hop on Madumo’s show. Expect big doses of jazz and R’n’B. “My first love is jazz and Pat [Dambe, Kaya’s managing director] fears this might tilt my show.”
Madumo had piano lessons with Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand), which explains why she counts Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson and Didi Bridgewater among her favourite artists.
Kaya Lifestyle’s music is its first drawcard, but the programme also features lively talk slots in a magazine mould. It’s not cutting-edge news stuff that will go down as “brilliant” in radio’s annals, but it fits the show like a glove.
“We definitely target women, but the surprising thing is that more men than women are listening. Maybe men are getting more interested in hearing about women,” says Madumo as she takes calls from two male listeners wanting to know why their diets are not working and asking if energy drinks are good or bad.
Kaya FM’s listenership figures – averaging about 145 000 listeners a day and 400 000 a week – are significant because they represent an affluent and largely black audience. And that’s who Madumo talks to because that’s who she is. She arrives in a shiny Golf Cabriolet wearing tasteful gold jewellery and funky Caterpillar boots.
Her programme doesn’t speak down to housewives as many do; instead it includes much for professional women and working mothers. When it does speak to those women who stay at home, it talks to them as the powerful controllers of the family purse strings.
Says Madumo “I do confidence-building features,” and that includes everything from health programmes to a link-up with Cosmopolitan on relationship issues.
“Women are doing things to make themselves happy,” she says of the “cosmopolitan”, uptown girls (and women) she sees as her audience. “Women’s lives are changing and we really can be part of any aspect of life. Women are not only concerned with food and their looks.”
This midday programme is also a regular pit- stop for the range of celebrities who come traipsing through South Africa. “It really helps to have an exciting guest,” says Madumo.
Kaya FM on 95.9fm in Gauteng