On February 11th, 2010 an Internet Radio Station was born for the Zimbabwean community home and away. A radio station that has no alignment to a particular political affiliation, religious sect or tribal alignment. For years, Zimbabweans had seen numerous individuals get into the field and end up on one or the other side of the terrace and eventually failing to give a balanced unbiased coverage for an average Zimbabwean on the street. Needless to say that the past 13years have seen a massive exodus of Zimbabweans to the Diaspora with the majority ruthlessly torn away from their families and what they had regarded for all their lives as home. Nearly all the Zimbabweans that have fell on the sword of the migration battles did so under a heavy and dark cloud of political insanity. I dont have to say that a good number left the country with bleeding buttocks, swollen underfeet, bruises cuts and emotional scars of brutality and human rights atrocities.
Having been whirled away and sown in the land of the unknown, we all found ourselves in vanity and in the middle of nowhere. The void became more pronounced when you would realise the limited use of one's own dialect and exposure to media that focuses specifically to your dialect, culture and nationality. That is when we realised that some simple basic things that we otherwise took for granted like the simple folk story choruses we listened from the legendary ZBC Radio 2 & 3FM become issues we would miss as bad as pumkin leaves relish.
The story hence begun with Anesu Manjengwa with www.sadza.com, As Zimbabweans, a bit lagging on intra development, this was like heaven on earth, just seeing a website named after sadza, a Zimbabweab staple dish, not to mention the tailormade services they had for a Zimbabwean in Diaspora. Then came Zenzo Ncube with www.afrosoundsfm.com and the story went on and on.
Despite all the other players that joined the field, including my personal stint as a Presenter to a number of the Radio Stations, I remained feeling the void for the satisfaction of entertainment the Zimbabwean way. very few occasion did I feel the real ability to connect to the good old days and the rural communal life that I so affectionately relate to, like any other Zimbabwean of my background and age group.
As in a political satire, I owe my gratitude to my fall out with the former Hwamanda Radio where I had become a house hold presenter. Instead of demoralising me and extinguishing the fire to entertain, it uproared a gigantic blaze in me to raise the banner of Zimbabwean entertainment higher and better that I had seen. An idea to start work on the inception of an independant Radio Station hit me and I did not waste a moment.
Encoupled my zealous and vibrant other younger and agile Zimbabweans namely Prince "Fresh" Chibwe, Tendai Bako, Tafadzwa Patience Mushayabasa & Bright Chiota we kicked started ZimOnline radio off the ground. That would not come without its own challenges. I recall our first invitation to fellow friends in the media field to join us, congratulate and all drum the spirit of support. We had shockingly cold and chilling rebuffing and "polite" requests not to contact and/or invite. It was so heartbreaking as the majority were fellow people that we had worked with and developed what we assumed was close rapport.
This led me to post a message on the website, blog, twitter and Facebook, calling all Zimbabweans that we work and support one another even when we appear to be doing the same thing. My logic always remain that the market for the media industry targetting Zimbabweans yet remains untapped and together, we are a better force.
Today, ZimOnline Radio is proud to be the voice behind among other threads, The Girl Child Network, Zimbabwe Society for the Blind, Tuku Music, Rude Boy Records, Joystreet Music, Wildfire Events, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority Events, Rebuild Zimbabwe, ROHR Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Vigil and many Zimbabwean Business entities across the globe.
Why not be part of the evergrowing ZimOnline radio family by contacting us on the credentials following:
Telephones: UK +442032874427, USA +12039873744, AUS +61861020733
Skype: ZimOnlineradio
email: admin@zimonlineradio.com
http://zimonlineradio.com
Twitter: @zimonlineradio
Facebook: Zimonlineradio Zimbabwe
