"Given that the timing of our line-up change coincided with the beginning of the new term of office for the government, and at the centre of that is the appointment of the new cabinet by the President as well as all the hype and attention generally around that, we decided to tie in our campaign around that whole process. We also have had some big media attention with speculations about our line-up changes which in a way created more room for our campaign to be relevant and exciting. We even had the media reacting to some of our teasers on air. So overall, the feedback has been great," says Gagasi FM Managing Director, Vukile Zondi.
The station hosted the new line-up launch on Tuesday at #Hashtag Restaurant in Durban where the "Gagasi FM 2014 Cabinet" was officially announced. The new cabinet includes the new breakfast show to be hosted by the station's rising star, Mzokoloko Gumede, who has been doing the midday show at the station. Nonjabulu "Njabs" Zwane will produce and also co-host the show with Mzokoloko from 06h00 to 09h00 weekdays. The new show will be known as I love Mornings with Mzokoloko.
The outgoing breakfast show host who is also the station's News Manager, Alex Mthiyane, will now dedicate his expertise on news and current affairs, this will include hosting the station's flagship current affairs show, Viewpoint, between 18h00 and 19h00 from Tuesdays to Thursdays. Outgoing breakfast show co-host, Kini Shandu will replace Mzokoloko on the midday show between 12h00 and 15h00 weekdays. The new show will be called The Big Bang. The outgoing breakfast show producer who recently won the Best Content Producer award at the 2014 MTN Radio Awards will now also have her own show on weekdays between 04h00 and 06h00. The show will be called Fresh Start and she will be co-hosting it with Phephelani. The station has retained Zookey on Tea Time to Lunch Time between 09h00 and 12h00 as well as The Afternoon Show Off pair, Thandolwethu and Trevor "TP" Phillips. The new line-up will go live on-air from Monday 02 June 2014.
Other changes in the line-up include new additions such as popular comedian and radio personality, Felix Hlophe, who will do the Saturday breakfast show between 07h00 and 10h00. Another radio personality that is joining the station is Zeal who will do Zeal4Life between 22h00 and 01h00 from Mondays to Thursdays. Zeal4Life will also have a Saturday edition between 16h00 and 19h00. Gagasi FM has also brought in up-and-coming radio talent in Nomfundo Mfeka who was working at Inanda community radio. She will do the graveyard show between 01h00 and 04h00 weekdays as part of further nurturing their talent. The idea is to create space for fresh industry talent and ensure that as the radio careers of the seasoned personalities approach maturity, there is well groomed talent that will be ready to take over prime radio when the time comes.
"Our new line-up overall has a good balance between experienced presenters and young talent. As an urban youth radio station, it's very important for us to ensure that we stay relevant to our target audience. Even with content, the new shows will bring in features that will talk to young people and reflect on the way they live and the things they do. We will be embarking on a roadshow across KZN for the purposes of taking the new shows to listeners so that there can be direct interaction with the new guys. This is a very special moment as we are changing some of the shows for the very first time since the station started eight years ago and we want this time to be as exciting as possible and we are confident that our listeners will love every minute of it," added Zondi.
The dates and times for outside broadcasts of various shows in different parts of the province will be communicated in due course; stay tuned to Gagasi FM.
