Monday, February 17 started like any other normal working day for veteran radio presenter Cynthia Omurungi, aka Ginty.

"I didn’t prepare my listeners for what was to follow. I did the show [and ended it] as if I would return the following day, but I did not,” Ginty said of her last day of work at KFM.

Until that day, she had co-hosted the station’s K-in-the-am morning drive show with MC Tino for two years.

On March 3, two weeks after plunging her fans into heated speculation as to her whereabouts, Ginty turned up at the Rwanda Broadcasting Authority-based Magic FM with a new job title; that of programs manager.   

As programs manager at Magic FM, she no longer goes on air as a presenter, but rather manages the station’s entire on-air team and general content.

As she works on her computer in her new offices at the ORINFOR complex, an earpiece is tucked into one of her ears so that she can monitor on-air content round the clock.

"My work as programs manager is basically to design programs, and the structure of all our radio shows. This entails things like promos, programs, and approving game shows. My work is to create an environment and a mood for the listener through on-air content.”

Before the surprise move, Ginty had dedicated the past two years of her broadcasting life to her former employer. However, she boasts a broadcasting career that spans nine solid years. Her broadcasting journey started in 2005 at Flash FM, where she hosted the evening drive-time show.

"A friend came to me and told me I could do radio because every time we fell into an argument, I always argued my point very clearly,” she recalls fondly.

Coming to Magic FM

While a friend inspired Ginty into her first radio job, her latest career move was borne out of more personal considerations:

"I loved KFM, but at the same time I loved to see my career grow, and by growth I mean facing more challenges and adding my stone to the house. I wanted to put my own voice to how I want radio to sound in Rwanda, and this was the right place.”

Her move from a more liberal private airwaves to the state-owned broadcaster did not go down well with some of her more hardcore fans.

On social media, many roundly castigated her for the move, while others wondered why she had to particularly choose a government mouthpiece.

"I got many reactions, some angry, but those are the kind of things you must come to expect from your most dedicated fans, because at some point they feel they are a part of your life and you are a part of theirs. With time, they get to understand that life is like that. There comes a time to move on and do other things.”

She advises her aggrieved fans to look at things another way: "They should instead be happy that I took this step. To me it means I can prove what I’ve learnt over the last nine years of being on radio, and contributing to further growth of our broadcasting industry is a great honor. It means exploring my passions and it means being in it fully. This is the biggest career move I’ve made so far, and with this comes with added responsibility. Now it’s not just about my personal image and rating as a presenter, but ratings for the entire station.”

Bringing back the magic

It is easy to see why some of Ginty’s fans didn’t take her move lightly, going by the nature of her new workplace, whose fortunes she is in a way here to change:

"Magic FM has been around for over a year now, but it was not operating as a commercial broadcaster. This is because its mandate had not been determined yet,” she explains, adding:

"Magic is going to be an urban appeal radio station that will mostly talk to the younger generation in Rwanda. It is a generation with more exposure to technology, a generation with no taboos, a generation that is open to discussion, a generation that is very, very curious. That’s the new generation. This generation gets a lot of information from various sources, and this is our target audience.”

She advises the older generation to as well tune in, "to get a feel of the new generation”.

"We are trying to recreate the radio. The Rwanda Broadcasting Authority itself has been evolving day by day, and so has been very helpful. Whatever I’ve tried to do so far, I’ve found the necessary support for it. We have some shows that are running, but we are working on a good structure for a commercial radio.”

Her mandate as Programs Manager also comes with the powers to shop for on-air presenters, and she says: "I’m introducing many new stars on the local market. We have many talents to showcase, of young people who are open-minded and open to possibilities, people who are curious and will go the extra mile to dig for information just so that the listener is informed.”

I ask her what overall impression she picked from her first day at the new work station and she says: "It was different from what I thought. RBA has been here for long, so people have their own prejudices, especially when you are coming from what people perceive to be a comfort zone. I haven’t been disappointed yet by the things they talked of. They talked of this place being full of old people who are conservative and resistant to change and so on …but they are not the black beasts that they are painted to be.”

So, does she miss being on air? "I miss being on air. Of course, anyone who has ever been on air and knows what they do, feels the same way. At the same time, I like what I’m doing now. It’s about making choices,” she admits. 

Does she hope to ever go on air again? "I can’t say never, because it’s my passion and it is what built me. I will consider the sound of Magic FM and seek views from listeners to see if to go back on air in May.”