The rise of Uncle Austin on air

FROM hosting karaoke at Nyira Rock to working at different radio stations and singing—you might call Uncle Austin a man of many talents. The Umugisha Wundi singer hosts the Rush Hour, an entertainment and informative programme that runs from Monday to Friday- 3pm to 8pm on KFM. His distinctive voice and magnetic charisma on radio have earned him a loyal fan base. The broadcaster shared his unique radio presentation skills with The New Times’ Sarah KwihanganaYou are among the popular radio personalities in Rwanda, with one of the most listened to programmes. How do you pull it off?I listen to myself after every show. I do record my shows so at the end of the day when I feel that I am not doing right what I want to do, I go back and listen to myself again and look for what I am not doing well such that I do it right next time. That is how I perfect myself and do a great show at the end of the day. It’s not always easy to work on radio because you have to be jolly throughout the show. How do you manage your mood swings while on air?Even if I lost someone so close to me I would still go on air and pretend to be fine. That is even taught to people doing mass communication, especially radio/TV personalities —even if you’re hungry or have a pressing problem you’re not supposed to show it to the listeners or the viewers. You can actually decide to make fun out of the situation depending on the show you present.Radio presenters or anyone given a microphone sometimes lose/lack words to say. Does it ever happen to you?That is why there are show preps; actually I wonder how someone would go on air without a script. At some radio stations, presenters are required to do scripts of every link. Every time you go on air you have a script with what you are going to say. Basically, you read out what is scripted and that way you can never lack what to say or go astray. What was your worst experience on air?The worst experience is saying something that you didn’t know was wrong on air because there are people out there who know more than you do. One day, I said something that was wrong which I didn’t realize; they had changed a mayor of a certain place and was not aware of the change and mentioned the name of the former as the mayor. I was so embarrassed when I put music and a friend of mine told me that the person I had mentioned as the mayor had been changed a week earlier.What is the craziest thing you have ever done on air?I am called the ladies uncle because majority of the callers in our show are women so one time I decided not to receive calls from men on my show for thirty minutes. Every time a man called I would switch them off which was kind of crazy.

Leisure

The rise of Uncle Austin on air