When it comes to storytelling, it can be universally agreed that visuals attract a huge crowd in comparison to audio stories. Not long ago, it was said that the end of the radio era was nigh with the coming of the television. However, with the dynamic nature of technology came the internet and now no one needs to carry around a huge box in order to catch the latest news or record an episode with your phone just to listen to it later.
Photo courtesy of Pexels: Nicholas Githiri
We can listen to our favorite shows anywhere at any time with a simple click on our phones and repeat them at our comfort. Necessity is definitely the mother of invention and when the need arose to have a versatile form of radio, podcasts were born.
According to the Reuters Digital News Report, surveying 20 countries, a third use podcasts regularly: In South Africa and Kenya, Reuters found around 40 percent of the more educated, urban samples to be monthly podcast users. Fifty percent of the responders found podcasts to provide a deeper understanding of issues than other forms of media.This is a tremendous step for technology in our age, where mainstream media prohibited certain topics because of viewership or listenership, numbers and interests as well, the internet allowed us to host them on our terms (of course there’s the issue of regulation which calls us to be deliberate about the content we put out; but it’s beautiful to know that we can now freely share our stories with the most limited resources). From mainstream to niche, there are loads more content to choose from when it comes to podcasts.
However, visuals such as Youtube and television still pose competition to the struggling world of radio and its audio-related counterparts such as podcasts, and even from amongst ourselves, how do we navigate the endless pull of content that is available on the internet while maintaining our authenticity and uniqueness while staying conscious of the constant evolution of technology: The introduction of live streams into the podcast world being one of the converts we’ve seen. Even amidst the prevalence of English podcasts, we are also seeing the rise of podcasters carrying their native African languages into the audio world.
Speaking to Radio France in 2021 during the inaugural Africa Podcast Festival which took place on February 12, World Podcast Day, Melissa Mbugua, the festival co-founder said:
“Languages that are widely spoken on the continent are Swahili, Arabic, Amharic, Yoruba, Zulu… We are starting to see quite a number of them popping up – this is an expectation we have of the future of the podcasting industry, is that we will have many languages, an uninhibited by the language barrier,”
So what is the future of audio? Here is what David I. Adeleke had to say in his piece ‘Radio’s secret sauce: content and engagement’ from the Communiqué blog:
"On-demand audio is the future, and the earlier we begin to build towards that future (with deliberate investments into content distribution, Internet infrastructure, and understanding user behaviour), the better. If podcasting is how on-demand audio will scale, then we have to pay more attention to it. But if it isn't, if other channels align more with pre existing behaviour, we should pay closer attention to them."
Chini Ya Maji Media (CYM) formerly Chini Ya Maji Podcast began with a simple mission and purpose, to unearth the amazing stories of the startup ecosystem that have been hidden for so long yet offer a mine of information for this newly chartered territory in Nairobi Kenya. Now, the podcast has been able to spread it wings wide to greater continent of Africa and its unique and insightful stories.
In accordance with our flywheel as an organisation, we are absolutely in the business of storytelling. While Kenya is slowly settling into this new found reality of startups, so many other countries have gone before us and offer insights on how to venture into the startup ecosystem, sourcing for talent, the untold stories of venture capital and much more information for founders and teams alike. The internet is flooded with both useful and nugatory information, we however choose to add value to a society that is yet to realize its full potential in this dynamic ecosystem.
Currently headed to 100 podcasts, we have witnessed the growth of what started from the living room of our host, Mark Karake with simply a phone, earphones and a vision to hosting some of the most phenomenal leaders of startups in our age, housing amazing podcasts that have now taken a life of their own such as The Financial Wellbeing Show and meeting phenomenal individuals in the startup world like Richmond Bassey, Co-founder and CEO of Bamboo from our recent podcasts to oldies such as Rio Yamawaki, Fund Manager at Kepple Fund. These beautiful stories hidden for so long can now be heard by anyone and everyone around the world with the hunger to learn and grow both individually, or as an organisation.
“Look around you. Everything changes. Everything on this earth is in a continuous state of evolving, refining, improving, adapting, enhancing…changing. You were not put on this earth to remain stagnant.”
Evolution is inevitable and no one understands this better than we do at CYM. We’ve seen a change in our style of presentation to our quality of guests which in turn has led to a different quality of podcasts altogether. Storytelling has by far seen a rise in our traction as an organisation and from our end as CYM, it can only get bigger and better even with constant technological evolution. We choose to change for the better even as we unearth your startup stories. We choose to charter our own path even as we maintain our best qualities. So on our road to 100, we choose to look back at our wins and appreciate the growth. We also choose to appreciate you who’s walked with us from the beginning. This wouldn’t be possible without you and your beautiful stories, your hunger for information and your zeal to grow.
From here on it’s simple… Onwards and upwards!!!!
#ROADTO100
