Fred Obachi Machoka is a renowned Kenyan media personality and the long-time host of the Roga Roga show on Royal Media’s Citizen Radio.
He says his broadcasting journey started by accident.
Fred started as a GSU officer in the North Eastern province, previously known as the North Frontier District. While there, he says he used to listen to Voice of Kenya (VOK) radio, which used to hold various competitions for its listeners.
One of VOK’s popular radio programs was known as Sanyo Juu. While participating in one of the competitions, Fred won a prize and received a letter from VOK directing him to collect his award at Pioneer House in Nairobi.
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Consequently, during his next leave from his security job, Fred visited the offices to collect his prize. He had to show his identity card to the radio producers to prove that he was the real winner.
One of them commented that he had a radio presenter’s voice and asked whether he would be interested in a radio career. Ever the opportunistic, Fred agreed.
However, there was one problem. He was not ready to immediately quit his security job. The producer devised a solution for him to prerecord several programs, which would be played later when he returned to his job. That is how his radio career started.
Radio Career
Fred started listening and enjoying his broadcast voice while at the Northern frontier.
“I found the microphone’s sweetness to be better than that of guns,”
he says.
In December 1976, he quit service and became a full-time radio broadcaster. This was because he was making more money through radio broadcasts than his GSU job.
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Around the same time, Sanyo Juu’s host, Saidi Omari, died. VOK’s management approached Fred with an offer that he teams up with Mohammed Ramah, a seasoned radio presenter, and be the show’s co-host.
He later started hosting other programs, such as “Ever Ready Paka Power,” “Ugua pole na lucozade,” and other programs. Fred Machoka had become a celebrity.
“If I was previously in the swimming pool of broadcasting, I Had now entered the ocean,“
he says.
He was working alongside veteran broadcasters like Stephen Kikumo, Lenard Mbotela, Mohammed Njuguna, Salim Mohammed, and others.
Citizen
Things were going well for Fred Obachi Machoka, as he was learning about advertising and public relations. He had started a company called FM 35 promotions, whose major task was to churn out commercial broadcasting.
One day, while working in his office, he received an offer to become a presenter at the starting royal media station, Radio Citizen.
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He was to host a show that would rival KBC’s show, run by Tony Msalami. At first, Machoka turned down the offer since Citizen was then a mere startup, and he was already a household name in the media industry.
However, his friends encouraged him to take up the offer as he would only be working during the weekends. Fred took up the job on one condition: Royal media would pay him according to his terms.
Roga Roga Show
On his arrival at Citizen, Fred started the ‘Roga Roga’ show, a name he says was coined from the late Issa’s song “tutawaroga,” which was the trending banger at the time.
After a few months, the show started rivaling other shows in the genre. “Roga Roga” is still number one up to date, and I thank my fans for that,” says Machoka
Advice to upcoming radio presenters
Fred’s advice to upcoming radio presenters is for them first to understand the theatrics of a radio show. Like any show, there is a time when the curtain will open and close.
“You will only be a radio presenter for a brief period, and then other people will come and overtake you. If you are aware of that, you will know how to plan your life. You must remember that you have a life of your own, separate from the celebrity life people expect from you,”
he says.
Fred Obachi Machoka – Bizna Kenya
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