How Raditladi found Yarona FM
Spira Tlhankane | Friday December 18, 2015 13:03
For some, they know Yarona FM as a successful leader in urban radio nationally, but they are not aware of the man who went from door-to-door to build the youthful radio station in 1999.
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam once said, “every successful story has a painful beginning and every painful beginning has a successful ending”. The same could be said for Raditladi’s brilliant journey.
The year was 1998 and the then 24-year-old Raditladi was studying for his second degree in psychology at the University of Cape Town.
One day he returned to Botswana during school vacation and visited one of his friends. To what was a beginning of everything, Raditladi came across a trampled copy of The Midweek Sun newspaper dated April 15, 1998.
Inside there was an advert from Botswana Telecommunications Authority (BTA now BOCCRA) inviting people to tender for a radio station. Raditladi said he developed a sudden interest in radio and that was when he sent money to a friend called Peter Kgosiemang to buy the tender documents. “He bought the tender on May 11, 1998 and because I was just a student I asked for the tender to be registered in my name,” he said. Raditladi said he involved Tiro Kganela and Kgosiemang in the first registration of the tender.
Like any other aspiring businessman, Raditladi wanted to pursue his idea but he didn’t know anything about radio. He went to seek help from a white man named Arn Allingham.
“I had a lot of challenges and I took P1,500 savings from my little micro lending business to pay Allingham for the business proposal,” he recalled.
Allingham completed the business proposal on May 22, 1998 and it was a guide needed for Raditladi to begin the radio business. After the business aspect was concluded, the ambitious Raditladi realised that he needed a technical partner so he asked around to find a Motswana who could link him with SA’s radio station YFM.
Exactly a day after acquiring the proposal, Raditladi did not waste time and travelled from Cape Town to Johannesburg.
“I linked up with Thato Sikwane (DJ Fresh) and he set up a meeting with the executive director of YFM, Dirk Hartford,” he said.
Raditladi indicated that Hartford was instantly interested, but he asked him to come in three days. “I honestly told him that I do not have accommodation therefore he should do it right away,” he said.
After initially obliging, Hartford agreed to write the letter and Raditladi was now good to go.
“I asked him to write everything in my name and YFM agreed to participate by taking 49 percent of the business as technical partners,” he highlighted.
The positive-minded Raditladi without hesitatingly quit his studies in SA and relocated to Gaborone to build everything from scratch.
He did not have any money at the time, but thanks to a mother who believed in him, Raditladi managed to get startup income of P10,000.
The BTA tender deadline was due July that year but it was since postponed to allow people to fully prepare. Raditladi said he was up against business giants like Moribo Investments, Bartholonew Gaobakwe, Rabba Krock, Thari Investment and Mmegi Broadcasting Corporation.
“I was a young man of 24 and competing against those giants, but my partnership with YFM and the investors I landed helped me win the tender,” he said.
He said he refused to change the tender from his name until he was made a strategic partner. “I changed the name of the tender to the name Copacabana just a day before the deadline on August 1998,” he said.
When the month of December approached, Raditladi began negotiations for the licence.
“We had to change the name so my SA partners wanted it to be named YFM or Yabona FM, but I refused,” he said. After deciding to change the name to Yarona FM, the radio station was coincidentally registered on Raditladi’s birthday, December 22, 1998. Yarona FM got a licence to broadcast regionally on May 17, 1999, exactly a year after Raditladi began his initial attempts on the idea. Yarona FM went on air in August 22, 1999. He highlighted that Yarona FM is something that is very close to his heart and it is the place where he used to work without pay.
“The YAMA iconic award is important to me because I worked very hard to build this brand from scratch,” he said.
Raditladi said he feels he has done what he wanted to do for the society.
He further told Arts & Culture that he did not own anything in the beginning. Raditladi said he wasn’t interested in the shares at the time, but he liked the concept. Because he did not have any money, Raditladi said he welcomed investors who in the end gave him three percent of the shares. “Now my shares have been transferred into a family trust and it’s now 13 percent,” he said.
Raditladi is still involved in the day-to-day activities and he is the current vice chairman. Raditladi is so adamant that these three months of May, August and December have much significance in his life as a whole.
“Life isn’t about finding yourself, its about creating yourself. I ran the station from 1999 to 2002 without a salary. That takes commitment,” he said. Now 40-years-old, Raditladi who has worked as a journalist for radio Botswana during his Tirelo Sechaba days has never presented anything on air despite his undying love for radio.