New radio station hits the airwaves

Oleosi Kgosi | Tuesday August 1, 2017 15:50

The luxury environment oriented online radio station dubbed ICE (Innovate, Create and Collaborate) 100 Radio hit the airwaves a few days ago unannounced as it caught many unaware. The online radio station is currently available on an App, as it will soon be making its way to other streaming platforms such as websites.

“This is a very much citizen of the global village platform because we create and produce well researched content for a wide audience around the world. We are changing the landscape by taking things forward as we decided to take it online showing what Botswana is capable of,” said ICE100 Radio managing director Bonnie Dintwa who is also the co- owner of the radio station. Since it is a luxury-oriented station ICE100 Radio executes content for the urbanites that ranges from music, radio programmes hosted by young professionals who have radio experience.

With online radio being not so familiar to many Batswana who still prefer to listen to the traditional radio, Dintwa noted that it is time they broke the new ground by introducing an online platform which is one of the first online radio stations in the country.

“We do not believe in waiting for the proper time of doing things. Botswana is ready for such a platform. On our first day on air we received a massive response from listeners around the world especially locally. This is also a chance for local entities to advertise their products and services to an international audience.”

Notable faces such as rapper, Scar, Drew Chadhall, Zizi Panther, Leungo Pitse and Moses Maruping are part of the ICE100 Radio who are working as hosts at the radio station.

“Our hosts are not just your ordinary radio presenters but they are experts in the various fields they talk about in their programmes. They engage with the listeners proper because they know what to talk about, for instance Scar’s show talks about music and artists; he is the best person to be hosting it. Drew’s show is about arts,” Dintwa said.

Unlike most radio stations that have news bulletins ICE100 Radio does not have news at all as it has a news wrap programme hosted by Maruping that focuses on what was taking place during the week and over the weekends.

Dintwe noted that the radio station is currently in talks with local mobile network companies to have Internet packages that one can subscribe to so they can stream and listen to the radio station. “We are not in competition with any local radio station; we actually want to work with them and help them improve their services. Our police also is that we do not poach radio hosts from other stations. We already received applications from a number of people who are currently working at the various radio stations.”

Dintwa noted that they are working on having the radio station to be more interactive with the audience as they will introduce elements such as video streaming whereby one can listen and watch radio hosts doing their thing. With the radio station still fresh, it currently does not have any radio programmes taking place during the weekends and it is planning on offering the general public an opportunity to host radio shows in a bid to find new radio talent. They have announced on their respective social media platforms on how one can get such an opportunity.