The long awaited Llyeja FM is finally on air, this comes after the district had gone for years without
accessing both private and public radio stations.
Lyeja, which means the dawn in the local language Nambya, is broadcasting on frequency
modulation 107.3 metre band every day.
Speaking to the Lyeja FM station, Programmes Manager, Thulani Munyandi said the radio station will
educate, entertain the community which it has given an opportunity to present developmental
issues to the people of Hwange.
“We promise massive entertainment, we promise them educational programmess, we promise
them more developmental programmes. These are the programmes we are going to be airing on our
station as we try by all means to build our district. Looking at that our station is using local languages
to broadcast, we believe the use local languages will also build our identity as Hwange people.” said
Munyandi
“We will have entertainment where people will phone in and greet their loved ones in different
languages. I mean Nambya ‘ngatimusaneni’, Dombe ‘kujuzyanya’, Nyanja ‘tipasaneni moni’, and
IsiNdebele ‘ukubingelelana’.
“These are the programmes which are very engaging. We think the people will enjoy that because
they will be engaging us and each other. Besides this we are also trying to negotiate with the
authorities especially from the soccer governing boards so that at least when the season starts we
want to broadcast. We want to have soccer commentary every Sunday. Those are the other
programmes which we expect or people can expect from the station as we go forward,” said
Munyandi.
“We started broadcasting on air state on the 16 of December 2022, and we are now playing out
music mostly which is a regulation. Whenever a radio station goes on air you start by playing music,
checking the signal and all other technical staff. But we are moving gears up very soon. We were
waiting for the full installation of our equipment which I am happy to say was installed last weekend.
“We are now having shifts where we are training our producers and presenters how to use the desks
and how to use the machine. Today Monday we had a morning show where we had a jewel
presentation from citizen journalism, citizen producers’ presenters who are being trained so far on
the state of broadcasting.”
Asked whether the station will also carry news bulletings in the local languages, he said:
“On the issue of the news bulletin we are still trying to come up with a schedule. The challenges
which we are coming across emanates from us employing or auditioning producer presenters first as
we did not touch the news side. These same people are now being trained to be able to also gather
news, such that when one is on radio on that day one can be on the news desk and do our bulletins.
Our bulletins will be coming from 7 am until 8pm every day,” added Munyandi.
Lyeja is part of the 6 community radio stations which was licensed by the Broadcasting Authority of
Zimbabwe (BAZ), as the country enters a new era in the broadcasting sector.
The community radio was set to help bring in and stimulate the much needed development to the
small mining town as it also promotes local languages.
Lyeja FM will cover the whole of the Hwange district from Gwayi, Kamativi, Msuna, Jambezi up to
Victoria Falls and approximately200 Km distance will be covered.
