Ex-KTN Anchor Joy Doreen Biira Started Reading News at Age 16

Former KTN News anchor Joy Doreen Biira has revealed that she started reading the news at the tender age of sixteen years.



According to her website, Biira Online, the Uganda-born journalist disclosed that her passion for reading news began after her father observed that she was idle during her long high school breaks.



Her father would later take her to a radio station in her hometown, Kasese, called Messiah Radio, where he asked the management to teach Doreen about radio.



“I was asked a few questions and asked to return the following day to learn. A week later I was asked to read the news at 5 and 6pm,” part of her blog read.



She disclosed that she read news for about five minutes three times a week, where she was paid less than a dollar for every bulletin.

Nevertheless, she claimed that the gig was fun and interesting considering that she was gaining skills.

She learned how the studio equipment worked, how presenters used the microphone and how different they sounded from the news readers.



Afterwards, she returned to school where she took over the role of reading the news in front of the school assembly for two years before joining the Makerere University where she was admitted to pursue a Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, despite applying for mass communication.



While pursuing the course she claims that she would sneak into mass communication lectures as well as spending time at the Campus' radio station where the head of the department noticed her interest and encouraged her to go for her passion.



In 2008, she relocated to Kenya to work at Capital FM's weekend breakfast show.

She later joined Standard Media Group in January 2012 as a news anchor and reporter with KTN.