Former Citizen TV news anchor and prolific media personality Janet Mbugua on Friday, October 25, recounted her journey through the ranks of both television and radio, for which she is well-known.
Talking to Betty Kyallo on Upclose With Betty on K24 TV, she narrated that after she completed high school, she wanted to take a gap year before proceeding to college, and her parents told her that they could only approve it if she got something constructive to engage in.
"I was in Mombasa in 2003, and my friend told me that there was a new radio station looking for presenters, and urged me to go and try it out, and so I went. It was known as Pulse FM," she narrated.
"When I went to the interview, the interviewer told me to say anything into the microphone. So I said 'hi, my name is Janet' and he told me to start the next day."
The media personality stated that when she broke the news to her parents, they approved her gap year, and early the next day, she reported to work, where she was set to earn Ksh10,000, which she alleged was not paid for three months.
She stayed on, however, buoyed by the knowledge that Pulse FM was a sister station of Capital FM, one of her dream work stations. Ms Mbugua told Betty that she started thinking about how she would climb up the ladder to Capital, and a clever idea struck her.
She asked someone at home to record her voice as she hosted her show on Pulse, a recording that she later took to Capital FM offices and left with the receptionist at the desk.
"I took the tape, walked into Capital, handed the receptionist the tape and asked her to give it to the programs director. I had to convince her to do it because I didn't have a name for myself then," she recounted.
"Every week I called in to ask if she had handed the tape to Phil Matthews, and then one day, she patched me directly to him without a warning, and he told me that he had received the tape and urged me to be patient as he worked through some logistics," she recounted.
She further narrated that weeks later, she was in Nairobi shopping for her cousin's wedding when Matthews called and asked her to report to the Capital FM offices.
Soon after, she became the Mid-Morning Magazine presenter and the host of the drive show at the station, a job she held for a year with a monthly pay of Ksh50,000.
Video Courtesy of K24
