Yesterday marked 20 years since Kaya FM’s beloved son Thabo “T-bose” Mokwele made his debut on radio, starting back in his Jam Shack days on Yfm. But if you count correctly, his involvement with the airwaves dates back 24 years to when he was introduced to the craft at university.
“I didn’t even know that I was going to do radio to be quite honest. I’m a chemical engineer by training and I was on campus to do that. Radio came through because I needed to have a hobby on campus,” he says. As a firm believer that all work and no play will definitely make one a dull person, T-bose searched for that balance to his campus life. “And here comes this radio station thing. I went to go check it out. When I got in, already they are making me pick up boxes and sending me around and I thought, ‘wow, this is a movement. I am home’.
“I still feel like a teenager in the business, as much as it is 20 years on. I still listen to other maestros that I look up to and see the long road I still have to travel. People like Alex Jay, my colleagues here – how they interact with the listeners, it’s fascinating. One of my core values is to remain teachable and grab things all around. I think that is how I have achieved longevity,” he says. “I am truly surprised at how long I have stayed in the game and am still welcomed. It is one thing to stay, but another when you are not welcomed,” he jokes.
When people love you, you are the luckiest person in the world. But glory be to Him who gave me the talents because we are very quick to give praise to people who have opened doors, forgetting that those people were placed there by someone,” he says. Radio is not just a job to him, it became intertwined with who he is. He says it has become the reason why he wakes up every day. “There are two things I am really passionate about, people and music. Every time I play music by myself, I don’t enjoy it as much as when I am playing it for people. “Radio is the original social network before Facebook, Twitter and anything else. This is how we used to connect. Whether you see the person, whether you don’t, it doesn’t matter. But there was this personal relationship with the person on air.”
Thinking back to his highs and lows, he recalls his lowest being at a time when his contract with Metro FM was not renewed. The highest was receiving an MTN radio award. The low point “felt like a stab in the back. Radio is my first love – how can you divorce me like that? No warning, no nothing”. Winning an MTN radio award was “an affirmation that I’m in the right space, that I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing”, he says. “Imagine how many people to this day are still wondering if they are doing what they are called for. Some people don’t even know and here I am getting a confirmation of yes. That’s an affirmation like no other,” he says. Music is another notable element of his shows. “My relationship with music is very intimate. If there is anything I spend more time doing is listening to music. I am forever searching for a song and should I find it, then I must find its twin. I believe every song has a mate somewhere. You can’t just play a good song and leave it there. You must play a good song and back it up with another. I am forever searching for that good song.” T-bose’s journey with radio still continues as he believes that there is still a lot of work to be done, telling the African story in its entirety. “The African story has never been told right and we’ve only just started. It’s only now that we’re truly telling the African story.”