Muthoni Hunja's Critique summary of 'Mike on the Mike' and 'The Strand'.

Summary on Mike on the Mike on Jam 316 vs. The Strand on BBC.

 

Mike on the Mike is the morning show every morning every Monday to Friday between 6:30 am to 10am hosted by Mike on the Mike. Mike will accompany your drive to work and give you the best you can get every morning. He will entertain you with inspirational music, laughter and excitement to start off your day.

The Strand is a daily half hour programme highlighting the best of whats going on in the arts. Wide ranging and with electric interest, the Strand reflects the artistic response to the BBC news agenda. Hosted by Mark Coles and Harriett Gilbert.

 

Mike Gitonga known as Mike on the MIke is happily married with two children. Mark Coles is an award winning broadcaster and accaimled music journalist and Harriett Gilbert is an English writer, academic and broadcaster.

 

Mike on the Mike features, news review, the daily challenge to keep your spirit in focus, birthday call and inspirational music. The Strand features, discussions, reviews, big name interviews and location reports as well as live studio performances and Hollywood/Bollywood gossip.

 

Listening to these two shows has been interestting and has made me appreciate radio hosts. In the beginning my view of audio productions was very limited. However through the semester I have learnt that in radio you have to have your voice and have a connection with the audience. For example Mike on the Mike does not have the best voice its quite husky and lod as compared to the BBC presenters. I feel that Mike on the Mike is quite irritating to be quite honest and at first I regretted picking his show. But despite me wanting to listen more to the music than his voice he has a fan base, some Kenyans can't get enough of him! The BBC hosts eloquent speech and humour I really like listening to the show!

 

The station shows are quite different in the timing, one being half hour and the other being several hours. The Strand impresses me in how they edit their show to just 30 minutes, yet still passing along the information. Their audience being the youth and above. While Mike on the Mike is there to entertain everyone rushing to work or school, hence the time schedule. While making our 5 minute shows, I have struggled to keeping it exactly 5 minutes but with the practice and listening to the shows it has challenged me to be objective about who my audience is and what is the necessary information that is needed to be passed across.

 

How each show as different segments and how they keep them running is impressive! Mike on the Mike has his news reviews, the topic for the day, birthday calls and the daily challenge. While The Strand has its interviews, discussions, reviews and gossip. Every time I listen in I know when each segment is coming they do not fail to be precise.

 

Mike has taught me that especially to the audience in Kenya that you really have to interact with your audience. He gets them in involved through prank phone calls or wishing them happy birthday.With Mike it's not always about the constant prizes other commercial shows have.

 

There is listener participation throughout the show. While the Strand gets feedback through calls and posting messages on their site.I have learnt a lot of art from the Strand such as 50 years of African music, Shakespeare, Cairo street circus, Chinese contemporary poetry, Astronomical music, Turkish censorship and many more.

 

Audio production is amazing, listening to these two shows has made me excited to explore my self, in producing my 5 minute productions, most importantly that practice is important. The two shows are very different, yet entertaining in their own right. They have targeted their audience, moulding their magazine show to suit their purpose.

 

The issues I had with Mike on the Mike is his voice, I believe that he can improve it. His mic control needs to be improved sometimes he is too close to the microphone. As much as his segments are interesting I feel that he can be more creative with his segments he does too many pranks. With the Strand I am quite biased about the show, I feel that it is very professional in how the stories are presented giving a variety of segment presentation. This is credited to their past education in broadcast. I hope that after the course and my education in Daystar that I will be able to have the skill as a presenter if I choose to go in to that profession.