While the entry of mobile phones came as a convenience to communication, the addition of the FM radio to the device would become the death of the physical radio as we know it.
Somehow, decades later, while the number of mobile phones in the country has increased exponentially, the radio as a source of entertainment and communication has retained its prominence in households.
Compared to television, which the 2019 census report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (Knbs) found to be in four out of 10 households (40.7 per cent), that of the radio stood at five out of every 10 households (56.9 per cent). READ MORE
“Radio is going to remain King as the most popular medium for information and entertainment for many more years, especially in Africa,” said General Manager and Head Radio Products at Standard Group Tom Japani.
He said its affordability, free access, real-time interactivity and wide reach are some of the reasons it is still the medium of choice for many people.
In what discredits the stereotype that individuals from Western Kenya love the radio most because of their love for sending greetings,
Central Kenya leads in ownership of the gadget, with seven out of 10 homes (74 per cent) in Nyeri County having a stand-alone radio.
Nyandaru is second at 72.4 per cent followed by Murang’a (70.7 per cent).
The ownership of stand-alone radio in Bungoma, Kakamega, Siaya, Uasin Gishu, Homa Bay, Kisumu and Vihiga counties is at six in every 10 households, while in Nairobi it is five out every 10 households .
In Mombasa, four in every 10 households own the gadget, while Turkana County has the least penetration, with just one in every 10 households owning the gadget.
When it comes to other household gadgets, technology has not been so fair to them.For example, ownership of a CD player in the 2005/6 financial year stood at 24.2 per cent but dropped 10 years later to 10.1 per cent, according to the latest Inequality Trends and Diagnostics in Kenya 2020.Over the same period, the proportion of households that owned radio dropped by just 8.4 per cent even as ownership of mobile phones, which are out to replace radio, went up by 65.8 per cent to 87.1 per cent.“Some of the declines in ownership of assets such as radio could be due to increased access of radio services on the mobile phone. The decline in CD players could be due […]
