Kigali’s crown princess of radio

Illah, is a radio presenter with Flash FM 89.2. She presents the Sun Up show every week days from 6 to 9am and Shake, My Jam from 12 to 1 pm every Saturday. I catch up with her to get her story so far and her ambitions. Born Grace Magambo on January 10, 1989, she went to school at Camp Kigali, Green Hills Academy and Lycee de Kigali. She is now on her Senior six vacation. During her school days, the soft spoken 19 year old managed a school Newsletter, “The Mirror” that reported on school news. So, don’t ask yourself how she managed to make it to a prominent FM station at her age. ‘I’ve always felt an informant right from my school days. I’ve been an MC for most school parties and occasions. I think people love what I’m doing,’ she says. And this is not just it, very soon she will join the National University of Rwanda (NUR) for her Journalism Degree and she hopes to use it (degree) to open up her own fashion/entertainment magazine. Every successful being has a moving force behind them. Not Illah! She says ‘I think I was born like this and been like this, I’ve always known how to get the attention of people. I only learn from the different people I meet in my work, there is no particular person I see as a role model.’ Phew!! Her major success was when she hosted East African Dance hall sensation Red San in 2006. ‘I realised how far I had gone, and the trust my bosses had in what I do.’ She hasn’t looked back since then.Free style goes hand in hand with Hip-Hop and that’s her field. ‘I like playing Hip-Hop and R n B. Anything that moves my pulse!’ As a radio presenter, she knows how far they have come. ‘FM presenters are trying to do their best, but some things seem to make us lag behind. We need support from the listeners and corporate companies, because this is about them,’ she says. She advises her fellow radio presenters to play what is in their particular style, saying, ‘if you have a particular style of music, keep it up and try to improve it. Don’t look at other people’s style because you will find it easy to uplift what is in you.” “No one should tell anyone that they can’t make it” is the rule that has kept her on her feet, despite the numerous hurdles. Ends