One morning I spent about 30 minutes talking to a young artist
who had decided to inbox me. He spoke at length about why the
music industry in Zimbabwe is unfair and how near impossible it
is to get your music played on radio. He spoke with a lot of
passion and I must admit a bit of anger and frustration in his
voice. He said he had got my number from someone he refused
to identify but was determined to give me a piece of his mind. All
the while I kept asking him for one thing. Please app me your
EPK. Introduce yourself in a professional manner. Don't be
angry, don't be emotional – engage in a meaningful way. After
what seemed to be an eternity he eventually addressed the
question he had been ignoring for 25 minutes. He said he did not
have an EPK. He said he had been submitting his music to
Power FM on CDs for years. Leaving them at the ZBC reception
desk and going home then waiting for airplay. He felt
discouraged because he believed his CDs never reached their
intended destination. He felt discouraged because of the effort
he was making, producing this music, these CDs and then
catching public transport to ZBC. He felt discouraged for so long
that the feeling transformed into anger and perhaps even a deep
seated hatred for anyone to do with radio, so when "someone"
gave him my phone number today he could not even introduce
himself for 30 minutes.