Fresh ZiFM turmoil as regional boss Tendai packs bags

Fresh turbulence has hit the AB Communications family as the newly deployed former ZiFM Station Manager and regional Stations boss Tendai Madondo has left her chair before it barely got warm, we can confirm.

Tendai Madondo, the feisty Iron Lady of broadcasting was reportedly head-hunted by national broadcaster ZBC to take on a new posting as the Station manager at Power FM with effect from February 1 of 2016.

Gone in search of POWER: Tendai Madondo

Madondo confirmed that she had hit the road, albeit with a tone of both anxiety and a fresh nostalgia.

“I can confirm that I indeed have taken up a new post as Station head at Power FM with immediate effect. It is sad because AB Communications mould me and everything that I know about broadcasting I learnt from them; they nurtured me and they are their authority has informed who I have become but it was time to move on after three years,” said Madondo.

She was reportedly pursued after a turbulent period when a host of erstwhile DJ’s left her then posting at ZiFM citing differences with both her and the station as well as other individuals, in a matter that was eventually settled.

After the ‘turbulence’ the assertive Tendai was redeployed to be responsible for new projects with insiders saying the move was because her goal-getter attitude would be best for setting up new projects as she is unwavering and a strict disciplinarian.

But barely a quarter of a year after taking over at Hevoi FM in Masvingo and 98.4 Midlands FM in Gweru which she was setting up simultaneously, the lure of bringing the lustre back to one of the fading giants of Zimbabwean radio and an undisclosed package proved a little too tantalising for Tendai.

This will no doubt leave AB Communications in limbo as Tendai was an integral part of the new adventures the company is undertaking across the nation. She was the fulcrum.

“True, it is sad that I am leaving after the recently released Zamps results showed that one of my babies (Hevoi FM) in Masvingo had performed best in the region barely long after we had started broadcasting even ahead of all the other existing actors and that is something I had become proud of, but this was a promotion and I had to take it,” she said.

“It is important to move on and grow and that is something we as Zimbabweans should become comfortable with; growth should take you places. I am well trained and well groomed by AB (Communications) and I should be ready to perform for my new employers,” she added.

Although it was run fairly well, the commercial edge had long since left Power FM, which at its peak as Radio 3 close to two decades ago was arguably the most popular cosmopolitan radio station in Zimbabwe and arguably in the region.

It had been pretty downhill after that with the station going comatose at one time. Tendai vowed to bring the ching-ching of commercial success to her new home.

“I would like to also say big up to my new employers because they have seen that there should be a commercial angle to the station and that is something I am good at. We should entertain and inform but also all the while we have to make money for the station and that is something I am well versed with,” she said.
While it is a new purple patch and interesting challenge for her, AB Communications, whose flag-bearer is ZiFM, will have to struggle to find her replacement as she remove her foot from the pedal which she had already started to accelerate on by way of Hevoi and 98.4 Midlands.

And the Supa Mandiwanzira boat has been rocked again by the loss of another general in the battle for supremacy of the airwaves.