The over-a-thousand prospective radio personalities that turned up for auditions on Wednesday for Zimpapers’ Talk Radio is testimony that Zimbabweans are ready for an alternative radio station as well as a show of the immense talent that is walking the country’s roads.

From as early as 7am last Wednesday hundreds of job-seekers thronged Alexandra Sports Club to meet their destiny with broadcasting.

Evidently over the moon with the overwhelming response to the radio project, Pikirayi Deketeke, Zimpapers Group Editor-in-Chief and Chief Operating Officer, said inquiries had, in fact, started on the day before, with job-seekers coming just to ascertain the venue of the auditions.

“The overwhelming response is proof that Zimbabweans are more than ready for the new radio station. Besides, the auditions have given us a platform to hear new, fresh voices. We could have gone for the tried and known voices in broadcasting, but this is a new project with new ideas and thus we just had to have new voices and there are plenty of them here.”

The auditions were in three stages with prospective newsreaders, presenters and DJs initially getting a 30-second slot in freestyle. This was meant to gauge voice projection and confidence. After the 30 seconds of fame, the result was instant, either a “yes” or a “no”.

A “yes” meant progress to the next round, which was rather more vigorous, vexing and brought out all the natural talent. Appearing before a five-member panel, the interviewees were given a moment to describe themselves in about five lines, which was a deliberate move to let them settle down.

After the five lines, they went straight into the prepared script, or if the interviewee had their own, the better.

Veteran broadcaster Admire Taderera, who was moderating and carried with him the casting vote in case of a tie, had his years spent behind the mike telling as he helped most of the nervous interviewees to settle down. Nomsa Nkala, deputy editor of The Sunday Mail; Tapuwa Mandimutsira, group marketing director for Zimpapers; Daphine Tomana, group legal secretary and Adolf Majome, group financial director, made up the rest of the panel.

Explained Deketeke: “We gave the auditions as much publicity as possible so that we could tap into undiscovered talent and that people have come from as a far as Filabusi is testimony that we will have a national reach, complemented by our national newspapers.”

So transparent and public were the auditions that even staff from some Zimpapers publications tried their luck, and most of them failed where it mattered most: voice projection and confidence.

After going through the five-member panel, those who managed at least three “yeses” progressed to the third and final stage, which saw them going through an audio recording. The final list of presenters, newsreaders and DJs will be drawn from the recordings.

“We don’t have the numbers as yet as to how many we want,” explained Deketeke, “but the idea is to audition as many as possible, have as many varied, fresh voices as possible. As we speak, the studios are undergoing extensive final touches. We have experts arriving from South Africa to put everything in place.

“By end of this week we will have all the support and management staff in place. We are ready to go on air, first week of April, all things being equal.”

But if there was any hint of what Zimpapers Talk Radio is all about, there could not have been any better place to hear it in its formative stages than being at Alexandra Sports Club as the hundreds gathered tried their voices out.

Especially the screening sessions that were done around mid-day which were full of life, as the failed interviewees and those waiting for their turns, formed part of the radio “audience” and shouts of hoorays and naaahs pierced the grounds.

One prospective commentator from Filabusi had the five-member panel in stitches when he did a commentary on the Highlanders team of the late ’90s that included Charles

Chilufya. Moderator Taderera, very conversant in Ndebele as he is in Shona and English, asked the commentator why he didn’t do the current Highlanders team. The commentator progressed to the next stage, all the same. And there were heartbreaks, too!

After failing to make it into the second round, Phinias Makombe refused to leave the auditions, arguing that he had not failed.

He wrestled security into the toilets and told them he was not going anywhere, except to the next level.

He said he was good and he knew it, and there was no way he could have failed to “just hold the mike and talk”.

“I have a lot of experience in this and how can they say that I have failed yet I have been doing this for many years?

“I am a public performer and I am just coming from Chipinge,” fumed Makombe.

The distraught guy drew his Midlands State University student card and said: “I am qualified for this, I went to MSU and just finished my degree and then someone wants to say that I am not good.

“I will not take that. I am good and I know it, there is no need for anyone to tell me how good I am.”

Then there were a lot of imitators, too, copying radio personalities living and dead.