Whether you know her as one of the anchors on eTV's morning show, Sunrise, a newsreader on eNews Direct or in her capacity as a businesswoman, one thing is for sure, Faith Mangope is one of the hardest working women in the business.
As if the 31-year-old anchor, entrepreneur and radio personality didn't already have enough on her plate, she has taken on a new challenge – she will be managing DJ Sbu's, Massiv Metro, which celebrates its first anniversary in May.
The anniversary will be commemorated with version two of the Massiv Metro app, along with a vibrant new lineup.
During her time at Massiv Metro, she has gone from senior producer to head of programming to Station Manager, all in the space of a year.
Massiv Metro - the brainchild of DJ Sbu and Massiv Media - is a hybrid online and terrestrial radio station that reaches 672 000 listeners per six-day week, streaming live in eight Johannesburg taxi ranks and 800 taxis and online.
Mangope serendipitously got her start at 702 after accompanying a friend to an audition. She ended up auditioning as well and got a job call-screening and before working her way up into producing shows - all while continuing her studies at Wits as an International Relations and Industrial Psychology student. She was later recommended to DJ Sbu (who was in the market for a new producer for his YFM show at the time) by Redi Tlhabi.
“My training at 702 had encouraged 40-something thinking, as had the life challenges I had dealt with. I needed to find the young me to identify with the target audience at YFM. I was given a mandate by Kanthan Pillay (then head of YFM) to go and party and get to understand the youth market. I did – it was excellent, and I thrived in the YFM environment,” explained Mangope.
In 2014 she was chosen to be one of 500 participants in the Young African Leaders Initiative - 43 of whom were from South Africa - for the Mandela Washington Fellowship programme, spending six weeks at the University of Texas studying Entrepreneurship and gaining a strong pan-African perspective on global affairs.
While in Washington DC, she was asked to give a brief speech and introduce President Obama when he addressed the summit.
“It was a defining moment in my life. Here I was, a girl from rural Mpumalanga addressing the leader of the free world – and impressing him. I knew it was crucial to be a world-changer, to have an impact, to continue to focus on building lives,” said Mangope in a statement.
She believes MAssiv Metro embodies that same spirit.
“I love this platform – it is innovation personified. When you are able to play in an online space, but as a terrestrial medium, you understand just how much innovation has gone into developing this initiative. We’re online, but we are in taxis, a captive audience at all times. This is where radio will be going – and we are in a position to set the benchmarks for it.”
Speaking about the future of the station, Mangope says, “we have to be limitless in our thinking. By the end of the year, our commuter listenership will have grown to 1.5 million – and at this stage we are only in Gauteng. We plan to expand into all nine provinces, with local content and local offering. We’re going to be the biggest radio station in South Africa. Once we have the South African market, there is nothing to stop us partnering with radio stations across the continent to be streamed into commuter transportation.”
Listeners can tune in to Massiv Metro at www.massivmetro.com or download the app from the Google Play store (Android) and on the App Store (iOS).
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Main image credit: instagram.com/faithmangope