BY VERA WISDOM-BASSEY
My name is Nketso Gagona Tihasana. I’m what Nigerians like to describe as on-air-personality OAP). I have been presenting programmes for nine years: four years on radio and five years on television. I must confess that it has been an exciting ride, a good training ground for sharpening my peoples’ skills. I can say that I have developed a deep relationship with my listeners.
My TV programme runs from 6-to- 8 am every week day, while the radio programme, which is a morning lifestyle show runs from 9am to noon, that is, midday. Let me also say that we have only one television station in Botswana.
As a career woman who is also a wife and mother, life I must confess has been challenging. I guess that is to be expected. For me there are times I will to wake up by 5:00am in the morning and stay awake till night. It is always tough getting quality time with my family. There was a time I was always reading news on Radio/TV, as well as having other programmes. Doing all those shows affected me and my family. But I am very grateful to my mentor, who was very helpful. She understood my dream and aspiration. One day she sat me down and gave me a lecture on how to go about this job. She asked me, “Are you sure you’re not taking on too much? When do you have time for your family?”
There was a time I realized that my family life was slacking, because I didn’t have time for my family. It is a challenge that career women struggle with, because the home is most times neglected. The society generally believes that the home is the woman’s place more than the man. A man can spend a lot of time away from home, but for the woman it is not so.
Balancing the gap has been very, very challenging. But today, I can say that I have grown. I know that family comes first and I don’t want to abuse myself such that I won’t have time for my family. So it’s been a learning curve.
Interestingly, my husband has been very supportive. Fortunately for me, I married somebody from the same industry, so when am out on an event, he joins me at times and at the same time he understands even when he’s not out there with me and he’s sleeping, he’s doing it peacefully, because he knows exactly where I am, knows the nature of my job and that am doing my job, so that has really helped.
For a very long time, even before I went into the performing arts, I had always been passionate about it. I had a particular passion for radio and television, where I wanted to be either a presenter or director. So this led me into Communication and Media Studies at Monase University, South Africa for three years before I got my degree.
For one year after graduation, I was unemployed, but later I applied for a job at the Department of Broadcasting, in the commercial wing of public broadcasting, which is where I started my broadcasting career on radio in 2006, and where I have been till date. But I have never been satisfied with the little I know. I have always been inquisitive to learn. So I decided to explore the television world as presenter. So anytime an audition was going on, I got interested, and tried my hands on news-casting. That was how my involvement with television started.
Source : SunOnline