On Thursday, while appearing on the NTV Tonight news bulletin, Andrew Kyamagero, also known in some circles as Omuntu Wawansi announced that after three years as an anchor, he was throwing in the towel.
Of course, the news was meant with heartfelt tributes from the audience, some commented that they were going to miss him while others went online to praise his final intro.
This is of course something that strikes a chord, it was a reminder that even when everything is online, even when information has had to be squeezed into 40-second videos for limited attention Gen Zs on Tiktok, people still watch news.
I could not help but focus on the good old days. Funny thing, at the time I did not know they were good days, we were young and knew the TV programming. Most of the time, it was CNN, it aired from midnight to about 5pm the next day.
Then shows such as Power Rangers, Ghostbusters, or Land of the Lost would air.
You definitely know the TV we are talking about, WBS, those people changed how we looked at TV and it was worth it. We loved their programming but we always had to sacrifice a few shows, not that we had to run to bed to prepare for the next day, but because elders would ditch whatever programming was on WBS to catch Bbaale Francis delivering the news on UTV.
There was nothing special about UTV, especially when WBS showed up, but the UBC news was still special and gold; the man with his grey beard would beam on the screen and say the magic words: Good evening viewers.
Those words sent my young self and my siblings into a frenzy, like he and colleagues were talking to us specifically. Most of the time we rarely watched past the first story which we did not care about.
But, there was a way news was delivered that stole a glimpse of two. It is not surprising that most of us, even before we turned 18, had started paying attention to bulletins.
Now why do we need to meet?
Most of us who recognise the greeting ‘Good evening viewers’ are in our 30s or on our way there.
A good number have become parents, empowered parents and outspoken as well. We tell the world about everything that goes on in our lives through that blog called X and visualise much of it on another micro-blog, Instagram.
This is mainly because we love reading and sharing information, something that was nurtured by our parents when they cultivated the habit of seeking information by making us watch Bbale Francis on UTV. It is funny we thought the programme was called Good Evening Viewers.
Today, as we raise another generation, we have decided to become woke or simply too sophisticated by dismissing everything formal. We do not read news because it is outdated and for some reason, we do not also watch the bulletins because it is outdated.
Now, much as the choices are ok, (I mean these are our lives) they directly impact the young people we are raising.
At least, reading a newspaper when I was a child did not only make me a better reader but a brilliant writer as well. This came in handy later when I had to write my research papers. But besides that, a child needs to seek knowledge, and information and above all, develop a habit of wanting to know, and wanting to read.
Today, when much of what we are watching with our little ones is Despicable Me, we risk missing out on a child who will challenge us as to why we write from left to right.
Surprisingly, after throwing all forms of media out, we are still the parents encouraging these children to take up writing and probably public speaking, what if they end up on TV, who will watch them?
Anyway, if we could meet, we would talk about ways of getting our young ones interested, not only in seeking information but being concerned about what is going right and wrong in their country.
But, most importantly to ensure that the one that throws in the towel after Kyamagero will have a person to hand over and an audience, it is better than throwing in the towel and switching off the lights in one go.
