Popular presenter Alex Mwakideu has opened up about how his career progressed from earning a salary of Sh5,000 shilings to being one of the best radio personalities in Kenya.
During a recent interview on Churchill Show, Mwakideu said his first job on radio was an opportunity to do a commercial which turned into a formal job at Baraka FM in Mombasa.
His father had taught him the value of hardwork and making the best out of any opportunity.
"When I received my first pay cheque I moved out of home. My mom was shocked and cautioned that I would eventually return home but my brother told me that once a man moves out there is no room for going back.
"I moved into a nice neighbourhood with three of my friends; a three bedroom house. One of the first things I wanted to buy was a 6x6 bed because I was used to sleeping on the floor," he recalled, adding that one of the roomates was KTN's Anthony Ndiema.
At Baraka FM, one of his former bosses encouraged him to practice reading the news bullletin. One day one of the news anchors was caught up in traffic and couldn't manage to do the show.
Mwakideu was asked to step in and his seniors were so impressed that they decided to promote him.
"When I came out of the studio I was taken to the boss' office and told I would read the news regularly and my salary was increased to Sh35,000," the media personality recalls.
His career progressed and he was introduced to a network of journalists that covered various sports events across the world, exposing him to a lot of travel.
He got two job offers at the time but chose to cover the international assignments. One of the stations was Simba FM and KBC, where he had already reported for his first bulletin.
After settling back in Kenya, he coutinued working for Baraka FM until he got a job offer at Standard Media Group's Radio Maisha.
"I would fly to Nairobi to do the interviews and back to Mombasa to do a drive show the same day. My plan was to do news on Radio Maisha then look for a way to sneak into KTN.
"They (Radio Maisha) didn't like the person on the morning show and asked me to step in. I remembered my father's words and gave it my best shot and they retained me for the breakfast show. My salary increased to Sh75,000," he disclosed.
Mwakideu left radio maisha after 8 years in within which his salary has increased massively, refusing to disclose the amount. Currently he is one of the best paid presenters at Milele FM.
During his interview, he also disclosed that after his salary was reduced by 50% in 2020 following the Covid-19 pandemic, he created two income generating businesses to support the family.
He explained that he did not want to distrupt his children's lifestyle but instead look for ways of compensating the loss. Luckily for Mwakideu, his car wash and restaraunt businesses in Kitengela took off and was able to make more money than what was reduced.
Speaking about his private life, the media personality said that he met his wife while still in another relationship and only after he ended it did they start dating.