Cape Town media personality, Claire Mawisa has a solid media industry track record spanning over two decades.
She started off her career in 1993 as a model and the following year, at the age of 15, she appeared on the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine. This accolade led her to grace covers of leading magazines, host television and radio shows.
Mawisa praised Radio and TV personality Phat Joe, whom she co-hosted ‘Live and Dangerous’ with on Yfm’s breakfast show in the beginning of her career. Mawisa hailed Phat Joe as a creative genius who pushes the boundaries to a point where listeners are uncomfortable. She says she learnt a great deal from Phat Joe, as he taught her 80 percent of the things she knows about radio. Mawisa went on to praise Glen Lewis as a legend who, “breaks all the rules because he is true to himself”.
After YFM, she moved on to Metro FM where she worked for 6 years, after which she decided to let go of her on-air radio career and pursue content producing. “I stopped chasing a dream that was not for me”, said Mawisa.
To achieve longevity Mawisa encouraged radio practitioners to always ask themselves, “Am I relevant? Is what I am saying relevant?” She encourages radio practitioners to listen to other stations so as to note and observe what it is there are doing well saying, one can’t produce in a bubble. Finally Mawisa highlighted that radio is a 24 hour programming and every minute on radio should be prime time”.
Bulali Dyakopu
(Edited by Simbarashe Honde)