It appears that the game of musical chairs at Royal Media's Inooro FM is far from over.
In fact, at the look of things, the already bad situation continues to escalate to a different new level by day.
This follows fresh reports indicating that seven well-polished Inooro FM 'mashinani' correspondents are on their way out of the S.K Macharia-owned radio station after they were offered better perks by Slopes Media.
Slopes Media, located at Nairobi's Village Market area, is the parent company that owns the soon-to-be-launched Mt Kenya TV and Iganjo 94.6 FM radio.
The new media house is in turn owned by billionaire businessman Andrew Ngirici who is the husband to Kirinyaga Woman Rep Purity Ngirici.
According to our highly placed source within RMS and who is privy to this latest haemorrhage of Inooro FM talents, the seven correspondents includes Festas Rango (Naivasha), James Matheri (Nyandarua) and Charles Gikunga (Kiambu).
The others are Ann Ngige Nyamu (Thika), Julius Kareithi (Muranga South), Victor Kinuthia (Muranga North) and Martin Munene (Nyeri).
Most of these correspondents not only report for Inooro FM but also to its two sister TV stations, Inooro and Citizen.
However, this multifaceted reporting has been a thorn in the feet of these reporters whom according to the source are paid 'peanuts'.
"Imagine a situation where a reporter is asked to package three different stories for radio and TV but the pay remains unchanged.
"Some of them even report to the TV stations live on location yet they are never given dressing allowances as their colleague reporters based at the Communication Centre. Big name and no money has been their way of life," said the source on Saturday.
To add insult on injury, the correspondents are remunerated on 'pay-per-story' basis and they are not facilitated in any way.
That means they have to cater to their transport, lunch and other kinds of expenses that reporters incur to bring you the stories you read, listen or watch daily.
"At RMS it has been a case of the Animal Farm where some animals are more equal than the others. This makes correspondents feel sidelined despite the fact that they are the ones who toil and soil themselves to get that hot story that the Nairobi-based reporter will never come across," the source adds.
At Slopes Media, the 7 correspondents are said to have been promised permanent and pensionable jobs, medical insurance and other 'goodies that befits a radio or TV reporter'.
Inooro FM has at least lost four popular on-air presenters to Iganjo FM who are reportedly leaving due to poor management of the radio station among other reasons.
The new media house is said to have invested close to a billion shillings as it seeks to gain a niche on the competitive Kikuyu radio and TV market currently dominated by Inooro FM, Kameme FM and their respective TV stations.
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