Sayat Demissie and her friends

Sayat Demissie and her friends having fun.

Sheger FM 102.1 Journalist Meaza Birru biography 

 

Good personality and journalistic role model: Journalist Meaza Birru

 

She is a veteran journalist, publicist, author and the owner of the first private FM radio station in Ethiopia's history.

 

Her honest questions, mixed with laughter and compassion, put the interviewer at ease.

 

She uses a simple approach to let her guests tell their stories in their own words.

 

She is a journalist who reads a lot before asking about an issue, has a good personality and journalism to emulate.

 

Her programs are presented in a clear, simple and attractive way, so that once they are broadcast, they will not disappear from the listener's mind. Her fans praise her saying, "Her work smells as good as her name."

 

There are many who admire her melodious voice and testify to her being a strong and humble woman.

 

"Ethiopia live forever!" Her sincere desire has not changed from yesterday to today.

 

She is one of the strong women who have been able to use their talent properly and have a positive impact on the generation - Journalist Meaza Birru.

 

In today's role model column, we bring you the experience of this wonderful woman. Happy reading!

 

Meaza Birru was born in Addis Ababa city in 1950. She studied from first to third grade in Hirna city, Hararge province, and completed her education from fourth to 12th grade at St. Mary's Girls' Catholic Boarding School in Addis Ababa.

 

In addition to being known for reading short stories to students in her school, her friends said that her teachers, who saw her high literary inclinations, said, "One day, we knew that a great man of wisdom would emerge."

 

When Hirna was a child, her neighbors were Oromo, Harari, Somali and Yemeni, so she had an upbringing with different cultural values ​​and ties to each other. This, along with her penchant for literature, is the foundation of who she is today, her colleagues testify. She describes Hirna as a "rich cultural interloper".

 

In 1967, when she was a high school student, she was sent to Tigray in the development campaign and served for six months.

 

"It was my first experience of what real responsibility looked like," she says of her six months at the facility.

 

When she entered Addis Ababa University in 1971, she was assigned to the Department of Linguistics in the Institute of Linguistics. Although she was disappointed with the assignment because she was not interested in philosophy, she was compensated for her dissatisfaction by the fact that her minor study was foreign language and literature.

 

An incident that happened when she was a third-year student at the university became the link between fragrance and radio. He was introduced to Meaza when he was looking for young people with good voices to play drama for the Sunday radio program organized by Ato Tadese Muluneh, who was the current head of programs of Ethiopian Radio. When he heard Maaza's voice recorded in the studio for testing, Tadese Muluneh was delighted to find it was the voice he wanted and liked.

 

Tadese Muluneh liked her voice and presentation so he hired her to read articles for the Sunday program every week and the love of fragrance and radio was born in Ethiopian Radio. From this time on, Maaza's voice became familiar and beloved by Sunday radio program listeners.

 

She became one of the families of the radio program by being an active participant who not only read other people's articles but also prepared her own articles.

 

Until she graduated from Addis Ababa University in 1974, she has been working on Ethiopian Radio's Sunday program. After her graduation, she started her regular job, but not in the Ethiopian Radio, which she loved and wanted, but in the Ministry of Culture, assigned by the government.

 

Her work was in a monthly sports magazine (later newspaper) called 'Merha Sport' published by the office. Although her new job took her away from radio, Amaya undauntedly took up radio as a part-time job.

 

While receiving a small fee from the radio station, she presented her favorite works to the public by presenting various talks and articles individually and collectively.

 

The content of the works that Meaza presented on the Sunday radio program were clear, simple and undifferentiated, focused on striving to enrich social life, so even after many years, their memory did not disappear from the listener's conscience.

 

In the same program, the most memorable of her creative works is the eighty-six-episode drama "The New Family", which was a popular family drama at the time.

 

After spending more than four years between 'Merha Sport' and radio, Meaza left the Ministry of Culture in 1979.

 

She served as Editor-in-Chief of National Bank's 'Brithu' magazine, writing and editing financial news and short stories.

 

She joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1984 and worked as a Press and Communication Officer for four years.

 

She stayed in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for three years, after which she started her own advertising agency.

 

However, in the 13 years from 1979 to 1992, fragrance and radio were separated.

 

Meaza reconnected with radio in 1992, when they started presenting the weekly 'Game' program on FM Addis 97.1 radio together with Feari Aalmu. Later, Lord Mangudai, Bharhanu Dgafe, Grumpy Nenebe and Darege Haile joined in and brightened the Saturday afternoon.

 

The 'Game' program was presented on FM Addis 97.1 until 1999, as it was loved by the listeners. As the government prepared to issue two FM radio licenses to the private sector for the first time, she submitted a detailed business plan and was one of 10 applicants to receive the license that made her the first private FM radio owner.

 

Overcoming the cost of radio equipment, lack of space, and expertise, Aroma obtained the license for Sheger FM 102.1 Radio in December 1999.

 

Sheger FM 102.1, which started reaching its listeners on September 25, 2000, has been around for the past 15 years with a unique radio flavor.

 

Married and a mother of three children, Meaza Birru is running Ethiopia's most popular and first private FM radio station as an owner, manager and journalist in addition to her family responsibilities.

 

The fact that her interviews are supported by research, she is a role model who is putting her bright mark on various Sheger radio programs in addition to 'Saturday Game' and 'Sheger Cafe' which she presents to Zawa with her humility and sweet words.

 

Amaya managed to capture the attention of the listeners with her presentation, especially her choice of the people she presents as a 'game guest' and the way she asks questions made the listeners look forward to her programs.

 

Her quizzes are playful and lighthearted and allow her audience to see their history, culture, lifestyle and life through the guests.

 

The fact that many historical scholars, government officials, artists, journalists and other experts who cannot be replaced easily, have prepared their life stories, work, thinking and their philosophy of life as an example for others, and made it to be preserved for history in their own words, makes her to be mentioned with distinction.

 

The experience of her guests in the preparation of the game, contributed to them, unwritten national issues and secrets so that they do not pass with the passing stories, are recorded and made to be widely known and passed on from generation to generation.

 

In fact, a few of the guests who were interviewed by a journalist, Meaza, are no longer in our church, but their stories are alive.

 

Amama, who does not like to be seen in public, brought Ethiopians from the country to religious leaders out in the open and made them talk.

 

Dr. Getachew Tedla, who was her one-time guest, said about Maaza's question: "...Five years ago, Mrs. Maaza Buru invited me as a game guest on her radio station. We did an interview and game that lasted for many hours in a four-room assignment. When she wanted to ask something, she said, 'Play a game.' Because he will bring this thing...' she urged and stirred up the events in the country and abroad, and I spoke to her from the bottom of my heart. Because her questioning is combined with laughter and compassion, no guest of the game sees her as a close friend, but as a heavy moderator."

 

When describing her personality, they said, "...I think Mrs. Meaza is one of the few journalists who have the best personality and whose journalism she emulates."

 

"Due to my great respect for journalism, I see myself not as a journalist, but as a person who works in a radio station," she says. Although she says this, the level she has reached and her excellent preparation are witnesses that she is the best journalist.

 

All those who have tried to document her life story say that her response, "What have I done?" is a challenge to them not to write her story. Although she refrains from talking about herself in all the various occasions she has appeared in the media, the few stories she has told are very instructive.

 

These works of hers are exemplary for journalists engaged in this field, and can be considered as outstanding contributions and can be a lesson for the next generation.

 

Bahir Dar University awarded her an honorary doctorate in 2015 as a fitting recognition of the fact that she is a model of strength in journalism in Ethiopia and a role model for many in the field.

 

Story teller: Lemi