Miss Nada Wotshela is the Group Executive for SABC Radio, a position she has held
since November 2017. Her portfolio of 19 radio stations ensures that she commands
nearly 75% of audience share in South Africa. With a combined audience of 28 million
listeners and a revenue target of R1,7 billion, Nada is amongst the most powerful
women in South African media. Her illustrious career in broadcasting started at a
community radio station in her home town of Port Elizabeth in 1996, where she
assumed the roles of announcer, newsreader and producer. She joined the South
African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in 1999 as a junior announcer at Umhlobo
Wenene FM. In 2003 she became the Programme Manager and she went through
intense on-the-job training in programming mechanics from ESP Media Australia.
Nada’s creative work on the station’s blue book and PBS designed programme clocks
won her the Best Programme Manager Award in 2004 which saw her jetting off to
Dallas, Texas to attend the annual NAB Conference and tour some radio stations in the
USA.
In 2005 Nada was appointed as station manager of CKI FM where she was given two
unambiguous mandates, to fully integrate the station into the SABC and to reposition
and rebrand it into a youth radio station. Within two years she delivered present day tru
fm, complete with a prototype PBS radio structure and programming. She moved back
to Umhlobo Wenene FM in 2008 and became its first female and youngest station
manager at the tender age of 34.
Amongst her achievements at the oldest isiXhosa broadcaster is the current corporate
identity and the station’s first professionally commissioned on-air imaging (Molo Kaloku
by Sliq Angel). She also launched what later became the biggest radio show in South
Africa with 3 million listeners per week, the station’s breakfast show better known as
BEE. In 2011 Nada moved to Cape Town to become the Provincial General Manager
for SABC Western Cape province. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the
University of Fort Hare, MAP from Wits Business School and various other broadcast
related certificates.