By ELSIE EYAKUZE

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This week I discovered that Citizen TV presenter Jeff Koinange has an interesting sense of style.

Veteran broadcast personalities often develop idiosyncratic elements to stand out and maybe relieve the boredom of having to dress up every day.

I admit I don’t notice what the female presenters are wearing though I am sure it is always gorgeous. It’s an androphile thing, though I do note my ladies in the hijabs – fun to see the colour choices and different styles of draping.

Yes, I am being reluctantly exposed to Kenyan TV at the moment because my government has more or less decreed through various regulations that I do not fully understand that local networks cannot broadcast news without a permit to do so.

Also, satellite TV providers like DStv cannot broadcast local network TV in Tanzania because network channels are free and apparently DStv is “making Tanzanians pay to watch them” so they’ve taken them off the air. We are now left with the Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation, our state outlet.

The history of Tanzanian broadcasting is a part of my growing up as a citizen. Circa 1994, local industrialist Reginald Mengi launched ITV so that Tanzanian football fans could watch the World Cup, among other things.

Ergo, Tanzania spontaneously adopted the American model of independent privately owned network television as the norm, unlike most African countries.

The government at the time only used radio for broadcasting, but they… eventually… realised that television was probably a critical medium to have.

We’re talking 1990s, folks… TV made its first broadcast in 1928. Anyway, so the government of the United Republic of Tanzania woke up and launched TVT.

Because it is mainly in Kiswahili, the variety and vigour of our media and subsequent political debates remained a Wakanda-level secret.

So, in Tanganyika, TVT was being its musty and boring self, with soporific programming. The only thing they had in their favour was access to all the incredibly cool archival footage that the government is storing extremely badly somewhere at the Ministry of Information.

Anyway, more and more privately owned networks came on air and by the 2010s we had a credible range of channels offering country-wide coverage and a variety of entertainment to suit our many different tastes.

TVT was comfortably ignored… until Jakaya Kikwete heard that BBC veteran broadcaster Tido Mhando was retiring from the Beeb. Suddenly, Mhando was TVT’s new boss.

He immediately upgraded that sad outfit and modelled it on the Beeb. Point of history: BBC basically invented public broadcasting, especially TV as we know it. If you are interested, you should read David Attenborough’s Life on Air.

TVT became Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation. They remodelled their studios, upgraded the equipment and hired a mix of young blood and old hand.

In the tradition of old-school journalism, TBC strove for non-partisan coverage and factual information as well as intelligent interviews with government officials, opposition, activists, artists, you name it.

Never have I been happier to see my tax shillings being used by a public entity.