A new dawn has been ushered in at Umhlobo Wenene FM, as a new station manager, Nada Wotshela, is appointed.

Nada holds a BA degree from the University of Fort Hare, a certificate in Broadcast Management from Wits University, and is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Development Studies with Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.

Her career in broadcasting started at Ubuntu Community Radio in 1997, where she received training in various areas of broadcasting. In 1998 she moved to CKI FM (now truFM) in Bhisho where she started as a newsreader, and later moved on to working with programmes.

In April 1999 she accepted the position of presenter at Umhlobo Wenene FM. At the age of 25 she was the youngest staff member at the station which had an average age of 47, and was generally perceived as "old fashioned and boring".

A year later she moved into marketing as the station"s promotions officer. This gave Nada the platform to try and change the negative perceptions about Umhlobo Wenene FM. With her influence, the station started to pay attention to the youth market. A number of projects which still exist today were launched, such as the ever-popular Miss Umhlobo Wenene FM beauty pageant, lifestyle workshops, and the annual heritage month broadcast from Robben Island.

In 2003 she was appointed to the position of Programme Manager, which came with a huge responsibility as she was the station"s first ever Programme Manager. However, hard work and challenges have never scared Nada. In that same year she won an excellence award, which saw her jetting off to Dallas in the USA to attend an RAB Conference.

Throughout her career Nada has had her sights firmly set on the position of station manager. This happened sooner than she had imagined, when in July 2005 she was appointed station manager of CKI FM, where she was charged with the responsibility of repositioning and re-branding the station from a community station to a youth PBS station.

"Although I enjoyed the energy and creativity of the truFM team, I feel my job there is done. It"s now time to play with the big boys. Umhlobo Wenene FM is an established brand that could do even better with fresh ideas. The station is facing many... challenges that require new thinking," said Nada.