By: TSHEDZA MUFAMADI
Women are the most inspiring human beings in the world who have love and power which makes them stronger. Marcolene Roach is an example of proud women who is an inspiration to many. Marcolene Roach was born in Port Elizabeth Eastern Cape. She is the eldest of siblings born from a wonderful and humbled family with values, morals and ethics.
Marcolene Roach has her motto which says that knowledge is power and has armed her knowledge throughout her life. Marcolene Roach have achieved a lot of things in her life, she is a Brand and Marketing Strategist and aided in growing personal and professional brand. She has worked in PR and marketing, and she was fortunate enough to be part of some of the Top Corporate Companies and have spent time working and training abroad and now she co-owns a very successful Event Management Company with her husband, and she is also a station Manager at Poort FM.
In addition to her extensive PR and marketing experience she is also a Certified Master Office Professional (CMOP), have a Project Management qualification, a Strategic Branding qualification, PR and Marketing Diploma, a Communication Science qualification, a Management Development qualification, an Information and Knowledge management qualification and also a qualified Facilitator Assessor and Moderator. Above all Marcolene Roach is a proud mother, daughter, aunt, motivator leader and a friend.
Marcolene is a women of many talents she started her journey at Poort FM in June 2019 and since then she has made the radio station to achieve the level of Podcasting, growth in listenership, Outside broadcasting, credibility with many subject matter experts and professionals gracing her station, an App on Google Play Store, an internship programme with interns from Broadcasting industry – TUT Journalism, Emendy, Boston and media Revolution College, Radio Awards 2020 and 2021 and more.
We can proudly say that Poort FM is big all because of Marcolene Roach as she did all the hard work to bring Poort FM from the ground to where it is and making sure that it grows big and continue to change many people`s lives in broadcasting and helping them to gain experience in the industry and helping them reach their goals and future as professionals. Were it not for Marcolene`s determination, Poort FM could not have gained a broadcasting license.
Marcolene said that the advice she gives to the aspiring youth entrepreneurs is that one of the main ways to get useful information is to learn from other entrepreneurs, particularly those who are at the same stage of their businesses as where they are. Another bit of advice would be to avoid placing a focus that they are competitors and to rather exchange your own formation and knowledge for theirs because this will make networking mutually beneficial, perhaps leading to potential opportunities especially collaborations in the future.
Marcolene is also helping Tshwane University of technology journalism students to do their internships at her Radio station so that they can gain more experience in broadcasting and writing articles as journalists. She started engaging with TUT in 2019 and managed to have students on board and the process hasn’t changed as she is doing this every year helping more than five students. “The success story is that we groom them to research, draft and read the news on air and also allow them some field journalism stories, documentary experiences as well as encourage them to write stories to be uploaded on our blog, students are afforded a real working world filled with pressure and tight deadlines.
Another internship programme that she is running is for technical students, which has also accommodated a lot of students and gave them a chance to engage in the studio on the daily basis and create training with them as she wants to develop students and help them with their future. Marcolene said that one of the highlights for Poort FM is that due to her previous experience as a training Academy Manager she decided to put together an in-house presenter’s class training opportunity to the youth and unemployed in and around the community at no cost.
Marcolene added by saying that Poort FM has been a voice to the community and continued its mission to provide top quality broadcasting and programming to educate, update, entertain and inform the listeners via online streaming platform and the App n the Google Play Store. Poort FM has been faced with many challenges from limited funding, high staff turnover due to voluntary employment, limited advertising revenue and being rejected for funding due to not having a broadcasting license, it has been tough to survive but we managed to keep bringing the community updates, information, education, and entertainment despite many challenges.
Marcolene Roach is a true inspiration to the youth, women and the community as she dedicates her life in inspiring the youth and developing the youth. She is a proud woman and a leader who works hard and gives loves to everyone around her, a woman who believes in sharing her knowledge to others and helping them succeed because she believes that knowledge is power.