New Radio Station Backed by Samrawit Fikru Launches in Addis Ababa

Tirita FM, a private radio station that has Samrawit Fikru, founder and CEO of RIDE, among its shareholders has officially commenced regular broadcast.

The station, which was built at a cost of 50 million birr, can be heard on FM 97.6 and serves the residents of Addis Ababa.

Tirita was one of the three private radio stations that received a license from the then-Ethiopian Broadcast Authority in mid-2020.

After two years of setting up its offices, importing broadcasting equipment, and hiring staff, the station began pilot testing its programs in June 2022.

The station, which is legally registered under the name Tirita Trading Plc, has  Zechrais Sintayehu as its CEO. Together with Samrawit, Tirita has also prominent journalists as its shareholders.

In a press release, Tirita stated that it aims to be a broadcasting establishment that will explore the sector deeply with a unique, innovative approach that carries fact-based, knowledge-based information with the goal of bringing societal change.

Hybrid Designs, the tech firm behind RIDE, is one of the main sponsors of radio programs in Ethiopia. The move, which gives Hybrid a partner for its marketing wing,  is also expected to benefit RIDE, and ads for RIDE have already been running on Tirita for some time.

The official launch of Tirita comes a few months after the debut of the Sewasew App, another venture of Samrawit. Sewasew is a streaming platform that has already signed big names including Teddy Afro.