By Ghost Writer
The recently concluded celebration of veteran radio presenter Fred Obachi Machoka’s 50th anniversary brought back memories of another media personality’s milestone.
Machoka has worked in Kenya’s radio space for 50 years, his voice easily connecting three generations of listeners. Larry King worked for CNN for 25 years, and his Larry King Live show dominated the American mediascape for decades.
There was a similarity between the way Larry King’s 80th birthday was marked Machoka’s 50th anniversary. For starters, both celebrations happened in sports stadiums: Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles for Larry King and Ulinzi Sports Stadium for Machoka.
In both cases, the guests included celebrated musicians and friends from the world of television. But that is where the similarities end.
Although both birthdays were celebrated publicly, the organisers of Larry’s party at Dodger Stadium succeeded in making a private party public without overly involving the man of the moment.
Here is how The Hollywood Reporter reported Larry King’s 80th birthday party:
Larry King Surprised at Dodger Stadium for 80th Birthday.
“Larry King covered his eyes in shock when his family and friends surprised him on the field at Dodger Stadium on a Friday night to celebrate his 80th birthday.”
TheWrap offered more details:
“Around 7:15, after Larry’s own hour-long ride to the stadium for what he thought was a ‘dinner with the Dodgers to discuss next season’…”
Unlike Machoka, who knew all along that a party was being planned in his honour, Larry had no idea what was in store for him and was not involved in the preparations—and not for lack of trying. When he tried to gate-crash the birthday plans, his wife simply locked him out.
TheWrap reported that when King tried walking in on his wife’s final preparations, she quickly locked a bathroom door, ignored his knocks, sneaked out through a window, tiptoed across the yard to a garage and drove to Dodger Stadium without answering him.
Larry did not realise it was his birthday party until he was well on his way onto the playing field and saw ‘Long Live the King’ beaming from the giant screens.
There were about 200 guests, friends and family members inside the stadium, some of whom tried their hand at baseball as they waited for Larry’s arrival. Among those present was the man giving Larry a second chance at hosting, Carlos Slim, who had featured on Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people.
Slim’s Ora.TV Network was then producing Larry King Now, three years after King had left CNN’s Larry King Live. But with family firmly in charge, he too was taking a back seat at the birthday party, and Larry had to beg him to: “Speak now… or buy the stadium.”
Inside the stadium, American singer, actor and television host Pat Boone put aside his conservative political ideologies to sing “Happy Birthday to the King.”
Larry’s birthday party took place when the United States was at war in Iraq, and President George W. Bush had signed a partial abortion ban. The organisers, led by Larry’s wife, effectively shut out war and politics by closing the vast gates of Dodger Stadium.
There are lessons to be learnt from Larry King’s 80th birthday celebration and the recently concluded 50th anniversary of our very own Machoka.
For Machoka’s celebration, one of the biggest challenges was obviously keeping Kenyan politics out of the event—a rather difficult task because politics dominates almost every facet of Kenyan life, from the circumstances in which babies are conceived and born to the way their birthdays are celebrated.
Perhaps a carefully selected guest list would have captured the diversity of Machoka’s fans without turning the entire event into a struggle to keep politics out, and without appearing to put pressure on the old man.
Because, whether we like it or not, the everyday lives of our men and women in the media unfold within certain political contexts—contexts that, in one way or another, help shape their lives.
