NAIROBI, Kenya- On Friday morning, the Standard Media Group announced a technical glitch that temporarily knocked several of its TV and radio stations off the air.
The company confirmed the disruption via a brief statement, reassuring viewers and listeners that engineers were already working to restore normal service.
KTN, Radio Maisha, Spice FM, and Berur FM remained operational online during the outage.
But for thousands of Kenyans who rely on terrestrial broadcasts, the sudden silence raised eyebrows and questions.
What’s Causing the Static?
While the Standard cited a “technical hitch,” they didn’t dive into the specifics. For a media house this large, such opacity doesn’t go unnoticed. The downtime—temporary as it may be—fueled speculation, especially given the company’s ongoing regulatory challenges.
This isn’t the first storm the Standard has had to weather. Reports of unpaid salaries and delayed benefits have surfaced repeatedly in recent months. Coupled with the looming threat of licence revocation by CA dues to unpaid fees.
Still, the network’s social media team kept the message short and calm: “Standard Group radio and TV platforms temporarily off air due to a technical hitch; KTN, Radio Maisha, Spice FM, and Berur FM available online as engineers work to restore services.”
While technical issues happen even to the best of broadcasters, the timing—and context—of this outage tells a deeper story.
Standard Media isn’t just battling signal loss; it’s fighting to hold onto its voice in a rapidly shifting media and political landscape.
