Here are the new morning hosts of Aito Iskelmä

The turn of the year means new things in the lives of Jenni Alexandrova and Hanna Kinnusen. The duo, who previously hosted a joint radio program, will jump to become the hosts of the new morning program of the Aito Iskelmä channel. The duo can be heard from six to ten in the morning on weekdays.

The two are excited about the new show. Kinnunen describes the morning as the focal point of radio, and Alexandrova is excited to host more interactive mornings after the evening program.

– During my radio career, I have done mornings, afternoon programs and now three years of evenings. If I’m honest, I haven’t been able to use my full potential as a performer in the evening. The evenings are focused on music and not interactive like the mornings. When the proposal to move to the morning came, of course you had to think about the changes it would bring to everyday life, but intuition immediately said “let’s go!”, says Alexandrova.

However, the two do not jump into the early mornings completely without reservation. Both Alexandrova and Kinnunen have done morning radio before, and Kinnunen has said in public that he would not return to morning radio.

However, the opposite happened. But the discussion had to take place before that.

– Yes, there were also critical discussions about what it means and what kind of boundary conditions will be used to get on this train again. We also know how difficult it is, says Kinnunen.

Kinnunen reduced his work on the radio in the first half of last year.

– I thought that I would take this year as a perspective. I’ve been doing radio for twenty-three years in all, and in February I’ll be ten years in commercial radio. I gave myself permission to experience and feel anything, that if I feel like I don’t want to come back, that’s fine, Kinnunen opens.

To his pleasant surprise, after the summer, Kinnuse developed a longing for daily radio work.

– Radio is the medium I love the most, because it is happening in the moment and the contact with the audience is immediate. The hunger to do has grown during this year.

Change in everyday life

Morning radio creates a new kind of daily rhythm in everyday life, and this has also had to be discussed at home. Alexandrova and Kinnuse both have teenage children.

– The life of the whole family is largely regulated to the fact that when you have to go to bed already at nine o’clock, there can’t be any noise in the hut, Alexandrova states.

– Yeah, teenagers can’t play rap anymore, Kinnunen laughs.

Kinnunen admits that during the past year, when there hasn’t been radio work every day, he has made breakfast for his children. There has been a chance for that.

– My almost sixteen-year-old son said that I’m sorry, does this mean that I’m not going to make him breakfast. I said that this means exactly that, Kinnunen laughs.

Change is also coming to Alexandrova’s everyday life. The host recently bought a new apartment for his spouse, an entrepreneur Toni Lähti with. This marks a change in the everyday life of Alexandrova, who previously lived alone with her son.

– In addition to our parents, there are now three boys in the home. We then have a lot more fuss and fuss than I’ve been used to for a long time, Alexandrova says.

– It was with this group that we had to have a discussion about the morning, going to bed and so on. I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes in practice.

Times have changed

Making radio has changed a lot from what it was in the early days of Alexandrova and Kinnusen’s career. A big change is, for example, how in the age of social media you can no longer hide behind just your voice.

There are also things that the duo will no longer swallow without biting.

Alexandrova recalls how in the early days of her career as Radio Rock’s first female presenter, she did not always receive flattering treatment.

– Afterwards, I’ve often thought that it wasn’t okay by any standards, how I was spoken to on the air from time to time. It took me a while to find the self-confidence to say no, Alexandrova recalls.

At some point, Alexandrova learned that she doesn’t have to be the one who just listens. He has a concrete example of this.

– There was a situation where my weight was commented on after the holiday. I had reportedly “put on a few extra pounds,” and that was said live. I went to the lock and, as I remember, I couldn’t really say anything in that emotional state. Later I stated that that situation was not ok, Alexandrova recalls.

– Now I would say quite a lot more. There must be zero tolerance for offensive remarks disguised as jokes. Fortunately, the world has changed in this regard as well.

Kinnunen, on the other hand, recalls being in a conversation years ago where a male colleague had stated that men are just more fun than women.

– I myself have grown up in such a way that gender doesn’t matter and everyone can do whatever they want. Then there is a conversation like that at the workplace about what the heck is going on here, says Kinnunen.

There is less of a stale attitude now, but there is still work to be done in terms of equality. Although Kinnunen and Alexandrova do not want to emphasize the fact that there is a two-woman morning show, Aito Iskelmä’s morning still stands out from the coverage of radio programs.

– When you look at the coverage, how many two-woman morning radio stations do we currently have in Finland? Quite a bit, says Kinnunen.

The importance of listeners

When listening to Kinnus and Alexandrova, one thing suddenly becomes clear. The importance of listeners in making radio is enormous. This was particularly emphasized during one period.

Kinnunen remembers how, during the corona, he did daytime broadcasts alone from home with “poor remote systems”. During the construction of the detached house, the family lived in a dodgy apartment building with paper-thin walls, according to Kinnusen. The children were in first and third grade and were learning about schooling in the kitchen.

– I remember when there was a situation where the children were fighting in the kitchen and there was a lot of yelling and screaming. I shout there that “everyone shut up, I have a weather report”. I started crying after that, that this doesn’t make any sense, Kinnunen recalls.

Then something happened that validated the importance of radio work in its own way.,

– A couple of weeks passed and messages started coming saying thank you for being there. That I would go crazy when I am alone here within four walls, Kinnunen recalls.

– At the time of the corona virus, it hit me hard that what is the meaning of the radio, Alexandrova says.

On the eve of the new morning show, Kinnunen and Alexandrova hope that they can bring joy, comfort and hope to people’s everyday lives.

– With this age of the world being what it is, the most important thing on the radio hasn’t changed at all. As a listener, when you turn on the radio and hear a familiar voice there, you get the feeling that, okay, now things are sort of in order, Alexandrova sums up.