Who is Selector Williams? Flash Uganda Media looks at his biography, age, music, wife, family, radio career, controversies, early life and education of Mukisa William Sserwadda.
Selector Williams is a presenter at Radio Sapientia where he doubles as a station manager. William is among the music analysts Uganda has and his deep voice stands out especially when on air.
He started as a music producer in the famous Ebonies where he meant the late Jimmy Katumba who liked his voice and advised him to either sing or do presenting on radio.
Selector Williams started his radio journey on the Ssuubi FM where he started as a radio show producer but later started presenting an oldies music show that could air every Saturday morning.
He is also a music producer, songwriter, music director and he wears a lot of hats when it comes to music and some call him a master of radio jingles when it comes to radio production.
Early life and education
Selector Williams birth name Mukisa William Sserwadda was born on December 31st 1979 in Kampala Uganda but his parents passed on when he was still young. He later went to his home village of Mpigi was he started staying with his grandparents.
After his primary education, William joined St John Bosco seminary for his education and it’s in this school that he developed his musical talent and he became a very good instrumentalist. He studied mass communication and he has a certificate.
Work and experience
Music
William started as a music producer and he recalls being a good pianist and instrumentalist while still in school. After his secondary education selector pursued music production as a career and he joined VCL studios of the Ebonies where he was an audio producer.
At the time VCL was the biggest studio in the land and this exposed him to a lot of Ugandan musicians who were still upcoming at the time.
It’s in the same studio that he meant the Jimmy Katumba who loved his deep voice and advised him to either start singing or join presenting.
When Kato Lubwama of Diamond productions opened up a studio called Kato records in 2004, he took William as the lead producer and his biggest hit at the studio was Gear nene of the late Aungume.
Kato Lubwama employed him because he was good at producing rumba music which was the music style Kato’s band was doing.
Currently, he is no longer an active music producer but more of a consultant and a music director.
Most musicians run to him for advice when it comes to music.
Radio career
According to Selector Williams, one day in 2007 the owner of Ssuubi radio known as Bogere Masembe had paid a visit at Kato’s studios and during the discussions, he liked William’s voice saying it would work best for his radio.
In 2008 Selector William officially joined Ssuubi FM and he was going to work in the production section of the radio but he felt he could do more than what the presenters were doing on air.
One of the presenters of a show known as Ssuubi classics left the station and when Sembusi left, they gave the classics show to William during restructuring and they even changed its name. The show could start at 4:00 am and end at 8:00 am and this was in 2010.
In 2010 after being entrusted fully with the show, William decided to do things differently and he could make research on various music genres and musicians especially those from South Africa and Congo.
His boss loved the idea and also did the listeners but he was still earning 250,000 shillings a month and there was no guarantee that he was going to earn it every month. From here he was appointed as the programs director at the station but still, his salary was still low.
During this time one of the presenters left the station and he filled in the slot. This required him to do a weekly show from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm and his responsibilities had increased but not the salary.
After five years at the station, he took some time off to do his work and after a while, they invited him for a meeting and broke the news that they could no longer work with him anymore.
In May 2014 his friend Kasodde texted him to join Radio Sapientia and after giving it a thought he knew this was the right place he needed to start afresh. He had been advised to join Super FM, Akaboozi but he decided to settle for Sapientia.
When he joined his new home Sapientia, he met the managing director who was looking for somebody who could change the station. Because of the experience he had, he just asked for only two days to rebrand the station.
He came with his hard disk and trashed all the station’s music and he boosted the radio’s Facebook page by making it more interactive. He taught presenters things like strippers, intros and he also instructed the presenters to play old music.
After doing this the managing director knew this was the right person fit for the job and he was appointed as the technical director of the station.
Currently, he is the station manager and he hosts an evening drive show that airs from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm and on weekends he does a music show called the SAP music zone.
He is also a presenter on CBS FM where he presents every last Wednesday of the month.
From his childhood William loved radio and he used to listen to BBC, Voice of Tooro, Radio Uganda, Capital FM and CBS FM on his small radio set and whenever news anchors of BBC would read the news he would imitate them.
His favourite radio personalities were Alex, Christine Mawadri, Abu Kawenja and Ahmed Bogere Masembe.
Award
- Radio and TV awards, best evening show, 2014
Relationship
Selector William is not married but he has four children and he is seeing somebody.
Controversies
William lives a private life and is among the radio celebrities that have no controversies his outstanding controversy was when he attacked Bebe Cool saying that he cannot sing various music styles and he received a backlash on social media.
