43 radio stations facing closure in South Africa

As we at Bush Radio fight to keep the station going financially through our crowdfunding campaign and engagements with government, we are concerned to learn of developments to close up to 43 community radio stations in South Africa.

The National Community Radio Forum (NCRF), of which Bush Radio is a founding member, today issued a press statement highlighting the plans of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to shut down certain stations for various reasons.

Today we commemorate Black Wednesday 42 years ago – October 19, 1977 – when the apartheid government banned several newspapers, organisations and journalists.

Today, ICASA, an institution for which Bush Radio fought hard to be established, wants to shut down more than 40 community radio stations. The effect will be the same as then – limiting media freedom and alternative voices in the broadcast sector.

Bush Radio strongly urges our democratically elected government to intervene in this matter. We ask ICASA to look at a positive resolution to help secure the future of the community radio sector.

READ: Press Release: Shutdown of 43 Community Radio stations by ICASA

See below for the names of the stations affected.

1. Lekwa FM
2. Lukhanji FM
3. Mohokare FM
4. MP East Community Radio
5. Nkungumathe FM
6. Ncuthu Community Radio
7. Zibonele FM
8. Greater Middleburg FM
9. Merafong FM
10. KZN Capital FM
11. Catitura Community Radio
12. Mozolo FM
13. Lephalale FM
14. Greater Zaneen FM
15. Phalaborwa FM
16. The Rock FM
17. Devine Touch FM
18. Emmanuel Haven
19. East Griekwaland FM
20. Franshoek Community Radio
21. Giyani Youth FM
22. Hlanganani FM
23. Kanyamaza FM
24. Kingfisher FM
25. Kopel Studio
26. Lebowakgomo FM
27. Lekho Community Radio
28. Lentswe FM
29. Lethabong Community Radio
30. Letlhabile FM
31. Radio Kaap se Punt
32. Radio Sekunda
33. Radio Unique
34. Radio Renosterberg
35. Siyathuthuka FM
36. Sunshine Community Radio
37. Swartland FM
38. Ubuhle Beshowe FM
39. UCT Community Radio
40. Vaal Community Radio
41. Endermark Community Radio
42. Bophirima FM
43. Naledi Community Radio

Link to our crowdfunding campaign

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The end of revolutionary radio in South Africa?

The following is an extract from an article by Dan Corder for Africa is a Country.

“In the small meeting room buried deep within Bush Radio’s second-floor offices on Victoria Road in Salt River, central Cape Town, and lying alongside an ancient Zenith Trans-Oceanic analog radio are two maroon leather cases.

These cases are marked with the iconic golden dog and gramophone logo of His Master’s Voice, formerly the Victor Talking Machine Company. These cases contain original recordings of speeches, debates, poetry, and music performed by South African anti-apartheid activists—those deemed so dangerous that they were banned from gathering or speaking publicly by the then-government.”

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

If you would like to see us continue our work or have been touched by it please show your support through a contribution via our GIVEGAIN campaign or directly into our account:

Bank: Standard Bank
Account Name: Bush Radio
Account Number: 07 122 0194
Branch Name: Mowbray
Branch Code: 004909
Bank address: 37 – 39 Main Road, Mowbray, Western Cape, South Africa, 7700
SWIFT address: SBZA ZA JJ

Related:

Community Media demands to be heard

What Africa’s First Community Radio Project, Bush Radio, Needs

Desperate days for local papers, radio

Capetonians asked to help keep Bush Radio going

Don’t just like what you hear

Keep your voice alive

Training opportunity #media #bushradio

Bush Radio is opening applications for internship positions for those interested in getting into media. No prior formal qualification is required.

The internship will provide basic experience in journalism, radio content production and multimedia.

Please read the requirements below CAREFULLY – should the information be incomplete or incorrect, your application will not be considered.

Are you…

Curious, adventurous, always looking for a story, willing to hunt down a source, hungry to learn, energetic, able to speak, write and read in English & Afrikaans/Xhosa, willing to explore new frontiers in media?

Would you like to…

Record sound, conduct interviews, compile bulletins, read bulletins, take pictures, record video, cover events, test your skills LIVE to a listening and online audience of over 375 000 people, generate interview ideas, liaise with guests, assist presenter, research, package and present, liaise with listeners regarding programmes, updating blogs/websites, present as needed / capable, participate in outside broadcasts or events, build your career and profile?

Requirements:

No formal qualifications are required but the candidates must be computer literate and understand, write and read English and one other language (Afrikaans or Xhosa)

You will be required full-time (ie Monday – Friday) or shifts (06h00 – 14h00 and 10h00 –18h00 –including weekend and public holiday shifts depending on the area you are placed.

You must be available to start immediately.

Cape Town based

Not currently a full-time student or learner

You will not receive payment! This is a volunteer internship at Africa’s leading community radio station.

Transport allowance of R500 per month for 3 months (probation), increased to R 1000 thereafter, non-negotiable for 9 months.

Shortlisted candidates will be put through a combination written test (for computer skills, language, general knowledge) and a voice test. – If selected for the test it will happen the week of 23 September 2019

How to submit your application:

Only emailed applications will be considered.

Download and complete the CV Application, attach documentation (certificates etc) and email to intern2019@bushradio.co.za

In the subject line clearly state: Intern intake 2019 (Your Name + Surname)

Application deadline: 19 September 2019 (9am)

Download application (CLICK HERE)

Help Bush Radio keep making internship and training available to the communities of Cape Town – Support our crowdfunding campaign – CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE

2000 killed in 6 months #crime #gbv #xenophobia #peacebuilding – what can we do?

Join us on Thursday, 12 September at 12pm on Sakhisizwe – Building the Nation – Bou die Nasie on Bush Radio 89.5FM / http://www.bushradio.co.za for a discussion with experts and community workers.

Be heard – SMS 32158 and Whatsapp 0618621065 now, or call the studio on 0214486266 on Thursday after 12pm.

Forty-seven people killed in one weekend. Two thousand people killed in the first half of this year.

These were just some of the statistics going around when the army was called in to help end gang violence on the Cape Flats.

Now they’re getting ready to leave, and it’s hard to measure how it helped.
Police Minister Bheki Cele says more than a thousand arrests, the Western Cape govt – using the mortuaries – says fewer people were killed, and the army calls the situation stable.

But how do we tackle decades of violence and its aftermath in three months?

It is time for long-term solutions for communities named as the most dangerous… Bishop Lavis, Mitchells Plain, Delft, Elsies River, Nyanga, Khayelitsha, Mfuleni, Philippi, Kraaifontein and Manenberg.

allAfrica.com and Bush Radio want to know what the next steps are, how to build the peace that we need in our communities, especially as the impact of gang violence, and the raw emotions around violence against women and xenophobic attacks are sweeping South Africa.

Support the Bush Radio pledge drive

Don’t just like what you hear.

Have you received airtime on Bush Radio?

Have you received training at the station?

Have we promoted your song, organisation, issue or start-up?

Please consider making a contribution to the continued running of Africa’s oldest, volunteer driven, not-for-profit community radio station.

Check out: https://www.givengain.com/cc/bushradio/

Spread the word so that we can keep doing what we do by being of service.

For more information visit: www.bushradio.wordpress.com

Or visit www.bushradio.co.za to listen online and find links to our social media pages.

Find out more about the work of Bush Radio and the struggles of community media visit these articles:

allAfrica.com

Mail and Guardian

Keep your voice alive

Always cutting edge, Bush Radio explores issues in an insightful and meaningful way, giving the people of Cape Town access to media that highlights their voices – through music, entertainment, social upliftment and getting hands-on with media training.

The wide range of programming includes human rights, LGBTIQ+, gender, labour, job opportunities, basic health care, entrepreneurship, and offering information deemed necessary by our communities.

Africa’s oldest community radio station project, it was started in the 1980s by community activists and alternative media producers to explore ways in which grassroots media could be used for social upliftment and as an alternative voice during the apartheid era.

Today Bush Radio ensures it remains relevant, necessary and effects change through carefully curated media projects by working with partners to build dynamic programming. These projects include the Children’s Radio Education Workshop, where children aged between 6 and 18 years going live on-air, and the Media Kidocracy Konference where children aged 12 and up are trained to produce media content.

As an incubator for new media talent, Bush Radio has trained many young people from the Cape Flats and beyond who have now moved on into the media industry and beyond, also helping to build young start-ups and artists.

The community media sector is struggling in South Africa and even though Bush Radio is engaging on various levels, including with the government, to find a solution, we need daily costs such as rent, transmission, communication and stipends for the young people to get on-the-job training covered.

Your contribution will go towards ensuring that young people have a place where they can get access to quality media training and experience and that Cape Town’s communities continue to actively contribute to discussions around the issues affecting them.

Related: Community Media demands to be heard

Community Media demands to be heard

This morning during a scheduled engagement with the Community Media sector and the new Minister in the Presidency, Jackson Mthembu before his budget vote to Parliament, members of the sector handed a memorandum to the minister to highlight the current plight of community media.

The Minister felt that he was ambushed by the sector as he was under the impression that it was a simple “meet and greet”.

Below is the memorandum as it was issued.

MEMORANDUM TO THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENCY, 17 July 2019

Community radio, print and TV sectors

Since the dawn of democracy in South Africa, the country has made impressive gains in the promotion of media diversity through support for emerging, small commercial newspapers and community broadcasting services serving the majority of the people who were previously excluded. 

In the early 90’s media activists, many of whom are in this room today, fought for the establishment of the Media Development and Diversity Agency, tasked with the supporting community and independent media in South Africa. Since then the regulator has license over 200 community radio reaching an estimated audience of 8 million and 6 community TV stations reaching an estimated, collective audience of 14 million.

Community Newspapers by Independent publishers print in excess of 6 million copies per month with a readership that exceeds 20 million South Africans in all 11 official languages. Collectively the sector employs tens of thousands of previously disadvantaged individuals countrywide.

Unfortunately, in the last decade or so, these impressive gains have been rolled back as stations have struggled for survival in the face of weakened institutions (MDDA, GCIS and ICASA), state capture, government complacency and failed promises.

Year after year the sector attends “engagements” with the DoC, GCIS and the MDDA. Every year we regurgitate the same challenges and propose the same solutions. Every year the government and its agencies promise to address the issues and then nothing is done.

This year is different. The community media sector is on the verge of collapse with an estimated collective debt sitting at around R180 million. This is made up largely of debts to SAMRO & CARPASSO, SENTECH, SARS and rental. As we speak stations are being served eviction notices from their premises, retrenching staff and getting deeper into debt.

It makes no difference whether the MDDA and GCIS report to the DoC or to the Presidency, as long as something gets done.  The sector simply cannot be allowed to fail.

We call upon the Presidency to implement the following immediate measures:

• Provide emergency relief funding to pay off the collective debt to SARS, SENTECH, SAMRO & CARPASSO (paid to stations or directly to debtors – to avoid CSD challenges) – R150 million for radio, R15 million for TV and R15 million for print.

• Increase MDDA budget to allow for annual grant for all community broadcasters and increased support for print publishers.

• Build MDDA capacity at board and operational level to speed up grant approval and disbursement.

• Implement the Parliamentary Portfolio Directive (Nov, 2011) to spend 30 % of government adspend on community media.

Additional measures to improve the sustainability of the sector are outlined in the full memorandum

RIP Matthew Buck

Matthew Buck, Karas – Namibia 2008 pic by A.Louw

It is with great shock that we at Bush Radio learnt this evening of the passing of Matthew Buck. Matthew was a volunteer, trainer and eventually Bush Radio’s main technical support and installer for our studios.

Below is an extract from a social media post by Adrian Louw our Programme Integrator:

“It’s Friday evening around 8pm on 28 July 1995, Matt and myself were the last two people in the building. The final touches to Africa’s oldest community radio station project’s first legal on-air studio were being put in place.

Then the worst possible thing happened – a buzz, then a click. The Soundcraft Series5 mixer’s power supply had blown. With just over a week to go for the official broadcast and now legal switch-on, it was a disaster.
Matt called the supplier from his Motorola (he was the first person I knew who owned a cellphone) and after a few hours of intense cursing and fancy soldering, he had the power supply fixed.

Fast forward to 2008, and I was on one of my training missions in a town called Karas in Namibia, and Matt and his team were building the studios. Again, final testing for the handover to the crew there and then something on the telephone hybrid blew.

Ever since, Matt and I agreed that I would not be there when they did any final handovers. And so, when Bush Radio moved on to a digital studio in 2012, I took a day’s leave at the end of the install and handover… Matt and his team were responsible for the installation of most of the studios from the initial licensing of Community Radio in South Africa.

And, with so many who continue to exploit the sector, he was one of the few people we could rely on at Bush Radio.

Matthew (as I always insisted on calling him), I will miss you.

His final message to me was “Tell Adrian not to worry.”

To Levi, his family and friends: there would be no community radio sector in South Africa if it wasn’t for people like Matthew.

Matthew chose to walk with the people of South Africa and this continent.

We need more like him. “

We have the cream for your Peaches and Herb

Soulful Superstars and Bush Radio is giving away 4 tickets per family to the Peaches & Herb with special guest Eban Brown (Stylistics) show. All you have to do is answer one simple question.

Where will the concert be taking place?

SMS the key HERB + your answer + your name and surname to 32158.

SMS costs R1 and free sms’s do not apply.

The lucky draw line closes on Sunday 14 July at midnight. The winner will be announced on Monday, 15 July 2019 during the Morning Cruise.

Click here for more info

Winter ad packages for first-time advertisers

Are you a new business looking to build your brand or increase your reach in Cape Town and beyond? We have an exclusive offer to first-time advertisers with us.

Winter Package 1
20 x 30 second ads
1 x 5 minute interview
Cost: R1500

Winter Package 2
30 x 30 second ads
1 x 5 minute interview
Cost: R2000

* Offer is valid to first-time advertisers from the 25 June to 1 September 2019.
* 100% deposit must be paid upfront to secure the booking.
* Advertising and interview must be completed by the 30 September 2019.
* Social media campaigns available.

Contact Gabebah or Kholeka on 0214485450 or sales@bushradio.co.za

Check out our 2019 Rate Card and demographics