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.
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.
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.
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20 x 30 second ads
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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.
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* Advertising and interview must be completed by the 30 September 2019.
* Social media campaigns available.
Learner’s from the Sound and Light team at Muizenberg High School got to spend some time at Bush Radio on Wednesday the 12 June.
The young people had the opportunity to interact with the trainees at Bush Radio in all the areas; news, production, on air and presenting. They where roped into a recorded discussion on youth issues where they were able to share their views on Youth Day and the challenges and exciting opportunities facing young people.
Bush Radio’s commitment to developing young people is well known through it’s Children’s Radio Education Workshop and being the first station that provides a direct output for young people to make not just only radio, but all forms of media for themselves.
If your school would like to visit Bush Radio send an email to mother@bushradio.co.za or call 021448540 for more details.
Then sms the keyword BEN and your name, surname to 32158.
The SMS* line will close on Friday the 31 May 2019 at 1pm.
The winners will be announced during a special 30 Minutes with Auriol Hays on Backchat at 2pm on the same day. Auriol Hays is one of the supporting acts for the Ben Harper concert. Auriol will highlight her work, music and her love for Ben Harper.
*SMS cost R1 and free minutes do not apply. This is a lucky draw, so enter as often as you like to improve your chances.
Africa Day on the 25th May is the annual commemoration of the foundation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now known as the African Union in 1963.
Join us as we celebrate all that makes us African. As Africa’s oldest community radio station project, this day has a special significance to us.
It has been a hectic couple of months at Bush Radio as we provided debates with all the political parties, encouraging listeners to vote, covering the voting stations and the results as they became available.
We would like to thank all the people involved in making sure we kept everyone up to speed on making their mark.
A special thank you to our listeners, volunteers, supporters and the Western Cape IEC team headed by Courtney Sampson and their media office, Trevor Davids and Olivia Nagan.
Bush Radio will continue our work to promote building democracy and expand on its “Democracy is not a spectator sport” philosophy.
World Press Freedom day (3 May) is a date which celebrates the principles of press freedom, to evaluate and defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession.
World Press Freedom day also acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect and commitment to press freedom.
It serves as an occasion to inform citizens of violations of press freedom – a reminder that in dozens of countries around the world, publications are censored, fined, suspended and closed down, while journalists, editors and publishers are harassed, attacked, detained and even murdered.
World Press Freedom Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993 following a Recommendation adopted at the twenty-sixth session of UNESCO’s General Conference in 1991. This in turn was a response to a call by African journalists who in 1991 produced the Windhoek Declaration on media pluralism and independence.
World Press Freedom day
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