Almost 30 years after Bush Radio went on air to defy the apartheid government’s control of the airwaves, staff, volunteers and interns had the opportunity to host one of the first volunteers at the community radio station, Mervyn Swartz.
A representative of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in the 1990s, Swartz can be seen in the Bush Radio Partial Eclipse documentary, and trained with “networkers” (the former term for Bush Radio volunteers) and partner organisations to establish community radio in South Africa and help free the airwaves from the apartheid government’s control. Originally an engineer, Swartz went on to serve as the director for Cosatu’s Campaign for Democratic Communications (CDC) in Johannesburg.
He was interviewed for a new documentary on the impact of community media, and Bush Radio grabbed the opportunity for new interns to meet him, and hear about his experiences in the early 1990s.
Bush Radio is constantly welcoming fledgling media disruptors and active citizens to the station, and listening to how the station was repeatedly denied a broadcast license by the repressive state, but still went on to broadcast without one, showed how important history is to the present day.
Watch Bush Radio videos on YouTube
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
Bushradio 89.5 FM 