South Africa's radio stations
Mary Alexander
There are an estimated 10-million radio sets in South Africa, with listeners many times that number, broadcasting a range of programming from ultra-hip urban music to community news and information in the deep rural areas.You can listen to radio on the airwaves, via satellite and on the internet, with most of the major stations - and even some community ones - offering live audio streaming from their websites. Browse the list on the next two pages to see what's on offer.
All 11 of South Africa's official languages get airtime, as well as German, Hindi, Portuguese and the San languages of !Xu and Khwe, with stations falling into three broad categories: public service broadcasting, commercial, and community radio stations.
Public service radio
The country's public service broadcaster is the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). While wholly owned by the state, the corporation is financially independent of taxpayers' money,
deriving its income from advertising and licence fees in a ratio of four to one.
The SABC's mandate is to provide both a commercial and public service, each administered separately, with commercial radio stations subsidising the public service stations. The corporation's commercial stations include 5FM, a national youth music station, Metro FM, a music station targeting black urban youth, and Channel Africa, an external radio service broadcasting in a number of languages across the continent.
The corporation's public broadcasting arm includes cultural services in all 11 official languages, as well as stations for South Africa's Indian (Lotus FM) and San (X-K FM) communities. By far the largest radio station in South Africa is Ukhozi FM, the SABC's isiZulu cultural service, with 6.38-million listeners a week.
Commercial radio stationsDuring the apartheid era, South Africa had only two independent radio stations: Radio 702 and Capital Radio. With the deregulation and liberalisation of broadcasting in the late 1990s, the number of commercial stations operating outside of SABC control proliferated.
In 1996 six lucrative SABC stations were privatised: Gauteng's Highveld Stereo and Radio Jacaranda, KwaZulu-Natal's East Coast Radio, the Western Cape's KFM, the Eastern Cape's Radio Algoa and the Free State's OFM. The government raised over R500-million as the stations were licensed to various black-controlled groups.
In early 1997 eight new commercial radio licences were granted for broadcasting in South Africa's three biggest cities - Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
Applicants targeting black audiences with new formats were generally favoured with two "smooth jazz" licences, P4 in Cape Town and Durban; one kwaito station, YFM; and one urban contemporary station, Kaya FM. The remaining four licences went to an English-language talk station, Cape Talk; two Afrikaans talk stations, Punt in Cape Town and Durban; and a classical music station, Classic FM.
Community radio stations
From 1994 onwards, South Africa's broadcasting authority processed hundreds of community radio licence applications from groups as diverse as rural women's cooperatives, Afrikaans communities and various religious bodies.
The country now has over 100 community stations, broadcast in many different languages. Their scope and reach varies enormously - from the half-a-million Joburgers who make up the audience of Jozi FM to, for example, the mere one thousand people who listen to Ilitha Community Radio in the Eastern Cape town of Maclear.
Although community radio, by its nature, struggles to access advertising and other forms of financing, it is a crucial part of the South African broadcasting landscape, providing diversity for listeners and much-needed skills for the commercial radio sector.
Regulating the industry
Broadcasting in South Africa is regulated by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), which issues broadcast licences; ensures universal service and access; monitors the industry and enforces compliance with rules, regulations and policies; hears disputes brought by industry or members of the public against licensees; plans, controls and manages the frequency spectrum; and protects consumers from unfair business practices.
- Go to the Icasa website.
Then there's the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), a non-profit grouping of organisations and individuals working in broadcasting and related industries. NAB helps the industry regulate and promote itself, grounded in the principles of democracy, diversity and freedom of expression.
- Go to the National Association of Broadcasters website.
Finally, there's the Broadcasting Complaints Commission, set up by NAB in 1993 to adjudicate and mediate complaints against any broadcaster who has signed its code of conduct.
The BCCSA is entirely independent from the NAB and the broadcasters, with commissioners appointed by an independent panel, chaired by a retired judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
- Go to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission website.
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