THERE could hardly be a more exciting time to start a=20 revamped national radio service in South Africa. Just=20 look at us! We no longer stink like a polecat. The=20 president jets all over the place receiving hero’s=20 welcomes. The Queen of England comes to dinner. In=20 Washington, President Clinton of the United States shakes=20 the (coloured) hand of our new ambassador to his country.=20 In a word, it’s all pretty wow.
So how is the new SAfm service doing, covering all this?
On the plus side, the country could hardly do better than=20 encourage to the hilt the station’s perky news staff, who=20 sometimes ask some very nicely cheeky questions. Let’s=20 hope they get even cheekier.
And it is surprising how well the station is now equipped=20 with contacts in other countries. It is an infrastructure=20 that is extraordinarily difficult to build up and=20 maintain. But there have been people on the air talking=20 to SAfm live from such faraway spots as Algiers, and a=20 Tokyo journalist was at hand to describe the gas attack=20 in his city’s subway just hours after it happened.
What’s more, the station does not seem shy about buying=20 in a certain amount of material from other broadcasters.=20 There was a fascinating piece in the past few days in=20 which a psychiatrist talked very pithily to a remarkably=20 frank Glenda Jackson in a BBC studio in London. Really=20
There is some very good material available from some of=20 the international broadcasters (also United Nations=20 Radio, incidentally) that many other stations in Africa=20 make frequent use of, and SAfm might find it worth=20 keeping its ears open for more of this. Radio Mozambique=20 even uses programmes (in English) from Radio France=20
But you can’t beat having your own person in the field,=20 and it would be fascinating (though admittedly expensive)=20 to have SAfm reporters trailing around more in=20 neighbouring countries, telling us about how those=20 countries look, sound, even taste; how South Africa is=20 regarded there, how our exporters (and tourist trippers)=20 are making out, and so on.
Also, it could cater more, perhaps, for the huge=20 curiosity there is among most South Africans about what=20 other South Africans are really like. What is really=20 going on in the heads of the apparent hooligans who seem=20 to think universities are some kind of toyi-toyi dancing=20
But tuning in at various times, off the cuff over several=20 days, it is seldom that there has not been something=20 interesting and often compelling to listen to. Though=20 there were some glitches with Will Bernard’s Talk at Will=20 programme in the early days, like “We’ll take the caller=20 on line four; oh, he’s not there. Are you there on line=20 two, Shirley?” Silence.
But a few days later Bernard had two lawyers in the=20 studio to help people with legal problems, like: who is=20 going to pay if your roof leaks and you’ve bought under=20 sectional title — and even more interesting (and,=20 beware, potentially very expensive), who’s going to pay=20 if it’s your neighbour’s roof that is leaking?
And hooray for the arts programmes. There have been some=20 stuffy voices, to be sure (some arty types just are=20 rather prissy), but Pieter-Dirk Uys is always fun and=20 Robyn Orlin, the choreorgrapher, was articulate and=20 totally unfussy.
One criticism is that many (most?) of the programmes=20 simply go on too long. Even if they are interesting, it=20 is seldom that people have the time to sit back for an=20 hour (or two hours) and listen in. Briefer slots would be=20 welcome. Also, there could be more music. It would give=20 some of the more intense programmes some lively contrast.=20 Also, you know, there are some people who actually want=20 to switch off when they switch on the radio. Maybe give=20 them a break, too.
One criticism (mainly, I suspect, from the Natal part of=20 kwaZulu/Natal, where they used to talk about “home”) has=20 been about some of the “accents” on SAfm. Obviously some=20 are identifiably Indian-accented, or African, coloured or=20 Afrikaans. So what? This is a melting pot country. But=20 there is one jarring voice that comes across in an advert=20 as a caricature of an Afrikaner. We could do without him,=20