In the first of an occasional series focusing on community radio stations, Ruben Mowszowski looks at the origins and potential of Bush Radio
Bush Radio, broadcasting to the Cape Flats out of third floor studios above a cafe in Salt River, is giving a voice to a number of communities in a way that is sometimes raw, often vibrant and nothing if not authentic. It’s radio for the people, by the people, in the language of the people.
Its on-air history begins in April 1993, one week after Chris Hani’s assassination. A few days after its first broadcast, police and postal officers seized Bush Radio’s transmitter, putting an end, for the time being, to its operational life. Last month the man who headed that group was in Bush Radio’s studio as a guest on station manager Farah Moosa’s chat programme talking about community crime policing.
Bush Radio grew out of the Cassette Education Trust (Caset), one of many community media projects initiated by Edric Gorfinkel. In 1991 Caset began talking to the University of Western Cape about a combined campus/community radio station.
The idea for its location at that “bush college” was dropped, but the name remained. By the end of 1992, Caset had become Bush Radio. Its agenda: lobbying, advocacy at conferences, training and preparing itself to go on air using a transmitter supplied by the African National Congress’ Radio Freedom.
In May this year the Independent Broadcasting Authority granted Bush Radio a 12-month licence and directed that it share a frequency with C-Flat Radio, headed by Geoffrey Kleinsmith of the “People’s Express” (a Cape Flats freebie tabloid). Under the terms of its licences, C-Flat has the airwaves from 2am to 2pm and Bush takes it from 2pm to 2am.
Kleinsmith is less than happy with this arrangement. “Because we broadcast to the same geographic area, it does not mean we target the same audience,” he says, citing the lack of liaison between the two stations as in itself proof of the difference in listener base. A C-Flat listener tuned unwittingly to Bush might well get confused by the difference in style.
Bush Radio station manager, Farah Moosa, describes it a kind of “Brechtian radio” where you are allowed to know what’s going on. “It’s probably the most unstructured radio station you’ve ever been in. If you’re a listener, you might hear in the background street traffic, the screaming of the minibus gaartjies (fare collectors) or some radio worker saying ‘oh shit, the bloody computer’s down!'”
The current programme list includes chat/music programmes, a current affairs platform for people or organisations dealing with community development issues, advice on health, business, emotional problems and job seeking.
Weekend programmes include In the Pink, a one hour gay programme with Sue Valentine, Lucinda Jollly and friends, and Be My Guest, in which Vincent Kolbe presents older people’s reminiscences with a particular focus on District Six.
Programmes which appear to have the highest profile are Moosa’s daily one hour chat programme dealing with community issues such as community crime prevention, Basie Montewa’s daily three-hour chat programme and a twice weekly, three-hour, late night hip hop programme run by disc jockey and programming manager Shamiel X.
He started out in life, he says, as “someone who wasn’t going to go anywhere in life. I dropped out of school, ran with some gangs, smuggled some drugs and was sentenced to five years (suspended).”
It was his passion for music that led him to hip hop culture, a job as DJ at The Base and finally to Bush Radio. “I found a route and a pathway and a direction and I hope that’s what community radio is going to provide for some people — a sense of oneself, a direction, a goal. We’ve got to structure mechanisms and pathways in such a fashion that it gets people on the air as quickly as possible.”
The training that gets people on the air is free and comprises five weekend workshops taking volunteers through community radio basics such as ghetto blaster editing and field recording. Accredited volunteers can then join production teams to carry out research, edit or assist in other ways. More intensive courses are offered as there is a demand and also courses aimed at redressing perceived imbalances: the tendency for women to shy away from technical roles, for instance. (Bush Radio’s policy is that at least half of its management should be female but in fact the proportion has always been far higher.)
Shamiel X is confident that his own show is being listened to and enjoyed. “We’ve had calls from a shebeen, from Mannenberg, Langa, Nyanga, ‘Gugs’. I know that it’s for real because it’s for-real people who are calling in.” He receives on average two calls after every music track.
Until now Bush Radio has received support from Canadian and German donor agencies and most recently, from American philanthropist George Soros’s Open Society Foundation. It is harder to obtain funds for running costs than for equipment. With four permanent staff members, Bush Radio will need to attract the sort of income that will make it, at least as far as salaries go, self supporting.
Their preference is that advertising spots should serve the needs of small, preferably local, businesses and to offer the bigger companies programme sponsorship. No advertisements for cigarettes or alcohol will be accepted.
The target audience of the station is essentially the coloured and black population of the Cape Flats, Mitchells Plain, Blue Downs and Mannenberg on the one hand, and Khayalitsha, Nyanga, Guguletu, and Langa on the other. The combined population of these areas is estimated at two million.
So who listens? An Australian radio worker is currently training Bush Radio volunteers in audience survey systems.
Justifying Bush Radio’s large geographic reach (it’s been picked up from as far away as Grabouw), Moosa says, “If you deal with 10 or 20km only, you are reinforcing apartheid’s parameters. We don’t want to do that. We need to bridge the gaps between communities.”
Cape Town’s radiowave-stopping mountain makes sure that, for the meantime, Clifton and Kalk Bay, at least, will listen to another voice. Bridging the old apartheid divisions is not so simply done.
* Membership of Bush Radio is open to individuals and community organisations. (The rate for individuals is R20 per annum.)
A management board elected by Bush Radio members appoint the station manager who currently directs four managers and three in-service trainees.
Production and presentation of programmes is unpaid and is entirely in the hands of volunteers. (Staff members are not paid for their involvement in programme production.)
A monthly open forum acts in a consultative role to management. Two trustees, appointed by members, ensure that station policy is adhered to and deal with any disputes.