SAfm’s new station manager has caused ructions among staffers. She spoke to Jacquie Golding-Duffy
CHARLENE SMITH has only been station manager of SAfm, South Africa’s oldest radio station, for six weeks. But she has already caused ructions and much dissent.
A small group of freelance and full-time staff signed a petition two weeks after Smith walked through the door citing her behaviour as “autocratic” and “dictatorial”.
The grievances regarding Smith’s financial cutbacks and management style were sent directly to the chief executive of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) radio, Govin Reddy, who, together with the general manager of Public Service Radio, Koos Radebe, endeavoured to sort out the internal problem. The staffers, when handing in their grievances, requested that their names remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
SAfm, says Smith, has incurred huge losses and the SABC, a billion-rand corporation, was struggling financially.
Smith was instructed to curb her expenses and one suggestion was to cut back on permanent staffers. The intention, she says, is to start rationing now, with a view to save R10-million over the next two years. Instead of focussing on her own staff, she decided to minimise the impact on permanent employees by opting to make the operation leaner from the outside.
“The first thing I did when I consulted with the staff was to assure them that their jobs are secure. I believe that individually and collectively they have to prove to me that I did the right thing [by saving their jobs]. I believe retrenching people can only demoralise them; whereas if one works together, it acts to remotivate people. Encourage them to pull together as a team.”
Smith then warned she would aggressively cut back on freelancers saying that they account for much of the overhead costs. Instead, SAfm should be concentrating on recruiting talent from within its own ranks rather than resorting to outsiders, she says, adding that the move towards internal recruiting will be easier on the coffers of the station. “Already my staff and I have managed to cut expenses by R890 000 in one month.”
Smith says most staff members were consulted before the freelance cutbacks were implemented. However, the petition did not make Smith’s life easier and sitting in her tastefully decorated office, she does not seem upset nor angry as much as irritated. “This sort of reaction does not help anyone. Communication, talking, that will sort out differences.”
When meeting Smith you get the distinct impression that she is a no-nonsense type of person. No time to waffle or be unsure. Either you stick to your guns or she bulldozes over you. She brushes back her short blonde Vogue-styled hair and looks piercingly through you as she addresses the issue of the petition.
“Two staff meetings were called in an effort to discuss the problems staffers had with me, both personally and professionally. I have to cut back on costs and am working out strategies with staff to do this.”
Smith took charge at SAfm after a three- month period of neglect when the radio station was operating without a manager following the departure of Jack Mullen, who took early retirement.
Smith is under no illusions. She admits that SAfm needs “a lot of work” since it slipped off its pedestal as the SABC’s flagship station. “It has lost some identity during the process of transformation and we at SAfm are working at rectifying that.
“We see our target audience as being from the A, B and C income brackets within the ages of 35 to 49. There are no racial categories. We aspire to be the most interesting public radio station, meeting the needs of listeners across the entire spectrum.”
Smith tends to lean towards old-fashioned radio broadcasting. She is keen to have several radio dramas aired and plans to broadcast classical, Jazz and Blues music slots, adding that these are some of the projects in the pipeline for SAfm.
She is also planning to increase the station’s local literature content and offer an alternative for listeners during the evening. Furthermore, SAfm audio material will be packaged on an international airline, possibly South African Airways during April next year, with excerpts of drama, magazines and music available.
Smith is passionate about SAfm but then again, she is passionate about most things: children, justice, the effect politicians and their politics have on the ordinary man and woman in the street. “I don’t care much for political parties and their affiliates. What I care about is what effect politics have on people. That is where the story is at,” she says.
The fresh flowers in her spacious office add a touch of freshness, although Smith is far from fresh-faced and naive, say former colleagues. “Bull-headed”, “Very difficult and never listens to reason”, “Determined and sometimes too wrapped up in the subject to be objective”, are some of the comments they made.
Smith is also unpredictable, careering off in several directions, often far removed from any question posed. Former Sunday Times editor Ken Owen, for whom she worked three times, once said that Smith is a brilliant journalist, but “wilful”.
At the beginning of this year, she worked briefly for Thebe Investments Limited as a public relations officer before accepting the SAfm position.
Her contacts among the African National Congress bigwigs are admired by some and detested by others.
She comes from an ultra-conservative Johannesburg family: “I had a typical sheltered northern suburbs upbringing. Having been thrown into journalism at a tender age and reporting on the 1976 riots really changed me … It was a tremendous shock for me … I don’t think anyone can see such injustices being meted out and not change.”
Smith did pursue her belief in justice and human rights armed only with a determination and an unswerving conviction. In her early 20s she became a member of the Black Sash and was a Transvaal regional council member for six years. Alongside prominent human rights activists such as David Webster and Sheena Duncan, she was one of the founders and representatives of the Five Freedoms Forum, among other things.
Smith seemed to always be stretching herself in an effort to do everything she thought she could do, and had to do, to “make it better”.
Smith researched for foreign agencies and broadcasting organisations such as the BBC, CBS and NHK (a Japanese station) and wrote for foreign and local publications such as The Star (youngest and first female crime reporter at the age of 18), Sunday Tribune, Business Day, Sunday Times and the Financial Mail. At the same time, she was privately investigating cases alongside Human Rights lawyers into apartheid atrocities.
With no formal degree and not much radio experience she says: “Conviction is all you need.” Dollops of attitude is what Smith does not lack. “I don’t care that some people dislike me. You cannot be liked by everyone and I certainly don’t pander to popularity.”