Dan Moyane is the biggest casualty of 702’s ‘repositioning strategy’, reports Hazel Friedman
DAN MOYANE, the Radio 702 morning chat-show host who was suddenly taken off the air last week, did not jump. He was dumped. And in terms of a restraint agreement, he may be off the air for the next year.
The agreement, signed in 1995 by 702 staffers identified as having “strategic value”, stipulates that those who leave the Johannesburg-based station cannot work at another commercial radio station for a year.
Concerned 702 insiders, angry at the way Moyane was unceremoniously dropped after five years at the station, fear that should the agreement be enforced, Moyane’s immediate future is bleak.
The 37-year-old Moyane is the biggest casualty of what 702’s management has described as a repositioning strategy, but which others have dubbed the Night of the Long Knives.
After weeks of speculation, Moyane was summoned on May 27 to the office of Stan Katz, head of station owner Primedia, and was told his long-running morning show with John Robbie was being scrapped and he was off the air. Katz had been depressed about 702’s performance since his return from overseas in March. The John and Dan show was a prime concern.
The station released a press statement six days later, insisting Moyane had not been shafted but had been offered a senior management position – an area in which he had always expressed interest. Press reports last weekend said Moyane had resigned.
Moyane was reluctant to make waves this week, but the gentle radio announcer is not surprisingly angry. “I understand the need to shift the programme line-up if the ratings are falling,” he says. “But I am deeply disappointed that I was not offered an alternative slot. I have not even been told what I did wrong.”
Moyane is also anxious to “set the record straight”. No, he did not resign. Yes, he was offered an alternative position in senior management. He declined the offer because it would have been “a step backwards”.
“I had done similar work in the newsroom during 1993 and 1994, when I was day editor,” he says. “And although I had been interested in learning about management [the station paid for him to complete a course at the Wits Business School], there were still so many challenges for me on the air.
“I was invited to check out other positions, but the key ones were already filled. To accept anything less would have been a demotion. I had no choice but to refuse.”
Moyane’s contract has still to be terminated officially, but he is definitely out in the cold. Last week veteran radio personality John Robbie asked Moyane what his dearest wish was. “To have a job by next week,” was the poignant reply.
Katz conceded this week that Moyane had done nothing wrong, though his partnership with Robbie was not exactly made in airwave heaven. Robbie’s in-your-face approach dominated Moyane’s gentler disposition. Their humour was different, their interaction less than alchemic.
But while black listeners sometimes criticised Moyane for being too meek, the white market warmed to the “darkie” – Moyane’s own description. Many insiders believe the charming and eloquent Moyane would have come into his own in a solo slot.
Katz says 702’s doors “are still open to Dan, although we have to go with the needs of the market”. But 702 insiders, speaking anonymously for fear of upsetting Katz, criticise the management’s treatment of Moyane. They say he had no choice but to leave. And radio pundits believe Katz will come to regret the decision.