Steady shifts are happening as mainstream South African radio hones in on an increasingly competitive market
Hazel Friedman on Radio 702
PERCEPTION is reality, reality is a mind thing, and minds tend to change. Understand this principle and you’ll get a handle on the law governing 702-land and the drastic programme changes that took place on air last week.
The law is also called Stan Katz, the chief executive officer of Primedia and head of Radio 702. The law operates according to a mercurial set of principles based on the three “M”s of successful management: media, markets, money. And it emanates from a head that, at times, seems to consist of 99% vision, 1% process.
But right now the vision is less revolutionary than reactive. It stems from an intensive 18-month market research campaign involving 23 000 questionnaires, 5 000 telephone interviews, and a thorough brand audit.
The diagnosis: while Radio 702 listeners are not against mental floss, they want more froth. For a pain-racked, emotionally desensitised society, paparazzi appear to be the principal balm.
But research also shows that Radio 702’s racial integration programme initiated in those heady, early post-apartheid days, has developed a limp.
Simunye (unity) is about as real as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow nation. Black listenership on Radio 702 is down from 35% to 30%, although Katz dismisses the racial statistics as random and “scientifically invalid”. He says these ratings fluctuate with each survey.
By the end of last week, the thorough repositioning of South Africa’s most successful commercial station was well under way. Talk show hosts Chris (Gibbons) on late afternoon news and Dan (Moyane) on the breakfast show were out. Jenny (Crwys- Williams), John (Robbie, Qwelane and Berks) and David (O’ Sullivan) were in. According to the press statements, it all happened quite seamlessly. But one or two staffers told a different story. They referred to Katz as “Stantrum”. He was clearly having a bad head week.
This week the mood was more upbeat. “People are afraid of change,” said Katz in an interview this week. “It was like this when we shifted from a music station to a talk radio. Everyone thought it was the end of the world. But once you take charge and steer, they make the adjustment.” Katz is clearly not a consensus man. His way makes either for magnificent success or ignominious failure.
And sometimes perception and reality make incompatible bedfellows. The broad perception is that Radio 702, instead of being a trendsetter had become a follower. The “media rebel without a pause” has been pressured into toning down its “rock’n’roll without the music” in favour of the soft shoe shuffle. The question is why.
When Radio 702 was first launched in 1980, the independent radio station was the proverbial new kid on the block, speaking with a powerful opposition voice to the apparatchiks at the SABC under apartheid. But by 1990, the political sands had shifted. Simunye was the buzzword. Even the SABC eschewed its role as ventriloquist dummy in favour of the new non-racial order.
Govin Reddy was the architect of change at SABC radio’s flagship transformation mission: Radio South Africa became SAfm and braved a stormy public as it set about integrating its airwaves. Despite initial teething troubles and complaints about bad news accents from irate listeners hankering for the days of Jan Smuts, his plan seems to have worked.
Today SAfm enjoys a substantially increased black listenership. The reason given by acting station manager Michael Ford is that SAfm provides essential information for the emerging black elite on international affairs and foreign trade. “It is important to understand that the idea of integration was more a projection than a reality when it was initiated,” he explains. “And it is essentially a long term goal.”
But Radio 702, which had always positioned itself against the SABC, took a slightly different route: “When you fight a guerrilla war and win you suddenly become the establishment,” says Katz. “Radio 702 has tried to maintain the difference between being established and establishment. We saw a role for ourselves in the transition as a forum for people from opposite poles. We tried to pair presenters with very different historical experiences. After the elections we became more issue driven.” But the dangers of talk radio are that audiences tend to talk too much. After a while, open lines become an open sesame for all opinions, no matter how inane.
“The market’s need for pure information is higher than before,” explains Katz. “That’s why, although we don’t want to lose our hard news, confrontational edge, we will be broadening our base to include more international coverage, and of course, entertainment.”
In many respects Katz is adhering to global trends. Saturated with horror stories, the rest of the world has shifted from confrontationalism to passive consumption. The please-all populist approach is out. Niche markets are in.
And 18 months into the truly new South Africa there is a more sober perception of reality. Euphemistically put, the simunye concept remains in the realm of wishful thinking. Radio 702 has shifted from the “straddle all interest groups” position to address a more specific market. Race is not the issue. Ratings are.
“We still take the government to task, but our advertisers are targeting the upper end of the super-income earners. They want to cater to the top 10% of the market,” says Katz. “Essentially we are a business funded by advertising. But this does not make us mercenary in approach.”
In the interim, Primedia, which owns Radio 702, has swooped on the burgeoning local commercial radio industry, making it one of the most powerful media cartels in the country. Together with Zerilda, a consortium consisting of trade unions and women’s investment groups, it has scooped 40% of Highveld Stereo via Africa on Air.
Its most recent commercial coup has been the purchasing of Publico publishing company, which owns 24% of Lanella Broadcasting, in which the Mail & Guardian also has an interest and of which former M&G editor Anton Harber is now managing director.
Now former bad boys on the block are consorting with politicians and power mongers. Stan Katz has been likened to South Africa’s version of Rupert Murdoch.
But power comes with a price tag. You do not bite the hands that feed you. And you learn than on talk radio, nothing talks like money.