Ferial Haffajee
The opening up of the radio waves can be disastrous. I mean there’s just so many preset stations one can tune in on even the new-fangled hi-fi systems.
I thought I had it all down pat, but now KayaFM, a new Gauteng-based station launched last Friday, has come along to upset my preset listening zone. It’s going to have to bump SA-fm, the previous first choice for its news coverage which spans Sandton to Sri Lanka, as well as Metro and 5FM. How can it fail when Kaya started off on Friday morning with a music feast featuring Hugh Masekela’s jazz, the Ghetto Boys’ funk and Erykah Badu’s soul?
Music is clearly going to be the new station’s biggest drawcard. The mix is more adult and black adult than anything else being offered. Its playlist is older than Radio Metro’s, which follows the hit- parade more slavishly. Music from Africa and South Africa is part of every programme and and hasn’t been stuck in a perfunctory ”local is lekker” or ”Africa on the air” special slot like most stations do.
But the pseudo-American drawls of DJs and two former Metro voices (DJs Lawrence Dube and Ernest Pillay) means the station still sounds like its closest competition. In fact, Dube, who hosts the morning drive- time programme, forgot which microphone he was sitting in front of for a moment last Friday when in a bout of first-day nerves he told listeners … ”You’re on Metro …. I mean KayaFM.”
Metro’s manager Zolisile Mapipa says there is no way you can confuse the two stations, although they sit so close to each other on the Gauteng dial (Metro is at 96.4FM, while Kaya is at 95.9FM). ”Kaya’s more laid-back than Metro which is pacier,” he says, adding that the newcomer has stayed true to its adult contemporary label. Metro, which is a national station, is chasing a much younger audience.
Kaya is a well-connected. It is one of the country’s first black-owned and managed commercial stations. The major shareholder is Moribo Investments, the leisure industry arm of Thebe Investments; other shareholders include the Communication Workers Union, City Press, as well as Hugh and Bill Masekela’s company, Segwapa Music. A VIP party on Friday morning drew the cream of Gauteng society to its headquarters in the heart of Rosebank. Even Gauteng Premier Tokyo Sexwale took a turn at the microphone at the station, which is housed in a spanking white, split-level former art gallery.
Its connections and bank balance have meant that Kaya has attracted big names, all of whom can pull audiences. On Sunday, Sibongile Khumalo and Hugh Masakela co- anchor a music programme playing music from their personal collections. They pepper the music with tit-bits like ”when I met Angelique Kidjo in Paris” or ”I was saying to Pavarotti the other day”, which is very glamorous and makes you feel like you’re playing with the in-crowd.
Earlier Dube told listeners that music was the ”golden thread” sewing Kaya together and that news was the ”silver thread”. There wasn’t a lot of silver in the house at the weekend, and this week’s bulletins were well-presented though slightly pedestrian. News and information programming does not seem to be as innovative and daring as Kaya’s music.
There are no sound-bites (live reports or snippets from interviews with newsmakers) in the bulletins, which gives them a somewhat staid air, though news editor Ferdinand Mabalane says these have only been delayed because of a technical hitch. Early publicity material on the station promised in-depth coverage of Africa from different news sources. For now, though, Kaya is buying its material from the news agency, Sapa, which means it is not likely to be out of the ordinary.
But Mabalane is also setting up his own network of stringers throughout Southern Africa which could give it an edge. Kaya’s audience is likely to include the new captains of industry and it runs nightly business programmes at 5.30pm and 7.30pm. But again, these reports are sourced from Times Media Limited and not from the station’s staff who could provide fresh perspectives and critiques on the issues facing black capital.