Swapna Prabhakaran
If tigers could speak, they’d sound just like Tim Modise and Ofeibea Quist-Arcton. Their laidback voices resonate around the studio in a half-purr, half-growl hinting at claws and teeth, and the very sharp intelligence of jungle cats.
Modise – an old familiar on SAfm – has teamed up with the BBC’s Quist-Arcton to host the new-look PMLive show, which will first be aired on May 4.
Quist-Arcton, born in Ghana, has been with the BBC since 1985. She says she is “very excited” about the new collaboration as it gives her a chance to experience South Africa.
The already popular drive-time talk show PMLive will keep its current format, but thanks to an agreement with the BBC World Service, the scope of the news and analysis it provides will widen to include more international angles.
“We’ll have to see how the marriage goes,” Quist-Arcton says about the deal. “But the engagement’s been good so far.”
If it works, the show will provide informative chat on local and world issues, interviews with relevant people and a constant update on news around the globe. And with a staff of 10 committed behind-the-scenes workers working full-time on PMLive, there’s no reason why it shoudn’t work.
The show’s new executive producer, BBC man Chris Nicklin, says the partnership will benefit both sides. “We have different ways of doing things. We have our own ways and the SABC has its own ways. We’ve been working out a middle ground,” he says.
This middle ground includes covering sport and business news, and a fair amount of hard politics. “The show will present interviews with politicians, but not just that. We will also include interesting, fascinating and curious pieces on health, humour or lifestyles, ” Nicklin says.
Modise believes the partnership will enhance what SAfm has already been doing. “We will have a better foothold on what is going on in the world,” he says. The SAfm team will now have access to BBC’s large staff of reporters and stringers, enabling a wide-rangingcoverage of events.
The mix is to be around 60% local news and 40% international news. But Nicklin says: “Of course if some major story breaks locally or internationally, we won’t adhere strictly to that ratio.”
The show has no doubts at all about its target audience. “LSM sevens and eights,” says Nicklin, without hestitation. Which, once stripped of its ad-speak, means upper-income listeners. “Our listeners are likely to be broad-minded, highly educated people.”
Despite its British influence, Nicklin hopes the show will appeal to more than just an English audience. “We want to attract English- language speakers from whatever community … listeners who want to be better informed.”
Quist-Arcton says: “It’s nice knowing what the target audience is. Because we know we can’t be all things to all men, women, dogs and cats and so on.”
The crew has already begun planning and preparing inserts and packages for the first few weeks of the new programme. The show’s first pilot airings will take place over the next week, and then its just a matter of waiting to air for real.