It’s the start of another interesting year in radio and we brace ourselves for a rollercoaster ride of being riled with inanity and regaled with quirky charm by people who prefer to call themselves as the occasion demands DJs, presenters, personalities, celebrities and, ahem, journalists.
We start by appealing for general improvement in the standard of talk shows, especially on stations like Metro FM and Kaya, for whom talk is not a core element of programming, but remains crucial for an information-hungry audience. Slack scripts, lacking research; rash questioning that sticks to what is on the script without being responsive to what the guest has to say, are frequent flaws that plague talk shows on these stations.
One well-produced episode a week is just not good enough. To the listeners who call in, your input remains crucial, but at times it helps to think before you call. Being emotional usually clouds rationality and compromises a well-thought-out point. At industry level, a number of troublesome issues persist. The Independent Communications Authority has called for oral and written submissions on the review of local content quota, currently at 20% for radio.
I would like to see the quota increased to 25%, accompanied by more vigorous enforcement. A gradual increase in any aspect of programming recognises that audiences take time to change tastes and adjust to something new. Raising the quota too high and enforcing it thoroughly will force broadcasters to play the mediocre and puerile material that studio executives dream up to make a quick buck.
On the advertising front, we remain saddled with a glaring imbalance in terms of adspend share that sees the African language stations command more than 90% of adult audiences but scrape for less than 5% of the advertising buck. This is a sad but true reflection of income distribution patterns across audiences.
The problem with it is that it is exaggerated by what economists call an externality. The distortion here is caused by the fact that advertising budgets are controlled by white people who fail to recognise that the emerging middle class does not necessarily spend its recently acquired wealth the way that living standard measures (LSM) dictate they should. LSMs need to be radically revised.
Back to the entertainment arena let me get a few things off my chest. First, let’s hope that the legal order that has brought an end to football’s Rothmans Cup does not take away the Peter Stuyvesant Music Spectaculars. If it does, we plead with whosoever has the clout to bring international acts to bring the two artists we are dying to see performing on these shores: Sade and R Kelly.
The British Nigerian, age-defiant beauty has impressed with her recent Lover’s Rock but we want her for the many hits she has given us over the years. The MTN Sundome is waiting. As for Robert Kelly; the release of R and TP2.com confirms him as one of the most influential artists of his generation. The Johannesburg Stadium is waiting.
On to the small screen. We urge TV presenters Melanie Son and Zandi Nhlapo to move on to other challenges, sorry, tasks. Son has seen Studio Mix change logos as frequently as she has changed, well, hairstyles and must now surely find the routine tedious. As for Nhlapo, being voted the most popular presenter by teenyboppers for two years in a row shows that you are popular and — ageing. May they have a happy new year. As for the rest of us, may it be prosperous as well.