The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) on Tuesday heard an application by the owners of Port Elizabeth-based Radio Algoa to close down their East London radio station despite protests from listeners.
Umoya Communications (Pty) Ltd, the holding company of Radio Algoa, applied for the closure of two of the station’s transmitters and the closure of Radio BRFM — a local radio station in East London which Umoya ran as a dual service along with Radio Algoa. Umoya also applied for the renewal of Radio Algoa’s broadcast licence.
Umoya closed BRFM in October 2001. The application to Icasa is retrospective. Umoya secured its first broadcasting license in 1996 after purchasing both Radio Algoa and Radio BRFM from the South African Broadcasting Corporation. Radio Algoa’s managing director David Tiltman, together with Radio Algoa’s senior management, presented to the Icasa panel the reasoning behind their application to close Radio BRFM and the two other transmitters.
They also motivated the renewal of Algoa’s licence. This was followed by a motion from the East London Concerned Listeners Association opposing Umoya’s bid to close the station. The association’s representative Karin Shroeder opposed the applications saying that Umoya had not followed the stipulations of the original agreement and that without Radio BRFM, East London had no local commercial radio station.
Shroeder said Umoya had secured the BRFM licence over other bidders to the Independent Broadcasting Association in 1995 on the grounds that it wanted to uplift the community.
She said that part of Umoya’s commitment in the original agreement was that it would set up an advisory board within the first three months of operation to advise Radio Algoa’s managing director on issues relevant to their listeners.
The board was to meet at least quarterly and deal with comments, complaints and suggestions to improve the service rendered by Radio Algoa and Radio BRFM.
Shroeder successfully showed that the advisory board was only established in 1999 and that it only met twice. Tiltman countered Shroeder’s objection saying that listener forum’s and target research had replaced the role played by the advisory board.
He said the decision to replace the board was taken because it had strayed from its original mandate of programming content. As a result, Tiltman said, Radio Algoa had implemented more successful means of monitoring programme content through the listener forums.
He said that despite the support in East London for Radio BRFM, the fact that the radio station only ran for four hours each day meant that it was not financially viable and therefore he asked that Umoya be allowed to terminate the service.
Tiltman said that if the application was approved, Umoya would focus on listeners in greater East London through Radio Algoa.
After both sides put their cases and were questioned by the Icasa panel, the hearings were closed.
Umoya’s proposals and the objections will now be reviewed by the panel. Icasa will then decide whether to allow Radio BRFM and the two transmitters to be closed and also whether Radio Algoa’s licence should be renewed.
If Icasa denies Umoya’s application to close the East London station, the regulator could force the company to reopen the station. Alternatively, Icasa could sell the licence to another operator. – Sapa