in your ear
Thebe Mabanga
Two recent, poetic ad campaigns have made it to the small screen. The adverts are for Metro FM and Yfm. An interesting feature of the ads is the use of dub poetry as a medium. Both have an uncanny and apparently unintended similarity.
With slick dub poetry, both assert black pride. For Yfm this is targeted at its listenership of twentysomethings, the very group that was the lifeblood of black consciousness and pan-Africanism in the Seventies. For Metro, this message is being sent to a middle class riddled with an identity crisis and overwhelmed by a need to assert “I am an African”, as if they did not know all along. For Yfm, the synergy with poetry is obvious.
According to Dirk Hartford, the youth station’s managing director, the ad part of a series of three was made by Lizelle Mes, who had heard Tumi Molekani, a rap poet from Pretoria, on Rudeboy Paul’s programme Word of Mouth.
Mes then made a series of short promo films depicting striking African images and sold it to Yfm. The ad was then flighted briefly last year on e.tv, first in October and then in December
Metro FM manager Lesley Ntloko sees the new “I am [the] beat” ad campaign merely as an extension of the station’s launch of a new logo and an extension of its popular “What makes you black?” campaign series. He claims not to have known about the Yfm ad until someone drew his attention to it. Having created association with sophistication and upward mobility among blacks, Ntloko says they now “want to create an emotional bond between the brand and its listeners”.
Soon the Metro campaign will take to cinemas and outdoor displays, and will be extended to events such as poetry and comedy sessions. Hmm, comedy has been an integral part of South African radio for a long time now and Yfm has been doing poetry for a year. Has Metro now seen the light?
On the dial, the two stations continue making mild waves. Towards the end of last year, Yfm recruited to their ranks diggable, dreadlocked Castle Loud presenter Unathi Nkayi to present a jazz show on Sunday (noon to 2pm). The good thing about the show is that it brings a paradigm shift to Sunday-afternoon listening by broadening the definition of jazz to include that underplayed genre of acid jazz. Now we can chill to the sounds of St Germain, Jamiroquai and Drizabone. On the microphone, Nkayi still has some rough edges. For one, her links are punctuated with heavy breathing, and two, her features are way ahead in time. Two Sundays ago she was giving tips about Valentine’s Day. So on the Sunday before the mid-February day of red madness you can look forward to Easter recipes.
As for Metro FM, it is that time of the year when DJ contracts come up for renewal. One DJ whose contract will not be renewed is “Kick Ass” Kenny Maistry, who landed himself in hot water recently when he told listeners that he would not be playing music because none was programmed. He followed this with a cardinal sin of radio: dead air for three minutes. It remains unclear what Maistry’s motives were, but his star began to wane with the arrival of Phat Joe, when he was relegated from midday on weekdays to early evenings on weekends.
Having made programme changes last August, it is unlikely Metro will change too much. What the station must change is the Sunday-afternoon sound without changing its presenters. Brenda Sisana is perfect for Sunday lunch, but Eddie Zondi (3pm to 6pm) plays songs he has been in love with for five years.