South Africa’s first youth radio station, Yfm, turns six this year, but questions have been raised about whether it is making much of a contribution towards developing the youth.
Critics credit the station with using entertainment to reach young people — it boasts more than one million listeners — but say it needs to do more to encourage political debate.
Something the station’s management is at pains to do is avoid being labelled purely as a “party station”.
Yfm CEO Dirk Hartford says the station initially aimed to encourage debate but allowed itself to be led by the youth, who were more interested in music and having a good time.
Gigs and bashes have been central to Yfm’s strategy. The station played a major role in establishing kwaito as a commercial music genre and Yfm’s DJs are major players in the music industry, with most having released popular CDs after joining the station.
Hartford says the station deliberately put unknowns behind the microphone where it found potential in some of the most unlikely candidates.
One of Yfm’s DJs, Fana “Khabzela” Khaba, was a taxi driver before joining the station. According to Hartford, it is exactly this approach that has sold Yfm to the masses.
“You have real people talking to real people,” Hartford says.
Tawana Kupe, head of the media studies programme at the University of the Witwatersrand, says Yfm is a good radio station but that it has a social responsibility to inform and educate the youth.
“Their listeners are at voting age and they need to find young people who are knowledgeable about politics who can educate the youth on how politics affects us.”
He says that the station should not pander to its audience and should introduce important issues to its listeners.
He suggests a new programme featuring African culture that would help the youth understand and learn about cultures in other countries on the continent.
Hartford echoes Kupe’s sentiments and believes that Yfm has already started dealing with important issues affecting the youth.
Yfm, Hartford says, is focusing on four key areas: abuse of women and children; entrepreneurship; HIV/Aids and education.
The station also uses Andile Gaelisiwe, a singer who was sexually abused as a child, to encourage young people to speak out against abuse.
Yfm spends R3-million a year on scholarships that are promoted by one of its most influential DJs, Thato “Fresh” Sikwane.
Khaba recently announced his HIV-positive status on radio in a move aimed at sending a strong message to the youth about the pandemic.
“We are starting to get meat on the bones and it’s all starting to come together.
“We want to be known for [being] more than just a party station,” Hartford says.