Community radio holds close to 5 million listeners across 77 stations in South Africa, according to the four-week 2002B RAMS figures. Each of these stations gives voice to a specific interest group or marginalised minority, and has been established to democratise South African media. In service of the raison d’etre, community radio stations are required by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to be independent bodies, not owned by any one person, and governed by non-profit principles. But community radio also needs to generate its own revenue, which is largely achieved through selling airtime.
So how, in this complicated mix of development and capitalism, does community radio keep to the commercial side of the bargain?
The ability of community radio to deliver on the promises it makes to advertisers is largely dependent on the way a station runs its operations, says Philemon Moilwa, manager of licensing at ICASA.
The above statement may appear equally true of private commercial stations, yet it’s implied that community radio has unique challenges outside the norm. According to Basil van Niekerk, managing director of community radio sales specialists The Media Connection, most of these challenges centre on ‘non-ownership’.
‘Although a core group of paid staff do contribute to the overall management, the stations are run by volunteers,” says van Niekerk. ‘A board of directors and the radio members are elected by the community the station is meant to serve. This means that people can elect friends who do not necessarily possess the required skills and knowledge to complete their tasks capably.”
And van Niekerk has experienced first-hand the kinds of problems that result from non-ownership. Conflict over whom is elected in what position can affect day-to-day operations to varying degrees, but when the conflict affects advertising that The Media Connection has sold on a station’s behalf, van Niekerk and his team are obliged to provide compensation.
It is ICASA’s job, however, to make sure community stations tow the line. The in-house fighting, Moilwa concedes, affects the view advertisers have of community stations.
Moilwa adds that because community stations are seen as a training ground for a career in radio, there is often a high turnover of members, which can disturb the continuity of the dealings with advertisers. ‘They [advertisers] want stability and consistency, and having to deal with different faces each time can be disconcerting, ” he says.
What advertisers also want is assurance that their spots will be flighted. The most efficient method for checking that adverts are played on time, says van Niekerk, is an electronic system where a computer is programmed with the schedule. ‘As long as there is power, there is no way the adverts cannot be run,” van Niekerk asserts.
But the electronic system can cost in the region of R52,000 to install and operate, a price too steep for most community stations.
While The Media Connection is negotiating sponsorship for this equipment, stations like CCFM (Cape Community Radio), which broadcasts from Muizenburg in the Western Cape, have already implemented their own version of the software. Unfortunately the CCFM scenario is not the norm, and the majority of community stations still use a manual form of logging – which, van Niekerk explains, is fallible as it relies on the DJ signing a printout sheet.
Of course another factor affecting the perception of community radio is the involvement of agents (like The Media Connection) and the various media independents close to the sector.
Heiner Kühnel, media director at The MediaShop, says it is up to agencies like his to make sure that information passed on to clients about community radio is reliable and valid. The Media Connection resigns those stations that repeatedly neglect to flight adverts, and Kühnel’s agency does not deal with community stations they do not trust.
Trust in a community station, says Fine Music Radio’s Victoria Cawood, is built up in accordance with the years a station has been in existence. Cawood, who handles the classical music station’s finance and marketing, maintains that the longer a station stays in business, the more it proves its capabilities for delivering an audience to advertisers. Van Niekerk agrees, saying that it is harder to organise advertising for new stations that ‘have yet to prove whether they’re going to be around for more than 12 or 14 months.”
But even if the agents and the stations themselves present a confident view of community radio, there are those companies beyond the local businesses already advertising that still need convincing.
‘Advertisers spend fairly little on community radio,” says Kühnel, highlighting the part budget constraints play in the decision. Big companies will most often spend the full budget on mainstream media, leaving little or nothing for developing sectors.
CCFM’s sales manager, Helga van Niekerk, believes a combination of mainstream and community placement can be more effective than just the former. By including community radio in the mix, she says, companies will still reach the smaller pockets that tend to have a high loyalty to the stations, and thus endorse the products advertised.
Encouragingly, the above has been the experience of the Shoprite Group. Shoprite’s marketing director Brian Weyers reports: ‘Community radio gives [us] the opportunity to speak to the audience in their own language, with the result that the loyalty factor is usually high.” Weyers also notes the cost-effectiveness of community radio, which offers a large listenership at relatively low rates.
Shoprite is bucking an ingrained trend, though. As Alan Bursnell of Vodacom’s marketing department suggests, some companies will not advertise on community radio, regardless of the sector’s reputation, simply because it’s not part of the strategy.
Ultimately, while many stations operate as best they can and offer affordable rates, community radio needs support from the advertising industry to improve its standards. As Radio Zibonele’s station manager, Epaph Mbesi, says: ‘Community radio is the underdog, but we have a growing role. As people better themselves, even in a township community, they increase their means of affording goods and services. We [community stations] are claiming our role and I’m optimistic that sooner or later we’ll be recognised by advertisers for what we truly can offer.”
With the desire to belong to a community becoming stronger in the depersonalising world of globalisation, community radio is assuming a central role in creating localised cohesion and expression. It seems inevitable that the advertiser will soon catch on. And it’s up to the players in the community radio game to ensure that they’re ready when the dam bursts.