It was announced today that The Tuesday Night Show, the only gay and lesbian radio show that broadcasts to a national audience, will be discontinued with immediate effect. Carried on Radio 2000 every Tuesday between 8pm and 10pm, the show’s closure is a direct result of executive producer Maciek Mazur’s unwillingness to pay a 100 percent weekly fee increase for the ‘privilege” of being on air.
Mazur informs eMedia that at a recent meeting with the SABC he was told he was ‘required to pay [double the previous fee] for the privilege of running the show. Radio 2000’s position was that unless I pay, they would be pulling the plug.”
The Tuesday Night Show has been on air since November last year. For just less than half of that time Mazur, with the assistance of backers, has paid a set fee per episode to the SABC, presumably to cover technical and production costs. ‘The deal was struck on the proviso that I would sell air-time and share the revenue [with SABC].”
It is understood that, prior to November last year, listenership figures for the Tuesday night 8-10pm slot were in the region of 11,000. Mazur has pointed out to eMedia that for October 2004 to March 2005 the average figures came in at 17,000, with February to May this year at 19,000.
According to Mazur, a verbal agreement covering the revenue share was initially reached with Judi Nwokedi, the SABC’s former managing director of PBS (public broadcasting services). ‘The verbal agreement has never been formalised,” says Mazur. ‘They presented me with a contract in February, but the revenue split clause was removed. I haven’t signed it.”
In a release scheduled to go out to stakeholders today, Mazur says: ”It is unfortunate that we’ve reached a situation wherein there seems to be no purpose to pursue a relationship with the public broadcaster. It is practically impossible for us to meet its suggested contractual terms of a 100 percent increase in fees payable to Radio 2000 and being moved to a later time slot: 22:00 – 24:00. Additionally, we are precluded from approaching any of the SABC’s clients for sponsorship or advertising.”
The SABC has not responded to eMedia’s requests for comment at the time of this writing. The only other gay and lesbian show broadcast in South Africa is a weekly one-hour programme called In the Pink, which runs on the Cape Town community station Bush Radio.
Mazur has negotiated one final show on Radio 2000 tonight.
Gleason back?
David Gleason has taken out a somewhat cheeky advert in the Business Day today, above where his ‘Torque” column used to appear before editor Peter Bruce gave him the sack. The advert announces that Gleason is back from August 22. But not, sadly for some Business Day readers, in the daily paper. The column will only be available on his website.
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