Radio Days Jo’burg 2013 – Day 3

Soli Philander was, without doubt, the most entertaining and passionate speaker on the third and final day (if not overall) at Radio Days Jo’burg. “I’m 52 and I look damn good”, he said at one point. Underlying this comment, which made me laugh out loud, was the confidence that comes from having found yourself in a good space in life.

He spoke about the obsession with sales figures and ratings which dominated the thoughts of people he was surrounded with earlier in his career. In the wake of being dumped by the “Cape Talk” radio station, he now runs an internet-only radio station called Taxi. He says he doesn’t like to judge the success of the radio station by the number of people listening to the stream or other “conventional” measurement tools, but by how much engagement the programs have both for listeners and sponsors. “I am astonished about the amount of money that businesses spend on TV. Don’t they know people do other things during ads.”, he said at one point to much applause.

Soli Philander. Photo from his Twitter profile https://twitter.com/SoliPhilander
Soli Philander. Photo from his Twitter profile https://twitter.com/SoliPhilander

Although I’m sure many people in the radio industry would feel uncomfortable with his rejection of mainstream thinking, I thought it was a breath of fresh air to hear someone speaking with authenticity, and without relying on cliche.

Another interesting part of the session on internet radio was that the idea was put forward about giving schools in South Africa the capacity to have their own radio stations.

I also attended the early session on music radio where the attention was mostly focused on new platforms. One of the interesting discussion points was about the size of the playlist of most music radio stations these days. “There was a time when a radio station would play between 5 and 10,000 songs, and now it’s just 3 or 400”, one bloke who had been working in the industry for over forty years declared at one point. Personally, I don’t have any memory of a playlist being as large as 5 to 10,000 songs. In response to the question about whether or not the audience would be happy with such an apparently small playlist, one of the participants said someone once told him running a radio station can be like running a grocery shop. “You put the best stuff out the front of the shop, not what you think they should buy”, he said.

I missed two of the third and equivalent final sessions because I was presenting my own session on digital radio lessons from Australia.

Then it was time for lunch, which included some wonderful conversations about the way in which the office of President Zuma is handling announcements about the health of Madiba/Nelson Mandela. “People get suspicious when you keep saying the same thing every day” was a comment from one of the people I had lunch with.

Preparing to go on a tour of VOW-FM. Photograph thanks to Peter Hornung https://twitter.com/ph_reporterpool
Preparing to go on a tour of VOW-FM. Photograph thanks to Peter Hornung https://twitter.com/ph_reporterpool

Later in the afternoon, we paid a visit to VOW-FM, the community radio station co-located with the Wits Radio Academy. Theirs is a community radio station in partnership with the university. We were told about the way they advertise for volunteer positions – “We had over 1,000 applicants this year” – and how they have intern partnerships with a number of commercial organisations which generally leads to good job prospects for those coming through.

Behind the scenes at VOW-FM, Johannesburg
Behind the scenes at VOW-FM, Johannesburg

“Thank you so much for inviting me”, I said to Franz Kruger from the Radio Academy who invited me to the conference. The last few days have really expanded my mind, meeting amazing people in remarkable circumstances, and hearing about different approaches to some of the universal issues of people who make radio, as well as the unique experiences of running a radio station in a conflict zone, for example. “The only disappointing thing”, I told Franz, “was that with concurrent sessions I couldn’t get to everything”.

5 Replies to “Radio Days Jo’burg 2013 – Day 3”

  1. It was a pity that you could not have stayed in Jo’burg a bit longer for Mediatec South African Broadcasting Corporation conference 17 – 19 July. You could have heard digital shortwave broadcasting from the UK to Jo-burg http://www.drm.org/?p=2283. You also missed that India is switching off AM radio in 2017 having installed high powered DRM30 transmitters all over their country (population 1.2 billion). Transmitter rollout to be completed in August next year. DRM should be used for all non metro areas in Australia because of its much greater coverage area. In Australia see http://www.dbcde.gov.au/radio/digital_radio/review_of_digital_radio_technologies_for_regional_australia particularly my submission. Yes you could cover all of Australia from Alice Springs with one transmitter. Radio New Zealand International has been covering the South Pacific with DRM30 for at least 6 years. Why isn’t ABC owned, Radio Australia using their high powered DRM30 transmitters in Shepparton (Vic) and the ABC Local Radio in Tennant Creek to transmit near FM quality sound when they have had the transmitters for at least 3 years?

    1. Thanks Alan – this looks like good information. I’ve read a little about DRM, and, like you say, it looks good for regional areas. Will read your paper with interest. Although I have some technical interest, my main concerns/areas of interest are content-based.

      1. James, The ABC/Radio Australia has never run its own transmitters, right back to the Post Master General’s Department. The Bureau of Meteorolgy has been transmitting seismic information to Asia using DRM30’s journaline text service via BA Shepparton. The Radio Australia could have supplied its audio to go with it, and possibly BA’s charges. I also suggest you listen to the links http://www.drm.org/?p=2166. Japan is 2500 km from the transmitter and Mongolia is 5000 km. Australia has a maximum radius of 2000 km. Note that this is high frequency (short wave radio) in stereo without noise or distortion. This transmission was in the presence of lots of adjacent channel interference which was heard just prior to DRM30 transmission.

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