Community Radio Practices: a case study on how the political economy impacts production in the South...

Mikko Kapanen 2007

Abstract

This ebook explores the impact of political economy on the

Community Radio sector in South Africa, concentrating specifically

on the programme Morning Cruise on Cape Town’s Bush Radio. Its

findings are based on ethnographic research conducted between June

nd September 2006. a

There are no significant studies on the impact of political economy to

the specific practices on Community Radio sector, as the interest has

o far been more on commercial one. s

Research highlights the station, production and broadcast practices

and concludes them to be characterised by station’s funding and two

primary aims: to serve the community and train its members, and the

special conditions created by production team integrating visually

impaired and sighted people. It does not, however, concentrate on

textual qualities of Morning Cruise, as those are not impacted by

special nature of the production, but rather Bush Radio’s role as a

training station.

Community Radio Practices: a case study on how the political economy impacts production in the South African Community Radio sector.

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ontentC s Page:

roduction……………………………………………………………………..4

• Int

• Chapter 1. Theorising Community Radio practices in South

• Chapter 3. Research findings…………………………………………39

Africa………………………………………………………………………………..7

1. Community and Community Radio………………………………………..7 2. Media production………………………………………………………………14 3. South African media environment……………………………………….21

• Chapter 2. Researching practices of Community Radio…..30

1. Station practices ‐ Morning Cruise within the Bush Radio … … ……….40 organisation………………………………… …………………… …

2. Production practices ‐ Preparing the broadcast of Morning

Morning CruiseCruise…………………………………………………………………………………53

3. Broadcast practices – inside the studio………...62

• Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...72 • Bibliography…………………………………………………………………..75


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ntroduction

C

ning

programme of Cape Town based community station Bush Radio’

I

Although there has been some significant research on radio

production through its political economy, none of it has focused on

the Community Radio sector on a detailed level. There are different

ways for community stations to fund their practices, but the one I am

focusing on, Bush Radio in Cape Town, South Africa, is funded mainly

by donor money. In this research I am looking into the impact of

Bush Radio’s political economy to their practices; particularly

concentrating on their mid‐morning show, Morning ruise. This

programme is hosted by visually impaired presenters and therefore

offers an interesting, although not necessarily very common, example

on how production works. The question I am answering is, ‘what

are the distinct practices of Morning Cruise, a midmor

.

Now, almost seven months since I finished my ethnography, the

producer of the programme has changed, one of the presenters has

left and the intern has finished his internship, so it seems evident that

this kind of research can only be a snapshot of a time. That, however,

does not make it less interesting, as change in itself is a characteristic


5

to Bush Radio’s programming, and it did impact this production

team, although during my research period, the only change was the

ew intern. n

My thesis is that the practices of Morning Cruise are result of the

station’s aims; as listed in the policy document, but particularly two

primary ones: to serve the community and to offer training to its

members. They are also characterised by station’s political economy,

which, together with availability, contributes to the lack of special

equipment to help visually impaired staff members. There is some

special equipment at the station, but the producer of the programme

must work as a facilitator, who helps out bridging the gap between

he professional output and the technological challenges. t

The first chapter concentrates on existing academic work around my

question. It has been divided in three sections which explore the

ideas of community and Community Radio in general, production of

media and its political economy and finally, the South African media

environment, which finally helps us to understand the context within

hich the object of my study exists. w


6

Second chapter concentrates on methodological approach of this

tudy, exploring the theory and practicalities of ethnography. s

In third chapter I present the findings of my research based on

observation and interviews conducted. This chapter has been

divided into three sections in order to give a clear picture of the

stages of production. These sections are station practices, production

practices and broadcast practices. Using these focuses I introduce

the factors that impact the programme in the context of Bush Radio,

its aims and political economy; in the office during the preparations

within the production team and finally inside the studio during the

ctual broadcast. a

Finally, I conclude my research highlighting its findings, assess the

usefulness of my thesis and suggest further research to broaden the

deas I have formulated. i


7

Chapter 1. Theorising Community Radio practices in

South Africa.

This chapter covers the key ideas of the concepts of community,

Community Radio, radio and media production and Community

Radio in an African, and more precisely South African context. These

will help us to focus on the specifics of my research by explaining the

roader framework within which the subject of my study exists. b

1. Community and Community Radio

I will start of by exploring the meanings of community and

Community Radio. These will help us to understand how

communities are constructed and how will that result in their media;

radio in specific, both through regulation and on a social and

practical level.


8

Community

The traditional concept of community is it having common objectives,

internal cohesion and linkages amongst its members (Krohling

Peruzzo 1996, p.162). These communities often have dividing

qualities and the notions of the ones who ‘belong’ and the ‘outsiders’

are created (Crow and McLean 2000, p.223). The most common

theory is the divide between geographical community and the one of

interest (Minar and Greer 1969, p.ix). It is acknowledged by majority

of the researchers, although the line between these is not always

clear and many communities have bit of both (Crow and McLean

2000, p.227). The regulator in South Africa, the Independent

Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), continues to

divide the communities of interest into three sub‐groups:

Institutional, Religious and Cultural Communities (ICASA –

ommunity Sound Broadcasting Policy 2006). C

Public service ideal in Britain has often used the term community as

an object to paternalistic betterment, while the commercial sector

use it as an audience, which can be sold to the advertisers (Wall

000, p.193). 2

Community Radio Practices: a case study on how the political economy imp

Communities also have different opinions and objectives within

themselves, so their voices undergo hegemonic processes, which

influence their communications (Van Vuuren 2006, p.381).

acts production in the South African Community Radio sector.

9

In an African context the meaning of community is very complex.

During the post‐colonial times there has been a tendency to create a

national unity in order for countries to develop, and therefore the

communality and the differences have been de‐emphasised. The

trend has also been to create larger communities; units of several

countries, and this has taken the decision making further away from

the traditional communities, but on a grass‐roots social level it has

been unsuccessful, as many people still feel that they live in a

community rather than in a nation (Opubor 2000, p.11). In South

Africa community has also been a connotation of race (Bosch 2003,

.108). p

Within the context of Community Radio, the meaning of community

has been questioned, as it could mean all possible listeners within the

station’s footprint, inactive listeners or the ones actively participating

(Kivikuru 2006, p.26). In the chapter three, I will explore how Bush

adio constructs community in its function. R

Community Radio Practice : a case tudy on how the politica economy pacts 10

Other characteristic of Community radio is it being produced by its

audiences. It is a participatory medium which does not aim for profit

making (Partridge 1982, p.14; Fleming 2002, p.33; Hendy 2000, p.17;

Tacchi 2003, p.2183 and Opuko‐Mensah 2000, pp.165‐6).

s s l improduction in the South African Community Radio sector.

Community Radio

Community Radio, as a term, has been widely adopted. It is the word

used in the South African context as much as in the British one, but

the medium is also known by the names ‘radical’, citizen’s’ and

alternative’ (Lewis 2005, p.3). ‘

During past few years there has been an increasing interest on the

academic research on Community Radio. It is due to its alternative

character, which is supplementary to, as much as opposing the

shortcomings of mainstream media (Lewis 2005, p.3). Its task is not

to replace or duplicate the existing services but rather to extend

them (Partridge 1982, p.2) as Community Radio is a response to the

lack of delivery of the other radio stations (Lewis and Booth 1989,

p.105 and Hendy 2000, p.16). Cultural differences in community

broadcasting are highlighted as they also partly determine its

unction (Wanyeki 1999, p.31). f


11

Participatory has also been explained as a two‐way communication

rather than the more traditional ‘top to bottom’ broadcasting

(Wanyeki 1999, p.26 and Olorunnisola 2002, p.133). Bosch (2003,

p.113), in her case study points out that a challenge for participation

ay be for instance not affording the transportation to the studios. m

Radio as a medium can target specifically, at least in theory,

communities by using their most suitable languages, present the local

views on cultural matters and offer niche programming (Forde,

Meadows and Foxwell 2003, p.249). World Association of

ommunity Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) claims on its website that, C

the historical philosophy of community radio is to use this medium as the voice of the voiceless, the mouthpiece of ppressed people (be it on radial, gender, or class rounds) and generally asog

a tool for development.

AMARC ‐ http://www.amarc.org

In African context, Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), in their

Windhoek declaration adds, that Community Radio’s ownership must

be representative of the community (African Charter on Broadcasting

http://www.misa.org). ‐

CommunCommunity

2ity Radio Practices: a case study on how the political economy impacts production in the South African Radio sector.

1

because it responds very well to pre‐existing communications needs, complements other technologies

Commercial radios are claimed to serve the communities as well (as

argued by Irvine 2000), but they measure their service by the size of

their audience for economical reasons, and often part from their

initial promise of performance for that reason (Wall 2006, p.10‐11).

Berland (1993) adds that the formats prevent local radio from being

local. She argues that the commercial local radio only tends to create

a feeling of localness, because the stations are economics driven.

This leaves Community Radio, besides the other community media,

as the most viable service for the interest of the communities as they

relate better with local issues than global (Forde, Meadows and

oxwell 2003, p.232). F

The purpose of Community Radio is to reform the already existing

structures of the broadcasting, but also to create locally controlled

stations (Lewis and Booth 1989, p.105). Wanyeki (1999, p.30) uses

the metaphor of the stations in the communities being both mirror

for it to see itself, but also a window to see the rest of the world.

Tower (2005) has done an ethnographic research on Community

adios in Mali. He writes that FM radio suits the African societies R

Community Radio Practices: a case study on how the political economy impacts 1

Bosch (2003), who has done so far the most in‐depth study on Bush

Radio in particular, uses cross academic rhizomatic method, by which

she explains the nature of Community Radio to be growing from all of

production in the South African Community Radio sector.

3

on

f communications, and is adaptable to prevailing social orms.

(Tower 2005, p.8)

I try to avoid the notion of something being typically African, as it

automatically generalises a broad and diverse region, but to me it

appears that this idea applies in Cape Town as well. Also, as

electricity is not necessarily needed to listen, it is suitable for the

poorer areas. In these places the radio receivers are often more

common than televisions. Radio is also an oral medium so the

lliteracy is not creating an obstacle (Hendy 2000, p.2). i

For the sustainability of the community station, it is crucial for the

community to feel social ownership over it. For this to happen, the

station must be based in a community association or committee,

work towards the broadcast must be started much before the actual

broadcast and the local people must take over the different tasks in

ts production (Jallov 2005, p.22). i


14

its sectors. She uses the metaphor of Community Radio growing like

grass and commercial ones like trees, which means that Community

Radio will not achieve the same popularity than the commercial ones

but in a group, they can have great effect in the community. Her

argument about Bush Radio in particular is that the structure of the

station; its staff and volunteers, work also in the same fashion and

every individual may be asked to take over a tasks from presenting a

show to taking the rubbish out (p.139).

2. Media production

After discussing some of the key ideas about Community Radio, I will

next cover the theories around the media production. I will do so by

exploring the ideas of political economic structures of media, its

production practices and finally some specifics of radio

rogramming. p

In this research I will use the terms ‘station practice’ and ‘broadcast

practice’ following Tim Wall’s (1999, p.37) idea, where the latter


15

means the act of producing a programme during the time of

transmission and the former more broadly within the organisation of

given station. His work, however, does not focus on the practices of

any production team in particular while preparing the programme,

and for that activity I have adopted the term ‘production practice’.

Political economy of media production

According to Schudson (1996, p.145), the political economy

perspective of media studies has been dominant in Anglo‐American

theories but it emphasises more economy than politics. Mosco

(1996, p.12) explains this coming out of the media industry rise in

the 20th century and the increasing interest from the business sector,

which started to produce research around the media production and

marketing. Smythe (1981) introduces the ideas of audience being the

commodity in the media and the text being merely bait to get people

to be influenced by the adverts. He also suggests that the audience is

self‐promoting the products to themselves which makes them labour

for the advertisers. Jhally (1990, p.72) specifies this idea by adding

that it is not the audience that is being sold, but only their

watching/listening time, which may or may not lead to benefit the


Social structures are unequal and it is problematic if the media

enforce or create an opportunity for inequality to be reproduced.

That is why it is important to ask, can the media producers produce

their texts autonomously or are they influenced by economical,

political or cultural powers (Hesmondhalgh 2006, p.2). Chomsky and

Herman (1988, p.2) argue that the media serves the elite class of

society, and that its propaganda is only harder to distinguish in

liberal democracies than in dictatorships. This idea resonates Marx’s

view in which the ruling class, that controls the means of material

production, controls automatically the mental production as well

(Marx and Engels 1974/1847, pp.64‐5). Marx was not interested in

what an individual media owner does or thinks, but treated them as

an economic class which does things by default (Downey 2006, p.18).

Hall (1996, p.17) points out that this kind of thinking does not only


6

advertiser and therefore media organisation. These ideas are market

based and apply mainly to commercial sector. The media structures

dominated by economics have been increasingly seen as insufficient,

and the idea of ‘civil society’, where media has lost much of its

dependency on state and the market is getting more support amongst

cademics (Schudson 1996, p.145). a


17

ignore the ideological differences within the ruling class, but also the

fact, that different ideologies are dominant amongst the ruling classes

of different countries. Ideological analysis is based on the idea, that

the values of a media text can be seen as an indicator of its

roduction context (White 1992, p.163). p

Media production within media organisations and society

Hesmondhalgh (2006) compares different case studies in the media

and culture production and distinguishes a Public Service

Broadcaster, BBC, having other influences in their production than

purely economic ones (p. 79). These are more traditional values of

counter discourse, universality, serving the public and justifying the

licence fee and also the pressure from the private sector media.

There has also been a change in the nature of the production teams in

recent years, as media texts used to be produced by permanent

employers, but now the teams must be more flexible. Media workers

are increasingly working as freelancers and seen as an economic

resource by their organisations (Ursell 2006, p.141), while Barnatt

and Starkey (1994, p.253) see the old way of permanent staff being

high in costs and bureaucratic in nature, and flexibility being rather

Community Radio Practices: a case study on how the political economy mpacts 1

Schlesinger (1978), also incorporating practical and economical

iproduction in the South African Community Radio sector.

8

improving the production, than stretching the production team. As

the media production process has been seen to be under several

influences, Curran (1996, p.146) points out specific examples of

media producers taking action against either political or economical

ressure to prove their independence. p

Wall (1999, p. 25) argues that although the production processes in

the media production are partly determined by their political

economy; ownership structures of their organisations, and although

it has been the dominant perspective in theorising about them, there

are other influences to consider. Concentrating only at the political

economy ignores the specifics of the practice of production. He lists

two ways in which some media theorists have parted from the

dominant ideas. First one claims that political economy is a factor

but there are several other factors in the ‘complex web of influences’.

This idea includes non‐Marxist thinkers who see the economics to be

minor influence and the ones using case studies of the political

media. Second way is to look at the social organisation of the

roduction. p


19

ideas, has researched the production process at the BBC news

department and explored the complex nature of the decision making

at the public service broadcasting, which, he argues, is heavily based

n a routine and structure (p.79 ). o

Wall (1999) concentrates on the broadcast and station practices of

commercial radio also on everyday level. He argues that the

rganisation and context of a station is a sum of many factors such as: o

the station’s place in the political economy of radio, physical and cultural geography of its location, the formal nd informal positions and the relationships of staff and heir roles and functions. at

(Wall 1999, p.38)

Here the focus is on the actions of the employers, and other factors

impacting the output. He says that commercial radio broadcast

practices are heavily regulated and monitored (Wall 1999, p.266),

ut argues that the regulations are not being followed. b

Radio programming

In radio, the output of the station is determined by its programming

and due to the centralisation of the media ownership in commercial


The function and political economy of commercial radio differs from

the community one and the academic research has mainly

concentrated on the commercial sector, but even the indigenous


0

media, the programming has also been centralised (Berland 1993,

p.107). Many theorist, such as Crisell (1994) and Barnard (1989)

emphasise the role of speech in the output of the radio, which would

indicate that the research around it was the most important, but Wall

(1999, pp.206‐8) suggest that it is not so, as the majority of the

station’s output is other than speech, and therefore not determined

by the presenters, but rather the different stages of the management.

In his ethnographic research on a British commercial station he

calculates that only 3‐16% of the output was fully controlled by the

presenter, but notes that it does not undermine the actual practice of

broadcasting (Wall 1999, p.56). Unlike Wall (2006, p.10) who writes

about the importance of the music in radio for political economic,

aesthetic and cultural realms, Crisell (1994, p.48) argues that it is,

although common, not really signifying anything but itself. Berland

(1993, p.105) claims that radio is produced to be part of average

peoples’ day by creating a soundtrack for activities such as breakfast,

ravel and work. t


21

media, such as Community Radio, of which production reflects self‐

representation and expression, should be seen in the larger context

of mass media production that is dominant in its area, because it

relates to that (Spitulnik 1993, p.305). In the next section, I will look

into the South African media environment and cover two examples of

political economy models of Community Radio, as explored by

Olorunnisola (2002, pp.134‐44), but besides his rather generic study,

this has been a neglected area in the media research. That is why I

want to investigate the impact of political economy on Community

Radio production in this dissertation. Also, much of the academic

research concentrates on radio in general, and is not done by looking

closely into one station (Wall 2006, p.32) and I concentrate on Bush

Radio in specific.

3. South African media environment

Much of the academic work I have discussed so far has been either

general or focusing on British and American examples. As the subject

of my research is based in a different social environment and largely


22

influenced by its cruel history, it is important to explore some ideas

of South African media and Community Radio history and culture in

specific. First, though, I will begin by looking into the history of the

whole country and how that has resulted with its current media.

This way we can understand the theories in the historical and social

context of South Africa and Bush Radio in particular.

History of South Africa

There are innumerable books written about South Africa’s past and

due to the nature of the topic, and merely the fact that there has

always been a motivation for someone to rewrite the history, it is

sometimes hard to separate the facts from the facts that lack some

unwanted aspects. There has been criticism that after the 1994 first

democratic elections, the ruling party African National Congress

(ANC) has twisted the history of liberation struggle (see for instance

Van Zyl Slabbert 2006), but more importantly, the apartheid regime

as infamous for its propaganda (Thompson 1999, p.198). w

First inhabited by Khoisan tribes, the present area of South Africa

was settled by Bantu tribes around the year 300. Dutch East India


23

Corporation built a refreshment station around the present Cape

Town area in 1652 and slowly proceeded towards the inland.

Conflicts of rule and natural resources defined the poor relations

between different ethnic groups and after the Boer War (1899 –

1902); British controlled the area until 1948, and the whites‐only‐

election victory of Afrikaner Nationalist Party (NP), which resulted

ith the apartheid system (Thompson 1995). w

Apartheid was a plan to ensure the white domination and the South

Africans were divided in four groups: white, Indian, coloured and

black, and in 1950, the Group Areas Act allocated separate and

unequal living areas to them. This divided these groups further away

from each other (see for instance Pampallis 1991, Ross 1999,

Thompson 1995, Worden 1994 and Meli 1989), and media supported

the notion of separate populations (Olorunnisola 2002, p.127). This

still has an impact on the communities and their co‐existence,

although more integration takes place these days (Bosch 2003,

p.112). Cape Town in particular differs from other major cities, as it

is a home to the majority of the country’s so called coloured

opulation (Bosch 2003, p.123). p


24

During the apartheid, ANC, PAC (Pan‐Africanist Congress) and other

liberation movements were banned by the government, their leaders

were often imprisoned or banned and supporters harassed by the

police and military. Many events of the struggle had communal

aspect in them, and in particular, the forced removals of Sophiatown

in Johannesburg (see vivid personal recollection by Modisane 1986)

and District Six in Cape Town united the communities against the

common enemy (Pampallis 1991, p.204). In the late eighties and

early nineties the NP government started to ease up on the system,

released political prisoners, unbanned political parties and started

the negotiations for democratic elections, which finally took place in

1994, and Mandela became the first democratically elected President

in South Africa (Thomson 1995 and Ross 1999).

Evolution of South African media

During the apartheid, the broadcast media was owned and controlled

by the SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) which was

part of the ‘system’ and its output was biased (Bosch 2003, p.67 and

Olorunnisola 2002, p.129). Although some alternative ‘People’s

Media’ was published in print, the only major underground


During the negotiations for democracy a lot of emphasis was put on

renewing the old state controlled broadcast media and already

before the 1994 elections, IBA act broke the monopoly of the SABC.

Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was formed to make

policy on broadcasting, issue licences and monitor and regulate the

broadcast activities in 1993. This act also forbade the government

interference on IBA’s tasks, established the three‐tier broadcasting

system with public, commercial and community sectors and ensured


5

broadcaster was ANC’s Radio Freedom, which was in exile in the

neighbouring countries and broadcasted on short‐waves. In the

1980’s CASET (Cassette Education Trust) started distributing tape

cassettes with speeches from the banned leaders to the townships in

Cape Town. CASET later on became Bush Radio (Bosch 2003, p.69).

Olorunnisola (2002, p.128), however, suggests that the unlicensed

stations of white supremacist movements were the beginning for the

idea of Community Radio in South Africa. For them the authorities

were less strict than to the underprivileged communities. Bush

Radio started unlicensed broadcasting soon after the white

supremacist stations, but was shut down immediately (Olorunnisola

002, p.135). 2


As I mentioned earlier, there is a tendency of generalising African

problems. Tettey (2001, p.11) talks how freedom of the press on the

continent is still often a victim of a colonial tradition of control, taken

over by new leaders. This statement, although partly maybe true,

does ignore the fact that according to the most recent annual press

freedom index, 20% of the African countries are ranked higher than

United States, and South Africa is one of them (Annual Worldwide

Press Freedom Index 2006 ‐ http://www.rsf.org). SABC is often

blamed for being partial towards the new government (see for


the service to all of the language groups (Olorunnisola 2002, p.130).

In 2000, IBA merged with the telecommunications regulatory

authority (SATRA) and the present regulator, the Independent

Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) was born (ICASA

ebsite ‐ http://www.icasa.org.za) w

A lot of texts has been produced on South Africa’s political transition

and Horwitz (2001, p.5) mentions, that to move on from the brutal

past, it is important, and very likely only possible, to do so with the

help of mass media. Its reform is not only a political issue but affects

n every sector of society. o


27

instance “DA to consider campaign against SABC” –

http://www.mg.co.za), but community media, at least in theory,

functions independently from political and economical influences

(Olorunnisola 2002, p.133).

Community Radio in South Africa

Community Radio has been seen as a way to empower the previously

disadvantaged communities in the post‐apartheid South Africa

(Buckley 2000, p.183) and soon after the re‐regulation in 1994, 80

temporary licences were granted (Mtimde 2000, p.177) and in 2003,

150 Community Radios were broadcasting (Bosch 2003, p.104). First

licences had to be renewed annually but in 1996, IBA extended them

to be for four years (Olorunnisola 20002, p.131). Some alternative

media had been working underground before 1994, but the new

regulations took the emphasis from the resistance to reconstruction

and development (Bosch 2003, p.96). Still, the economical inequality

keeps on affecting the media (Kivikuru 2006, p.7) and as the

Community Radio is starting to take its shape, there may still often be

some political interference as it represents decentralisation of power

(Opuko‐Mensah 2000, p.171). It also suffers from the delays in


28

licensing and regulation, lack of funding and skill shortages in many

areas (Tacchi 2003, p.2184). Olorunnisola (2002, pp.134‐44)

explores the two dominant political economies of Community Radio:

donor and advertisement funded, and concludes that while the donor

funded stations may face sudden trouble if donors disappear, the

more self‐sustaining advert funded station may easily lose a focus to

heir purpose. t

Concluding points

In this chapter I have explored the theoretical framework of

community, Community Radio, media production and South African

communication environment. It seems evident that there are some

interesting unanswered questions in the field of study. Most

research on Community Radios look at their impact, them as a part of

society and their history and future prospects. The actual practices

of these stations have not been researched as much. Also, the impact

of political economy in the context of a Community Radio and in a

specific programme has not been properly looked into. Of course,

when the special conditions, created by visual impairment are added,

my research also concentrates on more specific examples of


29

practices, which are shaped not only by their funding, but also by the

aims of the Community Radio in general and in Bush Radio in

articular. p


30

Chapter 2. Researching practices of Community Radio

In the previous chapter I covered some of the key theories around my

research and identified an area that has not been properly explored.

Unlike commercial media, due to its economics driven nature,

community sector has not been researched through its political

economy; more importantly a specific programme and its practices

have not been examined as a product of the funding of the station. In

this chapter, I will explore my chosen research method which

enabled me to answer the question ‘What are the distinct practices

of Morning Cruise, a midmorning programme of Cape Town

based community station Bush Radio’, and analyse its strengths,

eaknesses and its specific characteristics in this research. w

In order to concentrate on the actual practices of the programme and

see the actions that lead to its output, I conducted ethnography of its

production team. Workplace ethnography has been used in studies

of some stations before to answer different questions (e.g. Wall 1999,

Bosch 2003 and Tower 2005). It is especially suitable to highlight the

nature of Morning Cruise, as the production team is partly consisted


31

of visually impaired people and therefore some of its practices are

very different from the ones researched before. I will look into the

theory of ethnography, exploring first its observational side and then

the interviews and finally, discuss more specifically on the research I

ave conducted. h

Ethnography as a method

Ethnography is a qualitative research method and in the past

decades, it has become one of the dominant methods in social

sciences (Hammersley 1992, p.1). Literally, the word means writing

about the way of life or the culture of a social group (McNeil and

Chapman 2005, p.89). It consists of studying people’s behaviour in

their every day context using different ways of gathering data;

primarily emphasising the personal observation and relatively

informal conversations. The gathering of data is unstructured as it

depends on what happens in the environment of study. The set of

ethnography is often small and the analysis of the data dominated by

the interpretation of human actions, rather than any statistical data

or quantification (Hammersley 1998, p.2). There are different ways


32

to record the observations but field notes are generally used.

Spradley (1979, p. 75) suggests three different ways ‐ a condensed

account; based on key words and short notes which can easily be

done in the middle of the observation; an expanded account, which is

to add up the condensed notes and a field work journal where

ethnographers record their own experiences during the research

which may be useful later on when writing down the actual

thnography. e

Ethnography has its historical roots in colonial times when colonisers

tried to understand the cultures foreign to them. However, the

findings were often based on assumptions and therefore not relevant

(Taylor 2002, p.2). Although the research method and its ethics have

improved, ethnography is still questioned as a form of scientific study

as its conclusions, as previously mentioned, are an outcome of an

interpretation (Hammersley 1998, p.6). This means that the

ethnographer is both reader and writer of the ethnography; reading

his/her own and other’s work (Atkinson 1992, p.2) and it is crucial to

connect the interpretation of the field work with theoretical ideas

Davies 1999, p.39). (


Ethnography helped me to understand the text and its production

process by observing the production team and how they arrive at the


3

Ethnographic research became relevant in the media institutions

post 1960’s, when studies done in various newsrooms concluded that

the process of making the news resulted in embedded ideological

meanings (Tuchman 1991, p.82). Hammersley (1992, p.11) notes

that ethnography avoids concluding from what people say or think

they are doing but rather draws conclusions from what they do. It is

notable that if the method concentrates on specifics of a social and

physical environment of one organisation, generalising the findings

of a research to another environment is to be avoided (Wall 1999, p.

46). The purpose of ethnographic research is to offer some concepts

and models that allow people to see things in different ways. These

conclusions are contributions to the public dialogue and their

usefulness can be judged by everyone individually (Hammersley

1992, p.15). Besides Hammersley’s (1998, p.6) criticism of

ethnography’s findings being a result of interpretation as I

mentioned before, it is the fact, that it cannot be generalised and is

very subjective, that has raised much criticism amongst the theorists

(Johnson 1990, p. 11).


Interviews are a useful part of the research, as they allow the

researchers to acquire information they could not get by only

observing (Berger 2000, p.111). Berger (2000, p.113) continues this

idea by specifying that while observing alone answers what is being

done and in what kind of context, the interviews allow us to get

deeper into the motivations and attitudes that are shaping those


4

station’s output. Observational methods, such as ethnography, are

useful when one tries to understand why the output was as it was

rather than simply what it was (Deacon et al. 1999, p.259). It also

helped to find out how much influence the different members of the

team have (Rubin et al. 2005, pp.230‐1), which was very useful in this

case as the production team incorporated both sighted and visually

impaired members and the purpose of the programme was, at least

artly, to empower the latter. p

Ethnography is a set of methods which usually involves the

researcher observing; following the everyday practices of the subject

but also asking questions about it (Hammersley and Atkinson 1995,

p.1). After covering the observation aspect of ethnography, I will

ow look into the interviews. n


35

actions.

Everyone is a participant observer by nature, acquiring knowledge

about their surroundings and that knowledge is a valuable source for

an ethnographer. It must still be remembered that this information

should not be taken by its face value as the answers (even to an open

question in an unstructured interview in ethnography) can often

reflect what the informant (interviewee) thinks is an appropriate

answer. The objective in such an interview is not necessarily to

minimise the influence of the ethnographer but rather to understand

it and interpret the data accordingly (Hammersley and Atkinson

1995, pp.125‐131). In an ethnographic interview, the interviewer

must also be able to recognise, based on the observations made, if

some things are seen as ‘obvious’ by the interviewee, and therefore

eft out from the answers (Schwartzman 1993, p. 56). l

The actual event of the interview is ideally a casual one, with the

interviewee, at times, not even feeling that an interview is taking

place, as questions can be asked in the middle of normal everyday

conversation (Spradley 1979, p.58). I found this technique very

helpful in my research as I noticed that some answers from the actual


36

interview situations were more diplomatic than in an everyday

riendly conversation. f

Ethnography concentrates on presenting the details from the point of

view of the ones involved in the practices in question (Wall 1999,

p.45) so if the community in South Africa is constructed in a different

way to ours (Lewis and Booth 1989 p.170), then surely the

community media must have different practices that are worth

studying.

Practicalities of this research

I spent two months between June and September 2006 in the Bush

Radio studio and offices observing the production team of Morning

Cruise. I had not been exposed to blindness before, so the starting

point was not how the show is produced but rather how everything

else, on an everyday level, worked for a visually impaired person on a

work place. In order for me to learn the basics and to get to know the

presenters, I suggested that for the first week I could be the technical

operator instead of their producer, who would normally do it. This

ensured that I got to follow their actual routines, learn about them in


duties of technical operator.

To back up my own observation I interviewed the Trainee Presenters

Adrian Davids and Leandre Lukas, the Trainee Producer Rahima

Omar, intern Ronald Murphy who worked as a technical operator, the

Trainee Senior Producer of the station Yana Jardine, the Programme

Integrator Adrian Louw and finally the Managing Director Zane

Ibrahim. These interviews were conducted between June and

September 2006 at Bush Radio studios but I also had personal

conversations with everyone on a daily basis. In order to get answers

that represent the opinions as honestly as possible the interviews

were unstructured (see Berger 2000, p.117) and I was merely giving


7

practice and while doing so, ask some questions for my research in

an actual and non‐threatening environment. I felt that this was

important because in the very beginning, I noticed that the producer

and some other members of the staff, besides helping the presenters,

often jumped in to answer some of the questions when their help was

not needed. I found that to be instinctive gesture to help rather than

to patronise, but in order to get closer and more honest views from

everyone, I decided to talk in smaller groups. After the first week, I

stepped out of the production team and sat in the corner of the studio

while the producer, and a few weeks later, a new intern took over the


38

direction to the conversation. Later on in March and April 2007 I

asked further questions via email to get more specific information on

few details. a

The cultural differences between me and the subjects of this study

did not end up being a problem, as the station is quite used to having

international interns, me being one of the old ones, and me being

quite used to the culture. The mutual open minded attitude

generated an interesting research period but it is still likely, that if I

had been from the same culture, the findings could have been slightly

different. My observation period was also influenced by the fact that

I am a presenter at the station. This helped me to feel comfortable

from the beginning and my presence at the station was also viewed

as more normal, than the one of complete outsider. On the other

hand, it made it harder to detach myself from the station and people

ho I was observing. w


39

Chapter 3. Research findings After exploring the theoretical framework around my question and

the method I am using to answer it, in this chapter I will look into the

findings of my ethnographic research at Bush Radio. To answer my

question most effectively, I have divided the chapter into three

sections: firstly, station practices, concentrating on Bush Radio as a

Community Radio and the impact of their aims and political economy

to Morning Cruise; secondly, I will explore the distinct production

practices of the production team while preparing the programme and

finally what are the broadcast practices within the studio

environment and how they are impacted by the disability, and

limitations with equipment, which is an outcome of the political

conomy of the station. e

Having interviewed most of the staff only once, the dates for

references are the ones which can be seen in the partial

ranscriptions in appendices, unless otherwise stated. t


40

1. Station practices – Morning Cruise within the organisation

of Bush Radio

In this section, I will explore the implications of having visually

impaired staff, the relationship between them and rest of the station

and aims of the programme Morning Cruise. I will suggest that the

programme’s broadcast and production practices are outcome of two

aims of Bush Radio: to serve the community and to create a platform

to train its members, and they are characterised by station’s political

economy and the expensive and rare nature of the special equipment

needed for the visually impaired. Emphasis of these two aims varies

within the station so, that the management, (while recognising the

importance of the needs of the audience and general programming

aspects), values the training more, while the actual production team,

ees the community service as its only purpose. s

Bush Radio as an organisation

Bush Radio is a Community Radio station in Cape Town, South Africa.

It broadcasts 24 hours a day in English (50% of the output),


It is particularly important to keep in mind that the target audience

of the station lived under apartheid legislation until 1994, and

therefore the words ‘dignity’ and ‘identity’ have an important

resonance for the communities. Also, as I noticed during my

research, but also while producing a different programme at the

station, the participation of the community, which has been long

discouraged by apartheid, takes more effort than maybe in a

historically different setting. Cape Flats itself is constructed from


1

Afrikaans (25%) and Xhosa (25%) (Bush Radio policy document),

mainly targeting the Cape Flats; the poorer area of the city on FM

(89.5 fm) with output also available on live stream from the station’s

website (www.bushradio.co.za). Bush Radio studio and offices are

not located in the Cape Flats, but in the Salt River area. The mission

tatement of the station sets its aims as: s

to ensure that communities who have been denied access to resources, take part in producing ethical, creative and responsible radio that encourages them to communicate with each other, to take part in decisions that affect their lives, and celebrate their own cultures. Through such a radio, communities will affirm their own dignity and dentity, and promote social responsibility and critical hinking. it

Bush Radio Mission Statement


The complexity of the community itself creates a question how does


2

several townships and areas, which have been divided by race, as

stated in first chapter, between the Blacks and the so called

Coloureds. These communities were distanced from each other by

the apartheid regime, so to locate the studio and offices in one of

them, would have proved problematic. Zane Ibrahim says: :

deciding where to place the station was one of the hardest decisions we've had to make... this is a divided country and Cape Town is more divided than any of the other provinces... placing the station in Mitchell's Plain would mean we would NEVER get people from the black townships attend ANY functions... plus... people from the other coloured townships would not take the risk to step into another gang’s territory... the best was to find a eutral place on the bus route where everyone could have ccess. na

interview with author 23.4.2007

He continues that while being located in one of the communities

within the larger community could help participation in that area, it

would also create dangerous circumstances for the staff, and

mentions that Radio Zibonile, another Cape Town Community Radio

located in the Khayelitsha township has had many security problems,

including rapes of staff members around their offices (interview with

uthor 23.4.2007). a


Bush Radio’s policy document also lists other, more concrete and

practical aims. Out of that list, two are extremely relevant for this

research: community participation, which, as covered in my review of

existing literature, is seen as a standard for Community Radio and


3

the station understand it. Bush Radio targets a geographical area

which is dominantly very poor. As this area, characterised by its

economical structures, has different sub‐areas, divided by race and

often language, the station tries to be as inclusive as possible by

serving different needs and broadcasting in different languages.

Everyone cannot be served all the time, but programming is

structured to serve everyone at some point which characterises the

output. Kivikuru (2006, p.26) has raised a question of the meaning of

community in Community Radio as I previously established, but Bush

Radio does not divide community further by seeing it as only the

ones who participate or listen, but rather everyone who is in need of

information and help. Ibrahim emphasises the social activities of the

organisation outside of its broadcast, which attempts to reach rest of

the community. These activities range from providing people with

blankets and rain covers in informal settlements to organising day

are for working parents. c


The key point here is that the condition of the production team

members has an undeniable influence on the production discourse of

the station during the show and its preparation, but its influence on

the text; the output of the station, is minimised to a point where it is

insignificant. Blindness is not mentioned and therefore, while it is


facilitating training for the members of the community. These two, as

I later establish, characterise the broadcast practices of the Morning

ruise. C

The output of radios in general, is an outcome of different aspects of

programming (Wall 1999 p.58) and at Bush Radio there are policies

and instructions for the music and content. Listeners, however, are

not necessarily experiencing the text through its separate sources but

rather as a ‘station sound’ (Wall 1999 p.59‐60). As I will explore in

this chapter, the production and broadcast practices of Morning

Cruise are largely determined by the blindness of the presenters. The

disability also challenges the more conventional practices for the

staff members who have sight and have previously worked with

sighted colleagues. However, the text itself is not influenced by these

istinct practices. d


45

not a secret, as I will later explain, it is not used as a bait to attract

attention from the listeners or even from the donors. It neither

determines the content of the show as it is not particularly targeting

a blind audience. The absence of the textual implications of visual

impairment should still not be ignored. It seems evident that it

happens, as the primary purpose of the show, according to

management, is to encourage the employees with their disability as

well as produce quality programming for the community, which then

is empowered through that, and therefore the output is not

structured around one topic. The unemployment amongst visually

impaired people in South Africa is as high as 97% (Cape Town

Society for Blind website – http://www.ctsb.co.za), so the

Programme Integrator Adrian Louw highlights that it is important to

integrate the presenters Davids and Lukas with the other staff, and

present the show to the community without making visual

impairment its defining force, so that it is just like any other

programme on Bush Radio’s output. I am not, however, going to

approach this programme through its textual qualities as I am more

interested in the implication of the station being mainly donor

unded Community Radio to the production of Morning Cruise. f

Purpose of the programm ise

As it has been established, Morning Cruise is a magazine style mid‐

morning programme on Cape Town community station, Bush Radio.

It is on‐air weekdays between 9am and 11am and hosted by the

visually impaired presenters Leandre Lukas and Adrian Davids. The

producer of the programme, Rahima Omar, is sighted and together

hese three are the immediate production team.

e Morning Cru

t

From left: Leandre Lukas, Rahima Omar and Adrian Davids

photograph by author) (

According to Programme Integrator Louw, Morning Cruise serves a

social purpose besides the programming one, and that is as a training

ground for young people, and especially in recent years visually


46


impaired people. Although training young people from the

community can be seen as part of serving it, it is still apparent, that in

the dual role of the station, one aspect can impact on the other

negatively. One could ask whether putting less emphasis on giving

training would result with better service for the community, but

according to Louw, the idea is not to compete with the other,

dominantly commercial stations in the area. On an individual level,

he says that the aim of any of the shows at Bush Radio is not to tell

people how to be DJs but rather to have an understanding of

broadcasting. Ibrahim takes an even further step back with Morning

Cruise in particular, by saying that he wants to boost the confidence

of the people in the production team rather than teach them how to

become broadcasters. He also says that while serving the community

is the primary purpose of Bush Radio, people learning and

empowering themselves while doing so is a bonus, and it appears

that Morning Cruise, specifically, represents well the station’s aim to

train members of the community. This training is not limited to

visually impaired people but is extended to the rest of the staff by

teaching them to understand disability and erasing the stigma that

surrounds it. While emphasising the training aspect, Louw reminds

that it does not lessen the value of the programme itself and its


7


48

output, which is monitored constantly by management and

specifically by Trainee Senior Producer Yana Jardine, who is

esponsible for all daytime programmes on weekdays. r

S

ocial aims of Morning Cruise within the station

You’ll know that they don’t say things like “oh we’re blind”… they’re completely integrated within… at least we try to completely integrate them into the programming of ush and into the staff of Bush, and that for us is very mportant. Bi

Adrian Louw

The aim of Bush Radio to integrate the visually impaired staff

members with the rest of the station is also part of the training that

the station wants to facilitate. This training is not simply targeting

the presenters in question but includes the whole staff. Working in

such an environment ideally results with learning to understand

what the limitations of the disability are, but more importantly what

hey are not. t

The station has a history of having visually impaired staff so the

present production team of Morning Cruise stepped into an


Bush Radio is a relatively casual working environment where its

employees and the management do not ‘dress up’ on an ordinary

work day. The casual nature of the station extends to the social

interaction amongst the staff. Probably the most characteristic


9

environment that was already prepared for some of the special

needs. These special needs can be divided into two main sections:

equipment and social awareness. I will write more about the

equipment later but in order to, as Louw says, completely integrate

visually impaired staff members with the rest of the station, the other

staff members must be able to accommodate them. This means two

different things: firstly their attitudes; secondly remembering not to

leave chairs or other physical objects on the routes that Davids and

Lukas use, and to leave the items that they need in their correct

places, so they can be easily found without anyone being forced to

ask for help. Due to the fast pace that some of the staff members

change at a training station, some problems do occur regarding

leaving chairs in the way, but Adrian Davids says that he understands

that it takes time for people to learn. He notes that the older

members of the station are quite good at noticing these obstacles and

nforming them to be aware (interview with author 27.3.2007). i


50

aspect of it, is the playful chat, unrelated to work, where every staff

member is at some time the subject of jokes. As a part of the

integration aim, Davids and Lukas are included in this as well, but

according to Davids, it is possible that some people joke more about

them than others, just to indicate that they are an equal part of the

staff. This, however, eases when people learn to be more comfortable

with visually impaired (interview with author 27.3.2007). The work

related interactions are professional and therefore these casual jokes

are not characterising them.

Implications of station’s political economy

Limitations of standard radio technology and the expensive nature of

the special equipment for visually impaired people determine much

of the production and broadcast practices of Morning Cruise. Bush

Radio funds itself mainly by foreign donors (Olorunnisola 2002,

p.136) and according to Louw, selling advertising at the station

suffers from the advertisers focusing on the dominant practices of

the commercial stations and their daily programming schedules. As a

community and a training station Bush Radio’s daytime

programming standard depends often on the level of experience in


Managing Director Ibrahim, who is responsible for the fundraising

and does that mainly by himself, emphasises that he does not use

Lukas and Davids’s visual impairment to attract donors. According to

him that would be unethical (interview with author 27.3.2007) and

therefore it appears that the station’s work with the disabled is not


1

the production teams, but when a certain standard is reached, the

team changes and a new one starts from the beginning. This creates

what he calls ‘a seesaw effect’ on the daytime broadcasting, which

complicates the sales of the advertising time, although more focused

specialist programmes on the evenings with more targeted audiences

ould actually serve the advertisers better. w

Station raises funds internationally and acquires equipment from

various organisations working with disability. As the station already

has equipment, such as a brailler and a screen reading software

entitled Jaws, and an established relationship with Cape Town

Society for the Blind, it is easier to continue to work specifically with

visual impairment rather than to change between different

disabilities as the high price of technology sets limits to changing it

onstantly. c


52

connected to the fundraising. As I pointed out earlier it is not a bait

to attract donors for the special needs of the programme in question,

or any other needs of the organisation.


53

2. Production practices – Preparing the broadcast of Morning

ruise C

After locating some of the implications of having visually impaired

staff in the Bush Radio organisation, and their connections to the

aims of the station and its political economy in general, I will look

more closely on its specific implications while the production team is

reparing the actual programme on daily basis. p

In this section I argue that the distinct production practices of the

Morning Cruise during its daily preparations are the result of the

power relations and communication within the immediate

production team and between them and the management. These

practices are also impacted considerably by the economical factors

which lead to the lack of appropriate equipment which then results in

prolonged preparation of the programme. I will do this by exploring

the role of the producer, the limitations of the equipment used at the

station and daily routines of production team in the office


54

Role of the producer

The role of the producer in Morning Cruise is a one of a facilitator.

That is partly an outcome of the fast pace that the producers change

in the programme and at the station in general, but also the fact that

due to the lack of special equipment to help the visually impaired

presenters, which is the result of either economical reasons or the

lack of appropriate products on the market, the production team

needs a person who can help to close the gap between the available

technology and the limitation it puts to the presenters and a

professional output. That is a task that demands social skills and

flexibility rather than media training and also because, as Ibrahim

says, in a show like this the basic rules of broadcasting are not always

applicable. Rahima Omar, who was the producer during my research

did not have previous experience from radio or working with visually

impaired people when she took over the duties. Due to her personal

character and possibly with a help of her training as a nurse, she

adjusted to these special circumstances on a social level well. As a

training station Bush Radio does offer opportunities to learn and

many times, like with Omar, these opportunities by their nature force

the learning curve to be steep.


She facilitates the preparations by writing things down, finding

information that is in print such as telephone numbers and does

other things that demand sight, but she is not the final decision

maker of the content or the style of the broadcast neither on paper

nor in practice. The ownership of the show is with its presenters and

it is characterised by two different power relations between them, as

Davids is more confident on‐air and in the studio environment and

Lukas with the screen reading software and computers during the

preparations. The role of the producer is also influenced by the fact


5

The main task for the producers in other programmes at the station

is to organise interviews and research questions for the presenters

but in the Morning Cruise this task is divided between the production

team as a whole, with the producer participating in these practices as

a member of the team rather than a person in charge. Omar

escribes her own role: d

I think I am just the organiser. I am just there to basically help them out. As far as us, we’re a team and they help me hen I need help and I’m just there to organise their lives ike the scripts and things they can’t do. wl

Rahima Omar


56

that the Trainee Senior Producer of the station, Yana Jardine comes

from a research rather than media background and therefore the

advice given to the Trainee Producers is more focused on content and

ess on style of the programmes. l

It is noteworthy that at the station there are some mixed messages

about the role of the producer which then creates further confusion

in the production practices. While the Programme Integrator sees

the producer more as an intermediary, the Senior Producer sees the

role as a more dominant decision maker, and the producer is trying

to meet these expectations which at times are unspoken. These

different approaches are the outcome of former putting more

emphasis on the training aspect and latter on the content. These

mixed messages create an assumption in the production team that

something is always done wrong and the shadow of that doubt is

characteristic to the decision making process, which is based on

assumptions, not a knowledge of what is being expected from the

rogramme. p

The two aims of the station; training and community service, explain

the nature of its production practices. While these aims of the


Probably the clearest example of uncertainty within Morning Cruise is

still its music programming. At the time of the research the station

was looking into a studio software that would have played

programmed music from the computer so management did not

address the issue of music selection as it was about to be solved. In


organisation offer us a logic to understand the way programme is

structured, their lack of clarity within the production team, which

sees serving the community as the dominant, if not the only aim,

creates a confusion in communication. For the station, the learning

experiences and gaining social confidence is more important than it

is viewed amongst the immediate production team. That may be for

the reasons that the learning experience could suffer, if they started

thinking less about their aim, as learning happens through their

professional ambition to create text that satisfies the audience rather

than concentrating on learning itself. However, this lack of clarity

about the training aim of the station and expectations from the

programme creates a feeling of uncertainty of whether they are on

the right path or not, which further on impacts on the practices,

which are, as said before, often based on assumptions of what is

xpected from them. e


There are some broad guidelines on station’s policies of what type of

music is preferred on Bush Radio. Music policy does not address the

programmes separately but talks about the station as a whole and

mentions only that half of the music should be South African,

preferably from Cape Town and the rest divided between Africa and

rest of the world, and that independent artist should also be

supported (Bush Radio policy document). The producer picks the

records played during the programme from the station’s CD library

herself and while the first part of the policy seems to be followed,

regardless of whether it is based on actual policy or just a personal

preference, the second part is not. The music of the show is mainly

consisted of House, Hip Hop, Kwaito (local dance music combining

house, Hip Hop and traditional music), R&B and Pop while Lukas and

Davids feel it should be less contemporary, as they feel the audience

is more mature. Their disability prevents them from picking the


8

the meantime, however, the production team was not sure of what

kind of music exactly was expected from them. While this

communication problem does not reflect on the ones I have already

talked about, it is still worth some attention as a large part of the

utput is music. o


Although the station had some confusion about the role of the

producer, her importance to the production process was never

underestimated. Ibrahim said that the quality of the output does not


9

records and even in the studio, they are depending only on their

memory of the actual songs, where as a sighted person could use an

album cover to remember what type of music is in question. This

problem is especially highlighted when technical operator is an

outsider, as during this research, who does not have knowledge on

local music or a special interest in the genres in question. Presenters

spent a considerable amount of time worrying over the suitability of

music and for instance, if they heard a guitar sound in any of the

songs, they mentioned that they have received a complaint from the

management for playing rock music. This problem seems to be one

of the backlashes of the producer not having a media background.

Although the majority of the programme’s content was music, this

issue remained unsolved both on the broader station level and

regardless of the issue being addressed, also within the production

team. Music in general was not seen as a priority over the speech by

the immediate production team although Programme Integrator

ouw saw it to be the most important part of the programme. L


60

depend on the presenters on‐air alone, but largely on how well the

producer sits in. The vitality of the role was demonstrated best when

the Trainee Producer Omar was not present due to illness and I was

asked to help and although I have experience in radio, to adjust to

these circumstances and meet the demands of this role was not an

asy task. e

Daily Rout ne

Presenters of Morning Cruise arrive at the station every morning

between six and seven o’clock. Practical concerns and logistics are

dominant factors on every aspect of the programme and even its time

slot is determined by when the transport service for blind people is

available in the area. Mid‐morning time is a natural outcome of it

being early mornings and early afternoons. When presenters arrive,

they start translating the script, written in conventional text on

computer into braille. In the practical sense, translating means that

they listen to the script using the screen reading software Jaws from

the computer, and then write it again with the brailler, which looks

like an old typewriter and makes a loud noise while punching holes

into a thick paper. This process is relatively time consuming, as work

i s


61

has to be done twice but more so it is a problem as the producer

cannot write with a brailler so it is impossible to give written

information to presenters after they get into the studio. Bush Radio

has been looking into acquiring a printer that would print brailled

text straight from the computer but so far it has been unsuccessful.

All the time before the show is used to translate the script which

generally consists of interview questions, ‘Trivia of the day’, ‘Tip of

the day’ and ‘Word of the day’; all regular segments of the

rogramme. p

After the broadcast the production team gathers into their corner of

the programming office where they talk about the show and

brainstorm ideas for the next day before starting to organise the

interviews and create the content. Producer and presenters often

have a lunch together at noon and after that they finish the script

working more individually until the transport company picks up the

presenters. The producer stays for an hour more to finish the script,

so that it is ready and waiting the next morning when the presenters

come back to the station.


62

3s. Distinct broadcast practices of Morning Cruise inside the tudio

So far in this chapter, I have explored Bush Radio’s Morning Cruise

programme and its special nature within the organisation of the

station; how it is prepared and how those things are affected by the

station’s aims as a Community Radio and its political economy. In

this last section of the chapter I will take a closer look at what are the

broadcast practices inside the studio environment and which factors

re behind them. a

In this section, I will argue that the distinct broadcast practices are

the result of the lack of special technology; partly due to its poor

availability and partly due to the political economy of the station.

This forces the technical operator and the producer to be sighted and

a new set of cues have to be created, in order to achieve the

communication, that enables the broadcast while on‐air. These

practices are not necessarily impacting the output negatively, as at a

training station its quality often varies depending on the level of

experience of the production team.


63

D

istinct technology

I was talking to these big technology houses asking them “do you have a studio that can be used by blind people?”. They didn’t even take note …unless you’re Stevie Wonder … you can only have so many blind piano players. And what do the rest do? They sit at home.

Zane Ibrahim

The dominant practice of Bush Radio is that the presenters must

engineer during their programmes. This is due to economical

practicalities and hence the station, since hiring visually impaired

staff members has tried to upgrade the studio with the necessary

hardware and software. Partly due to the lack of appropriate

equipment available and partly due to the fact that it is expensive, the

producer or interns have taken the tasks of the technical operator.

The main problems with the technology, as identified by Louw and

Ibrahim, are the sound levels and how to ensure that they are correct.

Another problem would be created by the music, which I have talked

about earlier, as the CDs are not readable by visually impaired and

marking them all, or even some, with brailled stickers would be time

consuming and even then hard to organise in any kind of working

solution. Also, the studio’s telephone line, which signals incoming


Lack of technology creates more challenges for the presenters, which

cannot be solved even by a human assistance, as they are not able to

make notes during the show, nor can the producer make notes which

they would be able to read so they have to rely on memory or

confirming facts just before going on‐air to talk about them. Station

does not have equipment to translate normal writing into brailled

print so if for instance an important phone number comes in the

middle of the show, there is no way to get that on a written form on‐

air to presenters. Another common example of not being able to

make notes, are the song titles and artists which presenters must

remember when going on‐air. Considering that they both have

Afrikaans as their first language, they present the show in English

and if the song title is for instance in Xhosa, which in itself is a

completely different language which they cannot speak, but large

part of the audience can, it may create pressure with pronunciation

or even remembering what they were supposed to say. Much of the

content is relying on a good memory of the presenters as only the

‘Tip of the day’, ‘Trivia of the day’, ‘Word of the day’ segments and

some questions for the interviews are usually written down. The lack


4

calls by a small light, should be changed.

of technology to translate between normal text and Braille also

results with the lack of scripting in segments such as ‘Current Affairs’

nd ‘Job Shop’, which I will look into later. a

As I have so far established, the role of technical operator in the

studio is crucial but the fact that production team must always

include some members with sight, creates a need for new ways of

ommunicating in studio while on‐air and I will explore those next. c

Davids and Lukas checking the correct distance to microphone while Omar reads

pen workplaces on the background for ‘Job Shop’ (photograph by author). o


65


66

Communi v tcation in the studio en ironmen

Every time I’ve done anything with audio, sight is involved. They (Lukas and Davids) can’t see you, so it’s ompletely irrelevant all those visual cues that I’m used to ely on. So it’s forced me to approach y. cr things differentl

Ronald Murphy

The visual impairment of the presenters results in a lack of

traditional communication in the studio during the broadcast

between technical operator or producer and the presenters. The

more conventional ways of communicating when the microphones

are on, such as hand signals and eye contact have to be replaced by

new set of cues that signal for instance incoming phone calls or

possible technical problems. These substituting signs are not

standard in the show, but they change with the person engineering.

When the Trainee Producer Omar would have walked and whispered

to the presenters, Ronald Murphy, who was the technical operator of

the show most part of my research agreed on a tap on the foot

underneath the desk to signify a phone call. This reflects the social

aim of the show, emphasised by Louw, as it is not only training for

the presenters but everyone, who as member of the team is forced to

learn how to deal with the matter and then together find suitable


67

w

ays to overcome these obstacles.

Morning

Although Morning Cruise starts nine o’clock in the morning, its

presenters Leandre Lukas and Adrian Davids get into the studio ten

minutes before that. They have an on‐air chat with the morning

show host Victor J in Afrikaans, and during that, at times, it is

mentioned that they are visually impaired. In their own programme

presenters do not talk about it as has been established already, but

according to Lukas it is good that the fact is mentioned during a

casual conversation in the previous programme, so they do not feel

ike hiding it while it is not structural to the text of they produce.

Cruise on‐air

l

After the nine o’clock news the producer or technical operator comes

into the studio with music, played from the CDs, and starts the show

with a signature tune, which is ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon. The first

link follows immediately after that and the content of the show is

gone through in that and the listeners are welcomed. The

programme consists of elements that are standard every day, such as

‘Word of the day’ and ‘Trivia of the day’ competitions; ‘Tip of the day’


‘Current Affairs’ segment, which starts at half past nine and lasts

usually around twenty minutes, creates an interesting set up as two

presenters talk through the news items of the day with a changing

member of the news team. This segment was introduced to the

programme just before my arrival so at the time it was still trying to

find a working practice. News readers, who did not have experience

on talking on a radio except as news readers, were figuring out a

ways to read the items more casually but still accurately while the

presenters were learning to tag to them as they came. This segment

was not practised or scripted and it was lacking the agreed signals of


8

which can be anything that the production team sees relevant to the

community, ‘Job Shop’ where some available jobs are read, ‘Current

Affairs’ segment with a member of the news team of the station and

two interviews. Music, as I have explained earlier is picked by the

roducer and it does not follow any structured guidelines. p

The rest of the links are either plugging other segments, purely music

based or just about the presenters’ presence. I will elaborate more

on ‘Current Affairs’, ‘Job Shop’ and the interviews as they offer us

ome interesting examples of the broadcast practices. s


Presenters Davids and Lukas do not have designated roles in the

studio. Their personalities and strengths are different but neither of

them have agreed to lead the show or be a sidekick. Besides the

standard segments, there is not set clocks and the technical operator

often asks during the song if presenters want to talk after it, and the


how to move forward. The lack of eye contact also creates an

unnatural feeling in the conversation as it often distracts the

direction of speech and the news reader may end up just talking to

the paper or listener rather than the presenter who then cannot get

he attention to comment naturally. t

‘Job Shop’ is an example of the aim to serve the community. After the

ten o’clock news, the producer Rahima Omar came into the studio

and read some open work place advertisements that were picked as

the most suitable to the listeners. This segment has a very different

mood to the ‘Current Affairs’ as the good chemistry between

producer and presenters can be heard. All the parties on‐air are

comfortable and understand the situation and therefore they are able

to ‘feed off’ each other better and control the direction of the speech,

o that it sounds more coherent and natural. s


in small talk.

The interviews take place after eleven and the topics are varying.

Usually the interviewees are artist, community activists or medical

professionals. The topics are following the themes that are part of

the station’s nature and function. These interviews can either be

telephonic or live in studio. Unless the person coming to interview

has been interviewed at the programme before, they will not be

aware of the of the presenters’ visual impairment before the

interview. While on‐air, the interviewees often started talking to the

technical operator or someone else in the studio who they could have

an eye contact with. Ronald Murphy, who at the time was behind the

desk, admitted purposely doing, or pretending to do something else

to leave the interviewees to deal with the matter. With the

telephonic interviews this did not impact the output and the

interviewees did not necessarily ever find out about the special


0

decision making between the them is usually a common agreement

so any dominant roles cannot be pointed out. In short links, Davids

usually talks if it is about the presence of the station, such as, wishing

listeners a good day, while Lukas likes to take charge of the short

links, that are about the songs that were being played. This is a

natural divide, as Lukas is interested in music and Davids is talented


71

nature of the production. This indicates that if there was a negative

impact from the presenters’ condition to the output, it was not so

much due to the actual condition but rather how other people found

it difficult to deal with. Ibrahim summarised the strength of Davids

nd Lukas by saying: a

The other presenters will sit there and they’ll see somebody walks past the glass there and there goes ten, fifteen per cent. The buttons in front of them another twenty per cent of them… they end up with fifty per cent focus. But with blind people, they’re totally focused. They listen to every breath; they listen to every silence between the sounds.

Zane Ibrahim

Sometimes interviewees undermined the presenters’ ability to sense

and experience different things. One memorable example of that was

a photographer who could not understand at all why he was being

interviewed by people who have not seen his work. But while doing

my observation, I was intrigued to hear and understand how visually

impaired people could imagine visual art. Telephonically done, this

interview would have very likely taken a different course.


72

Conclusion

In this research I have analysed Bush Radio’s mid‐morning

programme Morning Cruise. The question I set for myself was

highlighting its distinct practices and I answered it, based on

ethnography I conducted, using three different focuses: implications

of Bush Radio’s station practices and characteristics of production

nd broadcast practices of Morning Cruise. a

I suggested that the practices of Morning Cruise are combination of

two aims of the station: to serve the community and offer training.

These practices are characterised by station’s political economy and

expensive rare nature of the special equipment for the visually

impaired presenters. Output of the station, however, is not

necessarily determined by this. As Bush Radio is a training station, a

‘seesaw effect’ on its daytime broadcast is created, where its standard

is a result of experience of the trained staff members and when

certain level has been reached, they often move to other jobs and

ew members start from the beginning. n


Purely ideologically, Morning Cruise is an outcome of station’s social

aims and responsibility but on the practical level it is characterised

also largely by money and equipment. I would assume that it is not

on purpose, but as an inevitable side product that the conditions


3

I also argued that the distinct production practises of the Morning

Cruise during its daily preparations are result of the power relations

and communication within the immediate production team and

between them and the management. These practices are also

impacted considerably by economic factors which lead to lack of

appropriate equipment which then results in prolonged preparation

of the programme, and also in the role of producer being extended to

facilitator, so as to close the gap between disability, lack of

equipment and good quality output.

Finally I established that the distinct broadcast practices within the

studio are also a result of the lack of technology and station’s political

economy, which mean the technical operator and producer have to

be sighted. This means that new set of cues must be created in order

to achieve the communication that enables the broadcast while on‐

air. As established, the quality of output, although subjective, is still

erely characterised by the experience level of the staff. m


74

created by those factors enforce the station’s role as a training

station, as also people, who are not used to working with visually

impaired people must get to understand what the implications of the

disability are. This serves to help erase stigma around this and other

imilar conditions in the community. s

Findings of this research on a detailed level cannot be generalised to

other Community Radios as the practices I have looked into are

outcome of very distinct circumstances. More broadly though, they

offer us some understanding of how Community Radio works and

what may be its driving factors. To get clearer picture of the impact

of political economy in Community Radio sector in South Africa, I

suggest that some further research should be conducted by

comparing different stations, also advertisement funded ones, in

order to understand the actual impact of stations’ political economy

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75

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