This thesis is a case study analysis of the dream one radio station had about creating something new and unique on the Internet. RadioSonderGrense (RSG), an Afrikaans South African radio station, saw opportunities for themselves as a radio station on the Internet and put enormous resources and man-power into their venture. Their vision of what the Internet could bring to their radio station, and what they could bring to a website set the ground for creative and innovative thought. This dissertation is an examination of whether the Internet lived up to the expectations RSG had for it, and whether they were able to use their resources (in terms of their audience, their advertisers and the uniqueness of radio) to create something new and never seen before. The foremost aim of this dissertation is to shed some light onto the up-to-now under researched area of why radio stations have begun to develop on the Internet. Through the analysis of RSG, their comes to this subject some new thoughts and ideas about the convergence of these two mediums. RSG, and radio in general, are examined historically, practically and in comparison to the Internet. This is done in order to fully grasp the project that RSG had set for themselves and to realize where they had come from and where they hoped to go. It is argued that although RSG had hoped for great things, their innovative thought was not enough to guarantee them their dreams. They were not able to fully utilize the resources available to them in combination with what the Internet could offer them to fulfill the expectations they had for themselves. The foremost conclusion is that although RSG were able to envisage what the Internet could add to the radio station, they fell short of giving their listeners, users and advertisers a tool which could make the RSG website truly unique. Their website gives the user some interesting and useful applications, but it does not make full use of what the Internet and radio together could create.

This research project was aimed at assessing whether community radio stations are indeed the voice of the community or are set out to fulfil their own agenda. This study therefore looked at three different categories of community radio stations, namely the faith-based radio (Kingfisher FM), geographic community radio (Radio Grahamstown) and institutional community radio (Forte FM) with the aim of studying their activities and comparing the three. Relevant literature has been reviewed and data have been collected using both quantitative and qualitative methods through questionnaires, personal interviews and focus group interviews. The study however leans more on the qualitative approach and a quantitative approach has merely been used to identify the trends of the views of the participants. The analysis of data highlights the views of the respondents about these radio stations as the voice of the community. The views of the respondents from the three radio stations showed that these stations enjoy a very good patronage from the listeners in Port Elizabeth (Kingfisher FM), Grahamstown (Radio Grahamstown) and Alice (Forte FM), respectively. The results and discussions confirm that these radio stations meet their various individual needs of the listeners and that of the community at large. In addition, the fact that participants of the focus groups and survey respondents for these three selected radio stations reported that the Station regularly fulfils the major functions of a radio station, which is to inform, educate and entertain them, showed that these radio stations are acting socially responsible as well. This study was also able to confirm that these community radio stations do give opportunities to listeners to contribute to programme content development, which shows the willingness of these stations to give voice to the listeners and allow them to be part of their own personal development and that of the community at large.

In the South African (SA) model of community radio, listeners are expected to be in charge of the management and programming operations of stations. This study tests the SA model against the actual conditions at an existing station. For this purpose, the study focuses on Radio Graaff-Reinet, a community radio station in the Eastern Cape. Emphasis is on examining the extent to which members of the station’s target community are involved in its operations. The study first assesses the nature of this involvement, keeping in mind the principles of, ‘community ownership’ and ‘participatory programming’ on which the SA model of community radio is based. It is argued that the station does provide a valuable ‘public sphere’ for its listeners. The potential of this sphere remains limited, however, due to the impact of ongoing power struggles around the ownership of the station. The lack of proper systems for managing these struggles has contributed to the fact that the station continues to be in a constant state of flux, with a high turnover of staff and regular changes in its policies and strategies. The study argues that, until such systems are put in place, the principles of community ownership will not be fully realizable. Areas in which the struggle over ownership plays itself out can be identified in the relationship between the station’s Board of Directors and its managing staff, between one particular station manager and her staff and between the station and its target community. These struggles often take place in context of a debate about the financial sustainability of the station versus its developmental aims. It is argued that this opposition needs to be questioned since, until the station is financially stable, it will remain vulnerable to interference by powerful individuals and groups in its attempts to establish such developmental aims. The study then goes on to identify key weaknesses in the station’s approach to community ownership and participation. In particular, it is pointed out that various stakeholders in the station have contradictory understandings of what is meant by ‘community’, using the term to include or exclude sections of the Graaff-Reinet society in very different ways. There are also very different understandings at play about the concept of community radio itself. These contradictions have an impact on the station’s ability to implement participatory programming. This situation is exacerbated by the fact that the station does not have a consistent forum in which shared decision-making can take place. Consequently, the station also remains unable to draw effectively on its own volunteer staff and on its community as resources for programming content. Finally, the study explores the broader significance of the weaknesses that exist in the case of Graaff-Reinet, arguing that these are problems that repeat themselves throughout the South African community radio sector. Possible strategies for addressing these problems are suggested, including approaches to monitoring and research, training, organizational development and advocacy.

This research project was aimed at investigating strategies that are used for the sustainability of selected rural-based community radio stations in the Transkei area of the Eastern Cape. The study was done under a hypothesis that, in the absence of big business and migration of literate people and skilled labour from rural communities to urban centres, rural-based community radios struggle to attract operational revenue through advertising, community support, etc., and that the supposedly high illiteracy in the rural areas render it difficult to run the stations. Two rural-based community radio stations were selected for this study: Alfred Nzo Community Radio at Mount Ayliff in the Alfred Nzo District Municipality area, and Vukani Community Radio at Cala in the Chris Hani District Municipality area. The aim was to study their activities with regard to the most and widely agreed three-dimensional method of sustaining community radio stations: Financial Sustainability, Institutional Sustainability, and Social Sustainability. Relevant literature has been reviewed and data have been collected using both quantitative and qualitative methods through questionnaires. The study however leans more on the qualitative approach and a quantitative approach has merely been used to identify the trends of the views of the participants. The analysis of data highlights the views of the respondents about these radio stations with regard to their strategies to sustain themselves. The views of the respondents represent all people from all levels of people involved in the stations: From the Member of the Board of Directors in the boardroom to stations’ members of management at their desks. From Presenters behind their microphones to the listener in the dusty streets of the poor rural areas. The results confirm the hypothesis that the areas have high unemployment and illiteracy rates, and that their sustainability depend largely on trade-outs with local business and government support. However, the study also shows that strategies for Financial Sustainability, Institutional Sustainability, and Social Sustainability may overlap or influence each other. For instance, an activity of Institutional Sustainability may result in Financial Sustainability, and visa-versa. The study also reveals that the stations struggle to establish and maintain effective Social Sustainability for the benefit of the station. In the light of this, a proposal for further study and recommendations are given at the end of the study.

This research study investigates Lotus FM, as one of many South African Media components that are catering for one specific cultural or religious group. The investigation explores the implications of practice of a pecific media component that caters for specific cultural or religious groups operating in a post-apartheid South Africa. After the end of the apartheid era in South Africa, a number of South African media components have proclaimed their commitment to reconciliation and nation building within South Africa by attempting to unite audiences. The South African Broadcasting Corporation, which held the monopoly on South African Broadcasting for decades, has promulgated the notion of the rainbow nation to audiences in South Africa. Since 1994, sub-components of the different South African media segments were developed to cater for specific ethnic or cultural groups by the station managements. This was aimed at reversing the effects of pre-1994 media that catered for the former ruling minority only or ethnic groups that were categorized by the former political dispensation. It is possible, however, that this has resulted in a renewed and continued separation of interest groups present in South Africa today.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Journalism and Media Studies), 2016 / This research report is an exploratory study into two regional commercial music stations (YFM and 947) and their use of Twitter as a tool to relate to, interact with and enable participation from their audiences. Of particular interest was why they are using it, what they are doing with it and how this affects the on-air content pre, during and post broadcast, if at all it does. [Abbreviated Abstract. Open document to view full version] / GR2017

Thesis (MPhil) -- University of Stellenbosch, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Community radio stations in South Africa are faced with a huge challenge to become sustainable in the process of serving their communities. The issue of sustainability itself is complex and shaped by a range of conditionalities. These include community participation, funding, regulatory and licencing factors, staff and management expertise, and the strategic planning and management capacity of a station. Often the communities themselves are materially poor and unable to contribute in monetary terms to the radio station. However, these same communities are also a source of wealth when it comes to experience, ideas, human power and time. A major challenge is for station management to develop organisational strategies that facilitate full utilisation of this community resource in the process of sustaining their stations. The focus of this study is on two stations in the Western Cape - Bush Radio and Radio Zibonele - and how their management is responding to the challenge of sustainability. Bush Radio has evolved a diversification strategy based on providing formal training and development as an income-generator, and Radio Zibonele has responded through a strategy of selling airtime to advertisers. This work describes these sustainability strategies and explores whether they constitute 'building a brick column or a brick wall'. The conclusion suggests that while both radio stations demonstrate varying degrees of community participation, clear internal systems of monitoring and control of resources, they differ in some fundamental respects of strategy. Bush Radio, on the one hand, shows a clear commitment to consciously diversifying income sources in a way that does not leave the station highly dependent on any single source. This, the writer submits, constitutes an attempt at building a "brick wall". Radio Zibonele, on the other hand, shows a clear commitment to consolidation and reliance on advertising revenue as a single source of income for the station. To the extent that this station relies on a single source of income and does not demonstrate any strategic objective of diversifying sources, the writer submits, it is building a "brick column". The basic assumption of this study is that while the challenge of sustainability constitutes an objective reality facing community radio stations in South Africa today, the subjective responses developed by station management to deal with this challenge can and often do make a difference. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Gemeenskapsradiostasies in Suid-Afrika staan voor 'n groot uitdaging om volhoubaar te ontwikkel. Volhoubaarheid as sulks is kompleks en word deur 'n verskeidenheid faktore beinvloed. Dit sluit in gemeenskapsdeelname, befondsing, regulerings- en lisensierinqsfaktore, personeel- en bestuursvernuf en die strategiese beplanning en bestuurskapasiteit van die stasie. Meestal is die gemeenskappe self arm en nie daartoe in staat om in rnonetere terme 'n bydrae tot die stasie te lewer nie. Dieselfde gemeenskappe is egter ook 'n bron van rykdom in terme van ondervinding, idees, mannekrag en tyd. Een van 'n stasiebestuur se grootste uitdagings is om organisatoriese strateqiee te ontwikkel wat die volle gebruik van die gemeenskapshulpbron sal fasiliteer in die proses om hul stasies volhoubaar te ontwikkel. Die fokus van die studie val op twee stasies in die Wes-Kaap - Bush Radio en Radio Zibonele - en hoe hul bestuur op die uitdaging van volhoubare ontwikkeling reageer. Bush Radio het 'n diversifiseringstrategie ontwikkel wat op formele onderig en ontwikkeling as 'n inkomstegenereerder gebaseer is. Radio Zibonele, daarenteen, konsentreer op adverteerders. Die werk beskryf die volhoubaarheidstrategiee elk van die radiostasies. Die gevolgtrekking word gemaak dat albei radiostasies wei verskillende grade van gemeenskapsbetrokkenheid, duidelike interne monitorsisteme en beheer van hulpbronne het. Tog verskil hulle ten opsigte van sekere fundamentele strategiee. Aan die een kant het Bush Radio 'n duidelike verbintenis tot 'n bewustelike diversifisering van inkomste op so 'n manier dat die stasie nie afhanklik is van een bron van inkomste nie. Die skrywer vergelyk dit met die bou van 'n "baksteenmuur". Radio Zibonele, aan die ander kant, is verbind tot advertensies as die enigste bron van inkomste. Aangesien die stasie op 'n enkele bron van inkomste vertrou en nie enige strategiese doelwitle vir die diversifisering van hulpbronne het nie, vergelyk die skrywer dit met die bou van 'n "baksteenpilaar" . Die basiese veronderstelling van die studie is dat die reaksie van die stasiebestuur In deurslaggerwende verskil kan maak om die uitdaging van volhoubare ontwikkeling Suid- Afrikaanse radiostasies die hoof te bied.

This thesis deals with the introduction of participatory research methods to programming staff working at Radio KC, a South African community radio station based in Paarl, in the Western Cape province. The focus is on a series of workshops conducted at the station, dealing with research tools developed to enable station workers to undertake research of their community. The aim was to determine, by means ofa case study, whether the introduction of participatory research methods could improve the ability of community broadcasters to facilitate democratic participation among the communities in which they operate. More particularly, the thesis assesses whether the application of such methods has improved the ability of the programming staff that were involved in this case study to identify a wider range of stories and voices within their target community, for inclusion in programming content. The participatory research techniques that are applied at the radio station are based on ideas in 'civic mapping' developed by Harwood and McCrehan (1996) under the auspices of The Pew Center for Civic Journalism, and supplemented by insights from Friedland (2001) and Downs and Stea (1977) about the cognitive, normative and imagined dimensions of community. All of the ideas and techniques were adapted for the South African situation. The findings of the research project illustrate that for community stations, the key concepts of 'community' and 'participation' are highly complex ones and that stations need assistance to apply these concepts in their everyday practice. The account of the intervention at Radio KC shows that the process did indeed assist the individual research participants to better deal with the application of these concepts. It did not, however, make much impact on the station as a whole. Reasons for this are believed to lie in the organisational dynamics of the station, and the fact that the model as applied in this case did not provide a means for tackling the agendas, investments and power relations that define the activities of individuals at a given community radio station - what Hochheimer (1993) talks about as the entrenchment of power and personalities. In order to address these shortcomings, an attempt is made to develop a model for future application, which places the mapping process within the context of a broader strategic planning process, focussed on a station's programming schedule.

MA (Linguistics) / Department of Communication and Applied Languages Studies / The question of the use of languages in radio broadcasting is of particular importance in multilingual communities in Vhembe district of Limpopo province. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) issues broadcasting licenses, and further regulates conditions of implementation of these licenses. The purpose of this study is to explore the extent to which community radio stations in Vhembe district adhere to ICASA language policies and guidelines stipulated in their licenses. Literature was drawn from government language policy documents (Acts, rules and regulations), broadcasting legislative framework manuals (ICASA), government gazettes, books, journals, magazines, and newspapers. The design for the study is exploratory, whereas the target population comprised of seven (7) community radio stations, fifteen (15) radio programmes, and station managers of community radio stations in the Vhembe district. Purposive sampling was used to select three community radio stations, three programmes per station and station manager of each sampled station. Non-participant observation, documents analysis and tape recorder were used as instruments for data collection, whereby the researcher observed, recorded a total of (nine) 9 talk format programmes. The researcher further analysed documents (broadcasting licenses and programme schedules), from sampled radio stations, to examine stipulated language quotas by ICASA. Lastly, the researcher employed unstructured interviews to collect data from the station managers of community radio stations, in the Vhembe district. The sampled data was analysed through qualitative content analysis and interpreted subsequently. Findings from data analysis determined that community radio stations partially adhere to the policies stipulated in their licenses. / NRF