This is the International Section of
The Broadcast Archive
Maintained by:
Barry Mishkind - The Eclectic Engineer
South Africa Broadcasting:
- History
- Regulation
- Station Identifications
South Africa Broadcast History:
The first station in South Africa was put up by the
South African Railways in Johannesburg on December 29, 1923.
The Scientific and Technical Club in Johannesburg
took over on July
1, 1924. The
Cape and Peninsula Broadcasting Association started a similar service in Cape
Town, on September 15, 1924. The Durban organization began broadcasting on
December 10, 1924. Financial support came from listener's licenses.
Because of the limited area covered by the three
organizations, each functioning separately, the revenue from listeners' licences
was low, with the result that these enterprises did not pay. That was why the
financially stronger Schlesinger organization, with the permission of the
Government, formed the African Broadcasting Company on April 1, 1927, in which
the three broadcasting organizations were incorporated. This new organization
had the sole rights of broadcasting. As the financial difficulties were not yet
overcome, the Prime Minister, General Hertzog, ordered an inquiry into all
aspects of broadcasting. Thus the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)
was created under Act No. 22 of 1936, in which it was stipulated that broadcasts
should also be made in Afrikaans within the following year (up to then programs
had been presented in English only).
The English and Afrikaans Services were for many years
known as Radio South Africa and Radio Suid-Afrika respectively. They are now
called SAFM and Radio Sonder Grense (RSG), and aeach broadcast 115 1/2 hours of
programs each week. These cultural services are beamed nationwide on FM, while
RSG is also available on short wave.
On May 1, 1950, the third program service, Springbok
Radio, was introduced. It was probably the most popular of all the SABC's
services, but following the appeal of TV in the late 1970's and the resulting
loss of revenue, its audience steadily declined and the station closed at the
end of 1985, despite protests from many loyal listeners.
Meanwhile, a broadcasting service for the Africans, or
Bantu, had become necessary, and on August 1, 1952, the Rediffusion Service was
established. Broadcasts were made in three Bantu languages to the townships in
Soweto west of Johannesburg. From June 1, 1962, broadcasts were made in Tswana
and North Sotho from Pretoria. This was followed on January 1, 1963 with Zulu
from Durban, and from June 1, 1963 Xhosa from Grahamstown. In February 1965,
broadcasts in Venda and Tsonga were inaugurated from studios in Johannesburg and
transmitted from stations in the Northern Transvaal province.
The broadcast infrastructure in South Africa is
operated by Sentech (Ltd.), which was originally formed as the signal
distribution company of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in
October 1992. The network was formerly owned and operated by the SABC, which
through de-regulation within the industry in 1996/7, brought about Sentech's
current portfolio within the industry. We are state-owned, but self-governing
company with a board of directors. Present employees in the Company are around
550. We operate over 750 FM transmitters alone, at some 300 sites around the
country. We additionally operate the networks for five television channels.
Three of which are SABC, remainder are privately owned. We operate C and Ku-band
satellite linking (via PAS7 and PAS10) for terrestrial distribution to major
sites and centres. We also run our own DTH platform, with full subscriber-base
management and encryption facilities. Last but not least, we operate an
extensive HF broadcast facility just outside of JHB. Our base of customers here
include the BBC, TWR and AWR to name just a few. TX's range in output powers
from 100kW to 500kW. Incidentally, there are four 100kW TX's on this site, which
are reputed to be the oldest operational units of their type in the world,
supplied by Thomson CSF.
FM
The inception of an FM broadcast service in South
Africa, began on September 1, 1961 from the Brixton Tower (now known as the
Sentech Tower). There were a total of six dual 10kW transmitters at this site,
originally supplied by Rohde and Schwarz. These 'veterans' were replaced in
1987, after some 26 years of service, with 10kW NEC tube rigs (also dual
configuration). Interestingly enough, we also have a 20kW NEC TX (comprised of
10kW plants in active parallel), which for our market is uncommon. The remainder
of South Africa was initially served by medium wave TX's, which were essentially
localised to the larger centres (these being Bloemfontein, Durban, Port
Elizabeth, Cape Town and Pietersburg). A massive drive through the 1960's and
70's saw the roll-out of the FM network to the the rest of the country. Much of
the original equipment supplied was through technology exchange programmes,
meaning that the transmitters were of European design, but manufactured in South
Africa. Original networks were based on 3kW tube FM equipment, operating into
channel combining equipment to allow the use of a common transmit antenna
system, with a gain of around 10-12dB. We embarked on a huge programme in the
late 1980's to effect replacement of these ageing FM transmitter and antenna
systems. In world terms, it was the single largest contract awarded to a local
manufacturer for the supply of FM transmitters. These systems are 1kW solid
state TX's manufactured by Plessey Tellumat. Again, the focus of this programme
contained the elements of technology exchange, but with significant quantities
of local design initiatives, to stimulate this sector of the industry.
The first FM transmission of the English and Afrikaans
Services, Springbok Radio and the South Sotho and Zulu Services was made on
Christmas Day, 1961. FM stereo tests began in Johannesburg in 1985. The first
station to go FM stereo was Five FM, from the Sentech Tower in 1986. Five FM was
also credited as the first station to go nationwide in FM stereo on 1 December
1988.
Public Commercial Services
These services are owned by SABC and are identified as
Metro FM and Five FM. Both services have TX's at major centres in SA and target
young audiences (16-25). Metro FM's format is essentially hip-hop/urban, whilst
Five FM caters for alternative/dance/some urban tastes.
Public Broadcast Services
These services are SABC owned and focus essentially on
the indigenous languages spoken in certain areas of the country. Because of this
the studio location is placed where the concentration of this language is
greatest.
SAFM (Based at SABC JHB) National English programme
RSG (in Afrikaans Radio Sonder Grense) NAtional Afrikaans programme
Ukhozi FM (at SABC Durban) Regional Zulu programme
Umhlobo Wenene (at SABC Port Elizabeth) National Xhosa programme
Radio 2000 (in JHB) NAtional music and entertainment station.
Ligwalagwala FM (at SABC Nelspruit) Regional Swazi programme
Munghana Lonene (at SABC Polokwane) Regional Tsonga Programme
Thobela FM (same as above) Regional Lebowa programme
Phalapala FM (same) Regional Venda programme
Lotus FM (at SABC Durban) National Indian programme
Private Commercial Radio
The six, once 'regional' programmes as was operated by
SABC, were sold off to private owners through de-regulation in 1996/7.The format
adopted tends is Adult Contemporary and variations thereof. These stations
include the following;
94.7 Highveld Stereo (JHB)
East Coast Radio (Durban/KZN)
KFM 94.5 (Cape Town/Western Cape)
Radio Oranje (Bloemfontein/Free State/Northern Cape)
Jacaranda 94.2 (Pretoria/North West Province/Northern Province)
Radio Algoa (POrt Elizabeth/Eastern Cape)
New stations as were licensed by the regulatory
authority (now referred to as ICASA) include the following;
Kaya FM 95.9 (JHB) Jazz orientated
YFM 99.2 (JHB) R+B/Hip-hop formats
Classic FM (JHB) As name implies.
P4 RAdio (Durban) Jazz
P4 Radio (Cape Town) Jazz
TRANSMISSION TODAY
The Sentech Tower is considered to be our flagship TX
station and is home to 17 FM services in total. These are identified by the
following names as listed below. A discussion on how these are grouped and owned
will follow;
Five FM (20kW TX)
SAFM (10kW TX)
RSG (10kW TX)
94.7 Highveld Stereo (10kW TX)
Classic FM (10kW TX)
YFM 99.2 (10kW TX)
Kaya FM 95.9 (10kW TX)
Motsweding FM (10kW TX)
Ukhozi FM (10kW TX)
Lesedi FM (10kW TX)
Metro FM (3kW TX)
Radio 2000
Umhlobo Wenene FM
Thobela FM
Phalapala FM
Lotus FM
Munghana Lonene FM
(The last six services are all on 1kW TX power. Also
note that not all services are combined onto one antenna ) Typical erp of a 10kW
service is in about 35kW).
The following services are also broadcast from this site;
SABC1, SABC2, SABC3 (10kW VHF PAL I)
e.tv (20kW UHF PAL I)
MNET (two UHF 10kW PAL I channels)
DTT 2kW (DVB-T) pilot service, and
1kW DAB (Eureka 147) Multiplex (also pilot service)
Regulation:
Early regulation of broadcasting was by
The current regulatory body is the Independent Broadcasting
Authority, referred to as the ICASA.
Station Identification:
The English Services were known as Radio South Africa;
it is now called SAFM.
The Afrikaans Services were known as Radio Suid-Afrika; it is now called Radio
Sonder Grense (RSG).
My appreciation to Vaughan
Taylor and Colin Miller for their kind assistance with this page.
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