702 not a cheap station - SAfm founder
2011-01-25 13:06
Cape Town - The founder of SABC's SAfm radio station says he did not mean to call Radio 702 "a cheap radio talkshow" in Parliament last week.
Govin Reddy was being interviewed by the portfolio committee on communications when he referred to the SABC's reporters as "pathetic" and that SAfm had become a cheap talkshow like Radio 702.
This followed various media outlets' use of a Sapa news report on Friday which quoted Reddy verbatim from a tape recording.
"That was certainly not what I said, though I concede it's possible I wasn't very clear in expressing myself in the context of an intense interview in limited time," Reddy said in a letter on Monday to Radio 702 manager Yusuf Abramjee, and which was sent on to Sapa "for the record".
Talk station
"What I thought I said - and certainly what I meant to say - was this: 'I started SAfm as a quality news station focusing on news, information, features and documentaries, modelled on BBC's Radio 4. But they decided to take the cheaper route and change it into yet another talk station like 702'."
In his interview Reddy, who started SAfm in 1995, said the station was his "baby".
"I started SAfm as you know. That was my baby. I modelled it very much on BBC Radio 4. It was supposed to be a quality radio station catering to all South Africans because English is the language of all South Africans.
"I wanted to have good documentaries, features, etcetera. Now it is a cheap radio talkshow like Radio 702."
In his letter to 702 Reddy said these days he listened to 702 far more than he did SAfm.
"As you know Yusuf, it's much cheaper to produce talk than news, features and documentaries.
"I would never call 702 a cheap station. Its content has improved significantly in recent years and the drive time and lunch time shows are excellent. As a matter of fact, these days I listen more to 702 than SAfm."
Multiple organ failure
Reddy, who is a member of the National Lotteries Board, the chair of the IPS Africa Board, on the board of The Media magazine and a "Professor Extraordinary" in journalism at the University of Stellenbosch, told the committee the SABC was like a patient with multiple organ failure.
"Watch the BBC when there is a breaking story," he said.
"They will go on camera with someone in New York. The presenter who is interviewing, interviews with absolute authority. They have done the research, they know it all. You don't get that from the SABC. The reporters from [the] field are pathetic. I'm sorry to say."
Fourteen nominees have been shortlisted by MPs to fill four vacancies on the SABC board left by a spate of resignations last year.
The candidates are being interviewed over three days this week. The committee is to present the names of the final four to the National Assembly on February 3.
If approved, they are expected to take up their positions during the first quarter of this year.
The four posts became vacant when board members David Niddrie, Barbara Masekela, Felleng Sekha and Makgatho Mello left last October. Their exits followed months of infighting and complaints over a failure to produce a financial strategy for the cash-strapped SABC.
CEO Solly Mokoetle has also since resigned.
- SAPA