EBIS PROGRAMMES CHOPPED WILLY-NILLY

 Sir,

Is there any rating system at our national radio station or is there a chained Napoleon, busy wielding his power and axe, chopping and changing programmes willy nilly?

Is there any tangible reason for shifting Nomakunje Lisekhona Litsemba from 7.15pm to 10pm as most
listeners have retired to bed yet it is their bedrock?

Our radio station seems to be operating in the dark, doing things to please the powers that be yet its avid listeners are the populace. It seems that everything is captured so the populace could be deprived of any information or edutainment! When Umdlalo Wemoya, the most listened to
programme, was duly axed, I was truly disappointed as most of the programmes no longer have that wow factor, that could turn lidladla or indlu yagogo into a sitting room at 7:15pm, which is now at 7:45pm.

Canned

Tenele Motsa is good as she has that analytical counselling and she was at her prime during that lunch hour relationship programme and Asihlephule but it was also canned yet it helped and mended broken relationships and lost souls. The station seems to censor the journalist free thinking and analytic mindset yet S’gcoko believed in announcing and not deejaying as some end up doing.

Repeating

The station is good at axing and repeating programmes! Khalamdumbadumbane is always on
repeat to the extent one can tell with just one word. ‘Vele kuyacaca kutsi umsakato akusiwo wesive kepha wa hhulumende’. When Umdlalo Wemoya was duly axed, I saw another leaf of our entertainment and beautiful art dismantled without any care how the listeners would feel.

Where is the innovation or vision of the station or is it just another government job where ratings are not a barometer?
 But what can we do or say as vele bayatentela as even in our television, we are watching lacklustre programmes that aired even when we were still kindergarten material. Home grown material is not nurtured unless it promotes the ruling class and government.

When those in power feel threatened or feel they are being exposed (radio is the main source of information for the rural folk), they axe any programmes that give the listener a vessel of expression and free thinking.

Impacted

No wonder many programmes (Ticelo ne Tiphakamiso, Asihlephule) that greatly impacted on the lives of the people have been axed. No wonder the radio vuvuzela, Queen Shongwe, got the deadliest shot too. On a parting note, barring soccer
teams’ PROs from the sport show on Fridays at 6:15am incensed many avid listeners; luckily they are reinstated, but my main problem are the programmes that are being played late at night yet they help the populace (Nawe unadokotela, Nomakuenje lisekhona litsemba).

Give us
community licences so we can have our own radio stations as we will never censor information in fear of rubbing those in power the wrong way.

Umtukulu

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