Time for new broadcasting dispensation

Eric Knight and Ezra Sibanda, now based in the United Kingdom, have launched their own radio station known as “Visions FM”.
These two DJs have been joined by Steve Muzite and Patience Zingwe on Visions FM, which is currently broadcasting on the internet, and they are hoping that once the airwaves have been freed in Zimbabwe, they will apply for a broadcasting licence as they do not wish to break the law.
There is no doubt that Eric and Ezra love broadcasting as it is almost eight years since they left their radio and television jobs here in Zimbabwe.
Eric now holds a masters degree in business administration (MBA) from the University of Manchester and he describes his radio station as “a station for the people by the people”.
Since independence in 1980, ZBC has had a broadcasting monopoly in Zimbabwe (except for a short period when Joy TV came into play) and there are concerns from many members of society who feel that the Government should allow other players from the private sector which would make ZBC more competitive.
Musicians, in particular, believe that their right to have their music heard by the public depends on ZBC broadcasting only. If the broadcaster has an axe to grind with a particular musician, that is the end of him and his music.
I went into the streets last week to conduct a survey among 50 randomly selected teenagers within Harare aged between 14 and 19. I asked them a simple question:
“Which are your favourite ZBC television programmes?”
I was shocked to discover that 45 of them (90 percent) said they did not watch ZBC programmes at all while only 10 percent said they watched either “Studio 263”, “Go Chanaiwa Go”, “Woza Friday”, “Mai Chisamba” or “Jacob’s Cross”. On further asking why the majority did not bother with ZBC programmes, a variety of answers came up. The most popular being, “ZBC is too boring”. One youth said, ‘Ah! Why watch boring things such as Murimi Wanhasi when you have got DSTV?’
The authorities will be shocked to learn that ZBC’s television viewership has really declined. In my humble view, the answer to this lingering malaise is to give broadcasting licences to other players. Eric and Ezra are already itching to start their own broadcasting system in Zimbabwe. Admire Taderera, a former Radio 3 and Power FM DJ and manager, is still in agony about leaving the job he loved. I caught him in conversation with former Deputy Minister of Information, Bright Matonga, to whom he expressed his interest in obtaining a radio licence. Matonga agreed with him and said that the Government had nothing to fear in opening up the airwaves.
Radio and television are a way of peacefully uniting the world as people of different cultures get to know about the cultures of other people throughout the world. Clandestine radio stations, pirate radio stations or unofficial radio stations often emerge as a result of authorities not providing licences to legitimate operators.
My initial encounter with a radio station was through a pirate radio station in Britain. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I illegally teamed up with a group of friends to operate a medium wave radio station on the 1320 KHz band. On Sunday afternoons we also tried some activity on the FM frequency bands that we found available. We preferred the FM frequencies because it was the frequency modulation stations which operated on very high frequencies and which also provided interference-free reception over a short radius. We were thoughtful operators because we chose the frequencies whose legitimate owners vacated them at specific times of the day every Sunday.
Part of the explanation for our activity was the fact that we were all African and West Indian musicians who had tried in vain in the past to get airplay from British mainstream radio stations for the type of music we produced. (At the time, only Capital Radio, London, played African music late at night when everyone had gone to sleep). We therefore thought that by starting our own radio station we would get around the problem of letting the rest of the world hear our music. The theme song for our station went something like this:
Dem are call us pirates
Dem are call us illegal broadcasters
Just because we play
What the people want
At first, we tried to apply for a licence to operate, but this was not forthcoming. I have since discovered that governments all over the world have a habit of exercising tight monopolies on broadcasting.
Zimbabwe needs alternative broadcasting stations as viewership and listenership for ZBC stations is declining due to the prevalence of free-to-air satellite channel decoders such as the Wiztech, Fortec Star and Philibao, which allow Zimbabweans to view SABC channels and Botswana TV, let alone DSTV channels. Is there a need to keep the ZBC broadcasting monopoly when people are free to listen to alternative channels?
The second reason is that ZBC’s two television channels and four radio stations cannot satisfy the diverse tastes of 12 million people.
The free-to-air satellite decoders have certain advantages. Viewers are not confined to one channel only.
For instance, a viewer could choose to watch a sports channel, a gospel music channel or a news channel throughout the entire evening. Radio and television should be in a position to provide variety entertainment and be able to discuss topics such as politics, Aids, sociology, psychology and any other views without the announcer watching his/her back all the time through fear of losing his or her job.
If the airwaves are opened up, stations could have the ability to put something different into radio programmes. Programming could attract other listeners who may not be able to make sense of official broadcasting, e.g. speakers of minority languages such as Chindau, Tonga, Nyanja, Chibuja and Chijindwi. Thus alternative stations could provide a service which is not duplicated by other stations.
Musicians I spoke to are all looking for a station that will play strictly music only, but, of course, within the confines of the law. It is one thing for a pop musician to go into a recording studio and make a record, but it is another to guarantee airplay for that record. If the music is not given airplay, then nobody will hear it. If nobody hears it, nobody will buy it.
The reason why I have a collection of Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder, Oliver Mtukudzi and Thomas Mapfumo records is simply because I heard them on the radio before I chose to buy them. Without airplay any aspiring artiste is doomed. That includes big names such as Alick Macheso, Leonard Zhakata, Pengaudzoke, Winky D, the Beatles, Michael Jackson and P. Diddy. If mainstream radio had refused to play the music of these artistes, we would have never got to hear it unless many radio stations were available.
In conclusion, I say, parliamentarians ought to debate the possibility of issuing broadcasting licences to private players then Zimbabweans will begin to enjoy local radio and television again.
l Fred Zindi is a professor at the University of Zimbabwe. He is also a musician and an author of several books on music. He can be contacted via e-mail on [email protected]