LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Talking about radio stations in Namibia 
Reply With Quote
There is a lot of what I would call "pop" radio, i.e. top 1000 songs that play in endless loops with painfully cheerful and "cool" young presenters strutting their verbal stuff while regularly interrupting the songs. And then there's the weather forceasts, of course. And the news bulletings straight from the wires.
Generally Namibian radio stations outdo each other with expensive, catchy jingles and idle talk, but little else. There is no single qualitative and analytical current affairs programme that looks at political, economic and other issues as, for example, Radio 4 does in th UK. NO radio station has the guts to tackle these issue head-on for political reasons. They all fear the bottom ine first and foremost.
It is probably far-fetched and unfair to compare the BBC with our stations, but the fact is that the gulf is only too apparent. It's also very expensive to do. THe fact that there are sensitivities around open political talk can also not be laid at the door of the radios stations, but rather the Government.
Needless to say, too, that not everyone is interested in proper talk radio either, and quite enjoys endless loops of music. But the real mark of a successful radio station is how it handles social, economic and political issues with intelligence and clarity in an informative, educational way.
Bookmarks