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Friday, February 19, 2016

Report's of radio's death are greatly exaggerated

The truth is, radio is alive and kicking. In many parts of the world, audiences are bigger than ever, and South Africa has some of the radio highest listenership levels globally. Zulu language station Ukhozi FM, for example, has a reported 7.4 million listeners. Contrary to that pop song, video hasn’t killed the radio star.
Radio has managed to keep up with the times. It follows listeners through the twists and turns of their ever-changing lives. It continues to appease breaking-news addicts, music aficionados and podcasting millennials alike.
Across Africa, radio more than any other medium, continues to play an important role in daily community life. Radio’s impact reaches far beyond the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and even millions of listeners of individual stations. What differentiates radio from the broader global media landscape is how incredibly local it can be. It plays music, uses local languages and idioms and discusses topics in ways that reflect the singularity of a particular area. A radio station is the engine room of local ideas where issues are debated and opinions are formed.