Having begun my media career briefly in Johannesburg, I spent most of it working in five other
completely foreign countries – the UK, Ireland, Nigeria, Kenya, and Cape Town, it’s incredibly
refreshing to see just how dramatically diverse our industry has become. Our choice of media
selection sadly, hasn’t.

Thinking back to a time when some people referred to some radio stations as ‘the vernaculars’
and advertising agencies went in to a long (horrifically inaccurate and borderline racist)
justification that people who speak, for example, Xhosa, preferred to speak English when
their income increased and they moved in to a townhouse complex in Sunninghill, I laugh as
I remember that it was this stage that I honestly assumed change would happen rapidly and
that the radio landscape eight years later would be a very different one.

It isn’t. The same radio stations that were dominant then are dominant now. Why?

I put it down to simple demographics. When you compare the demographics of media planners
(and clients) to the demographics of the market, media planners and clients are still
largely white, female, aged between 25 and 35, living in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg
and shopping readily at Fourways Mall.

Added to that most of us are targeting a premium market such as LSM 6-10 and half of these
premium people are men, and just short of half of the total personal income sits with people
who are Black.

I sat down to pull the top indexing radio stations for the media planner and client demographic
and came up with 94.7 Highveld stereo, Jacaranda 94.2, 5FM, Metro FM and RSG.

Unsurprisingly, these stations often feature at the top (if not exclusively) of a media schedule
aimed at the premium market.

When looking at the LSM 6-10 market, however, the highest indexing radio stations paint a
different picture all together. 567 Cape Talk, Talk Radio 702, Radio Tygerberg, Lotus FM, Heart
104.9FM, Classic FM and SAFM are just some of the few that feature.

Even on pure slightly wasteful reach numbers, the highest reach stations for the media planner
and client group would be very similar to the indexing stations; Metro FM, 5FM, Jacaranda,
Highveld, East Coast Radio, and RSG.

For the LSM 6-10 market, these highest reach stations become Metro FM, 5FM, Ukhozi FM,
Lesedi FM, RSG, Jacaranda 94.2, Motsweding FM, Kaya FM and Umhlobo Wenene FM.

Back to the age-old debate…what’s the problem, then?

Is it innocent, slightly-out-of-date legacy knowledge and preference amongst planners and
clients that leads us towards the same usual suspects, time and time again?

Are commercial station group practices affecting spend share? Or is it, that whilst the industry
is dramatically more diverse today, we are still not fully committed to transformation?

Don’t get me wrong. I am sure that I am just as guilty of having begun numerous briefs for
the ‘premium market’ with ideas that are right only at the departure point for people who fall
in to my very tiny demographic, being upmarket, over 30, Joburg northern suburbs, married,
gay, White, and male.

It takes quite a bold step, however, as a media planner or client, to go beyond one’s familiar
territory and acknowledge that we’re often not representative of the broader target market.
It’s only then that we’ll truly see transformation in media strategies and station selection that
is truly reflective of the richness of our Rainbow nation.

Ross Sergeant Strategist, MediaCom JHB
TRUE COMMITMENT TO TRANSFORMATION WILL BENEFIT RADIO