Lotus FM must now aim for more local content

AXED SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng was nothing more than a petty dictator, wielding absolute power – or at least behaving as if he did – at the public broadcaster.

That power went straight to his head and he was incapable of relating to people outside his little power clique with any empathy.

In fact, this brand of absolute power, in which there are no checks and balances to prevent any abuse, often leads to impulsive and self-serving behaviour, and in the end proved to be his undoing.

News that Motsoeneng has been dismissed from his post for bringing the SABC into disrepute will no doubt come as music to the ears of Lotus FM listeners who were angered at his directive that 90% of all music aired on radio stations at the SABC had to be local.

Motsoeneng’s directive attracted widespread criticism within the Indian community and spawned the formation of the Save Our Lotus FM campaign.

Because of the dearth of local music content available, the radio station struggled to meet this unreasonable quota.

Listeners who are ardent fans of Bollywood film music from India did not take kindly to this change in policy and literally switched off. The drop in listenership, by close to a third, led to many long-standing advertisers pulling out.

While Motsoeneng’s original intentions – to grow local content – may have been well-founded, the manner in which he went about implementing his policy was disastrous.

In typical dictatorial fashion, he refused to listen to reason and demanded the one-size-must-fit-all rule had to apply to all stations under his control.

Ashwin Trikamjee, president of the SA Hindu Maha Sabha and one of the leaders of the Save Our Lotus FM campaign, is optimistic that the change in policy will see many listeners and advertisers return to the popular radio station.

He is confident the dropping of the 90/10 will help restore the community’s belief in the station and revive its commercial viability too.

What is also encouraging is that he and other leaders in the campaign are not against the principle of the 90/10 rule per se. They believe it is a target worth aiming for, but it should be phased in gradually.

Now that Lotus FM has won this battle, it has a duty to encourage the growth of quality music locally and to monitor this trend on a regular basis.

After all, local is always lekker.