Community radio celebrates 20 years of jazz, classical music
STEPPING into the studio was a “warm moment of relief” for Rashid Lombard. For three decades he had been on the frontlines, a photographer covering the unravelling of the apartheid era, a journalist at the heart of some of Africa’s biggest conflicts.
But by 1995, South Africa was free and the radio waves were open. It’s where the jazz aficionado – who later founded the Cape International Jazz Festival – saw an opportunity to take his passion for music, which had pulled him through the “warzones” of his past, and lay his claim to South Africa’s airspace.
In an application backed by the Philhar- monic Orchestra, the pitch was to have a community radio station where volunteer presenters could showcase the best of jazz and classical music. Ultimately, it was a bid to keep the genres alive, and that’s how Fine Music Radio was born.
Yesterday, the station celebrated two decades on the air. Lombard said he was proud that the station was “going from strength to strength”.
While he left the station five years after establishing it, poached by P4 (now Heart FM), he still tunes in whenever he can. He looks at his time at Fine Music Radio as a period of healing, a way to recover from the “shellshock of his career as a photographer”.
He spoke candidly about the early days of the not-for-profit station, shortly after it and four others were granted broadcasting rights in the Western Cape. Back then, the station’s first home was the Longkloof Studios and where teaming up with veteran presenter Leslie McKenzie, who headed up classical music, got the “ball rolling”.
“We had great people like McKenzie coming from the SABC and a lot of retired veterans of other industries volunteered,” he said.
It was during this time that Lombard came up with a business model that would allow the station to remain financially feasible so that it could continue to be the “safe haven for jazz and classical music”. It would also become a training ground for budding presenters to launch their careers.
“That was always my vision… it was my mission to bring people together.
“So it was very therapeutic, you know. From coming out of warzones and spending all my time on music was great. It was healing.
“It is true that we had to struggle with community-based salaries,” he laughs.
Now, on its 20th birthday, Fine Music Radio operates from inside Artscape. Its listenership has grown and its face base has become younger, said a station spokesman.
Station manager Mark Jennings said: “Surviving these hard economic times is never easy and Fine Music Radio has weathered many storms but has always emerged in the sunlight with a stronger base. Our members contribute to keeping the station alive but also give us excellent feedback.”