Eskom woes hit radio audiences

GEORGE NEWS - Keen radio listeners whose radio stations are dependent on the FM tower in the Outeniqua Mountain are at a loss these days with the long load-shedding schedules. The tower does not have back-up power.

An unhappy RSG listener complained that for some people, radio is the only or most important means of staying informed and four-hour breaks in transmission have a big impact. "Surely they could have made a plan by now?" he said.

State-owned Sentech, responsible for maintaining the tower, responded to a query from George Herald that it is aware of the problem and is working on getting back-up for the tower.

Morné Pietersen, Eden FM station manager, said they are currently not broadcasting on their coastal transmitters (93.8 FM, 99.7 FM and 87.8 FM stereo) during load-shedding. This is due to a generator and an Eskom transformer fault at the Sentech transmitter site.

"All radio services in these areas are experiencing the same problem. Technicians are currently on site to do the repairs."

He said it is not affecting their income. "We have an agreement in place with our advertisers stipulating that we make up advertising time if their adverts could not be played.

Fortunately we are always on air because our generators keep the studios going. The past few days we have had problems with the George, Knysna and Riversdale transmitters because of the Sentech generator problem."

Lynette van Zyl of Sfm Radio said they have their own tower in Wilderness Heights where a generator is used for back-up power.

"We do have breaks in transmission, but only for the few seconds it takes to switch the tower's feed over to the generator. Load-shedding has affected us also in the sense that we have suffered damage to electronic equipment because of the repeated surges when the power comes back on."

Photo: Werner Rall, George Trails