GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - The Southern Cape radio station EDENfm now has a footprint over an area of 26 450 km².
EDENfm, the Southern Cape’s nine-year old community radio station has gone professional with its brand new 06:00 to 18:00 radio programmes.

Station manager Mornè Pietersen is excited about the change. "We are currently launching Rediscover EDENfm with new programmes, presenters and extended in-depth local, national and international news. Traffic and weather reports occur every hour, and lots of competitions and specials is on the way too.

The new programmes are Eden Breakfast with Christo G from 06:00 to 09:00, Eden Country with Marise from 09:00 to 12:00, Eden Lunch with Fernando and Joan from 12:00 to 15:00 and Eden Drive with Marius Gerber from 15:00 to 18:00.

"We are also very excited about our extended music library and listeners will be pleasantly surprised by the variety of music genres included in the new programme formats. The second part of our 24/7 broadcasting is also under review - so stay tuned!" says Pietersen.

"EDENfm has grown to become the fourth largest radio station overall in the Western Cape and it is now the biggest in
the Southern Cape with currently over 200 000 listeners per week. We aim to be the best, having a fantastic team committed to creating the absolutely unique EDENfm brand," he promises.

He added that EDENfm will announce an exciting new partnership with a major sports organisation that will significantly add to the EDENfm brand shortly.

EDENfm has grown from its humble origins in 2002 as a locally based initiative in Oudtshoorn, broadcasting intermittently from George, Oudtshoorn and Mossel Bay and headed by Pietersen, a former high school teacher.

From 2003 to 2006 the radio station broadcast under a 30-day licence, but in 2007 Icasa finally issued a permanent broadcasting licence to Pietersen and EDENfm, being impressed with the constant technical improvements of the station and professionalism by Pietersen and his team.

Now, with its two additional broadcasting boosters coming into operation at the end of this month, EDENfm can be heard from Plettenberg Bay to Witsand on the coast and inland from Swellendam, Barrydale, Ladismith, Calitzdorp (the whole of Kannaland), Oudtshoorn, Dysselsdorp, De Rust, Willowmore, Uniondale and Haarlem in the Langekloof.