World Radio Day is celebrated for the 4th time this year after it was established by UNESCO in 2011.
"From the news and public debate, music and entertainment, radio informs us , captivate and inspire us in a way that no other medium can."Archivist Karen du Toit , who is responsible for the Afrikaans language collection in the SABC Radio Archives, compiled a short compilation of the rich collection of radio material that is being kept by the Archives. The programme was broadcasted on Radio Sonder Grense, the Afrikaans language radio station at the South African Broadcasting Corporation. (The programme is in Afrikaans)
Translation of the text:
"SABC Radio Archives preserve a rich cultural treasure sound that includes the history and time period of the South African Broadcasting Corporation as well as that of South Africa .
This radio treasure is made possible by radio itself, which is the main source of our collection . The radio stations are in turn dependent on the archive that makes the material accessible to be uses again . We keep the radio material on sound tapes, cassette tapes, acetate records, mini tapes, CDs and electronically.
Most of the time we can not just press a button to give access, but we need to collect the audio format in the storage room, and dub it in real time and adapted it to make it available again to programme makers, journalists and the public.
As the Afrikaans archivist, it is very difficult to pick some sound clips to illustrate this rich diversity .
I would like to share the following from our Afrikaans language collection :
1. The first broadcast of Radio Sonder Grense on 28 September 1996, with a soundtrack of the late President Nelson Mandela on the importance of this medium.
2. Our first melodramatic radio drama from the thirties, Liefdesdroom (Love Dream), which was broadcasted on December 15, 1937.
3. With the 25th anniversary of Radio in 1949 in the Cape a Mister CD Fuchs ( the then Regional Director of Natal ) aspoke on the first days in radio.
4. The first newscast in Afrikaans from Auckland Park.
5. Finally, an audio clip of a portion of a reading of a poem of NP van Wyk Louw : "Image of a youth - pigeon and horse". It is read by Fred le Roux in 1965. The youth poem was chosen because World Radio Day this year focuses on youth and radio.
6. And sometimes we get recognition as archivists, such as the recent death of André Brink. Colleague Bernard Mashiane came in on Sunday to help with sound clippings for producer Wilna Matthee for a feature on the RSG programme Monitor the next morning."
