The new archivist interview: Sound Restoration

Obakeng Phiri
Archivist: Sound Restoration
SABC Radio Archives

Obakeng Phiri is a new archivist tasked with sound restoration in the SABC Radio Archives.
He has been an intern with us for a couple of months, and he started to work here on the 1st of August 2012.

The previous interview with Obakeng was about his internship at the SABC Radio Archives.

His duties are different now than before when he was an intern here.

Obakeng, please tell us about a normal day in your studio.

I am self motivated because I am very passionate about being an audio restoration archivist. 
Every snippet of audio content I work with contains interesting information. It adds to my anticipation of looking forward doing my job each day!

My job involves the separation of sound from the format it was recorded on. It also involves the “cleaning” of sound, getting rid of clicks, pops, scratches and hiss that often plague the original recordings. 
In some instances, the desired sound is so close in character to the noise, that the noise cannot be cleaned so as not to sacrifice parts of the sound that we want to keep. 

The workflow is not complicated, but it must be performed carefully to achieve the best results. 

Every experience in the studio is a learning curve. I learn different subjects from history, politics as well as listening to radio dramas. 
Depending on the mood I am in, every hour is spent on a different subject.  

Tell us more about your collection and the scope of material you need to preserve.

I work with most of SABC’s radio broadcast material, which includes radio dramas, radio features, actuality and many more. One example is a feature programme on Bertha Solomon, pioneer of women’s rights in South Africa.

Do you have an anecdote about an interesting piece of audio material that you have encountered?

The following is in our collection: ‘’I am an African’’ speech by Thabo Mbeki.
It introduces his vision on the African Renaissance, which is about empowering Africa economically and socially.

Why did you want to work here again after you have completed your internship here?

When I first came here for the first time as an intern, I already knew that I wanted to work at the SABC Radio Archives. It felt like I was home! Due to my passion for the job, I was given the chance to prove myself. It paid off in the end!
I am very grateful for it, praise God!

Related posts:

- Interview with an intern at the SABC Radio Archives: Obakeng Phiri

- The value of internship in the SABC Radio Archives


Questions and blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

Interview with an Archivist at SABC Polokwane

Phindile Maringa is an archivist from the SABC Media Libraries. She  relocated on 1 August 2012 from the SABC Radio Archives in Johannesburg, to being the archivist in SABC Media Libraries, Polokwane.

The archivists in the regions are doing things in a different way and on a different scale than here in Johannesburg. They are sometimes expected to be and do more than their initial job requirements specify for an archivist.

It is extremely interesting to have an interview with an archivist who has been working here at head office, and to now compare how things are being done in the regions.


Phindile, please tell us a why you moved to SABC Polokwane. 

I took a transfer back home because I wanted to be with my family. Working a distance away from the kids and my partner initially put strain on me as I had to travel back home each weekend. 
I say thanks to the SABC for granting my request. 

What can you tell us about SABC Polokwane?

SABC Polokwane is a warm welcoming area, where I feel comfortable to share my skills and knowledge acquired. The natural warm feeling comes when one gets greeted by various personnel, who are already calling me by my name. This helps me feel at home and welcomed.

Please tell us about a normal day in your office

I usually prioritize on request and cataloguing news and actuality. It feels good to directly deal with clients. [Which she mostly did not do have to attend to when she was in HQ] 
Besides cataloguing and attending to customer requests, I do recordings of day to day broadcasts of Thobela Fm. I transfer recordings onto cd format. 
I also sort and make a selection of material to catalogue and file. 

Tell us more about your collection and the scope of material you need to preserve in the archives in Polokwane

My collection includes a backlog of reel-to-reel tapes, cassettes, mini-discs and cd’s which contains all broadcasted material for Thobela Fm. 

Do you struggle with technical difficulties, and if so, what?

Yes, I do struggle,  but with the interference of the BIT team, my trouble get sorted right away after logging a call.

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do

I enjoy being an information officer because I get to know what is current information globally. 
I have a greater awareness of what is happening in my surrounding areas as well. 
Furthermore, it gives me a chance to use various operating and information systems and to be technologically inclined.


Related post:

The weekly archivist interview: English Archivist


Questions and blog post by Karen du Toit, Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives

The new Archivist interview: News & Actuality Archivist – Ntokozo Khanyile

The SABC Radio Archivists specializes in specific areas of expertise with regards radio and language related audio collections of the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

This is part of a series of interviews where I am posing the same questions to each of the Archivists.

The recently appointed archivist in the News & Actuality section is Ntokozo Khanyile.

She started in the SABC Radio Archives from June this year , and she is now responsible for all the news and actuality radio archival material.


Ntokozo, please tell us about where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Radio Archives. 


I grew up in Protea North, Soweto. I studied at the University of Johannesburg and finished my BA Information Science degree in 2008. In 2009 I started with BA (Hons) Information Management which I am yet to complete. Before joining the SABC in April, I worked at South African National Parks (Sanparks), Afrizan Personnel and CSIR.

Please tell us about a normal day in your studio. What material do you give priority to? 


I normally do cataloguing of available material. I usually prioritise new material from SABC News, especially press conferences and important speeches.

Tell us more about your collection and the scope of material you need to preserve. 


My collection is made up of actuality from SAfm, Metrofm and RSG, as well as anything I receive from the SABC News department.

Do you struggle with technical difficulties, and if so, what? 


I'm not a very technically gifted individual but I try my best not to break anything into a thousand pieces. I haven’t gotten the necessary technical training but I have managed to maneuver around the studio and figured how almost everything works. 

If you have an anecdote about a specific piece of interesting audio material, please share it with us. 


Most of the audio material I get is about news that I know of already because I tend to read from every other online news source there is. But what is interesting, is hearing the different views that people give on various issues and that opens up a new way of thinking about, seeing and analyzing the issues at hand. 

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do. 


I enjoy the work I am doing because it’s something new and I am always looking to learn something new. I have also gotten a different perspective of archives; that it’s not as boring and menial as most people make it sound. 




Related post:


The Weekly archivist interview: News and Actuality (Markus Mmutlana, our previous News and Actuality archivist)


Questions and blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

The Weekly Archivist interview with the Manager of the SABC Radio Archives

Bennie Jacobs
SABC Radio Archives

The SABC Radio Archives forms part of the SABC Media Libraries. Archivists specialize in specific areas/languages of expertise with regards the audio collections being kept in the Archives. There are also Archivists who focus on requests, and we have an archivist who focuses on sound restoration.

This is part of the weekly interviews that will try to pose the same questions to each of the Archivists.
Bennie Jacobs is the Manager of the Radio Archives. He was the news and actuality archivist before he was promoted to manager.
He has been with the SABC Radio Archives for 13 years.

Bennie, please tell us a little bit about your life and career.

I was born in Clydesdale, an area in the Free State. We moved with family to the Transvaal, to be specific we moved to Kliptown; then to Eldorado Park and later we moved to Rust–Ter–Vaal in Vereeniging where I am still based. I studied at PU for CHE at the Vaal Campus for a Teaching Qualification. My work experience before SABC was teaching.

Please tell us about a normal day in your office. What tasks do you give priority to?

Managing the operations of the Radio Archives.

Tell us more about the collection in the SABC Radio Archives and the scope of material that need to be preserved.

 The archivists interviewed would have made you aware of the vast collection that is in the Radio Archives. I would want to talk about what we don’t have of which it is very crucial for us to acquire. The content that we don’t have much of in the Radio Archives is material that the SABC never covered during the apartheid years. It is material that dealt with the struggle against apartheid, for an example we don’t have actuality on June 1976, The Women’s March of 1956, actuality on Steve Biko and some of Radio Springbok material that were not archived. As the Radio Archives we are trying hard to rectify the situation by searching for the material. If there is any one that has such kind of material please donate it to the SABC. We will preserve the material.

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do.

The people that I work with are passionate about the work they do in the Radio Archives, and this really gives me reason to be at work every day. The content that we work with is very informative, and we believe in doing the best for our clients.

Related posts:
The Weekly Archivist Interview: acetate restoration in the SABC Radio Archives
The weekly archivist interview: Sound engineer in the Radio Archives
The weekly archivist interview: Ikwekwezi FM
The weekly archivist interview: Music archivist
The weekly archivist interview: News and actuality
The weekly archivist interview: Sport archivist
The weekly archivist interview: Channel Africa collection

Questions and blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.