[By Kgomotso Moncho]
Tuks FM won the 2012 MTN Radio award for community radio of the year, and this is among the many awards the station has bagged. It is one of the leading community radio stations in Gauteng and specifically in the capital city. What it has done exclusively is help unearth bands that now form part of the country’s live and recording music scene. Notable alumni from Tuks FM include Anele Mdoda, Gareth Cliff, Grant Nash, Poppy Ntshongwana and Hlogi Mampuru, aka, Joe Mann (of Metro FM). Marketing Executive at Tuks, Tony Graham speaks to Radiobiz about what keeps the station growing from strength to strength.
Looking at the history of Tuks FM, what do you think makes it stand out among other community radio stations in Gauteng or the capital city specifically?
Tuks Fm has been a part and parcel of Pretoria for the last 32 years, inexorably threaded through the life of the University. While students make up a rather large proportion of our listenership, the largest part of our audience comes from outside the Varsity. A large proportion of them are Alumni. Tuks Fm offers a training ground for the radio industry. So unlike other radio stations that go through years and years with the same line up, Tuks FM is constantly changing as its student staff comes and goes; as their studies end and lives begin. This ensures that there are always fresh ideas and more importantly a constant desire and drive that might be missing from an industry that seems to do the same thing from week to week, and year to year.
Not only that but it’s also the youth speaking directly to the youth. Tuks FM also offers the one thing that no other station currently offers: Music for the people who listen to music. Unlike commercial radio stations that play the lowest common denominator music for the broadest audience, Tuks FM has chosen a specific genre of music that speaks to our audience’s core.
Which, taken all together, means that for a small little community radio station that broadcasts from the University of Pretoria’s main campus we punch way above our weight when compared to the Commercials. And they recognise that. This is why a huge proportion of our staff moves on to fill positions at commercial stations. They can see the excellence that we offer
What is the ethos that the station works with?
Our ethos is that all the people who pass through our doors should grow and change and discover who they are throughout their time with us. Tuks FM is not just a radio station that broadcasts awesome music to awesome people. It’s a place where people come to figure out who and what they are. On top of that Tuks FM likes to instil a sense of purpose and professionalism in everyone who comes through our doors. Oh, and Fun. Above all our ethos is to have fun.
The station has won many awards including the MTN Radio Award for Community radio of the Year for 2012. Is there a formula to getting this right?
Passion.
We have a group of great volunteers who give up their spare time, holidays, sleep and numerous other things for us on a daily basis. Our listeners can hear that, and apparently so can everyone at the MTN Radio Awards. If there’s a formula, that’s what it is. Oh, and lots of training and late nights. That probably helps as well.
What is special about your programming?
It’s the fact that we have so many different voices. With an intake of volunteers twice a year, we’re constantly changing, just like our audience.
Besides putting a lot of DJs on the map, I have watched how Tuks FM has also put a lot of bands on the map and the station has become a leader in this. What is the importance of this?
Tuks FM has broken pretty much every band South Africa has produced. The Nude Girls, to Fokof to Prime Circle to the Parlotones, and lets not forget Saron Gas (who now call themselves Seether) as well as the Kongos. The importance of this is out of this world! Without Tuks FM there would be a lot of bands still trying to gain a foothold in the market. This means that South Africa would be poorer in terms of the voices being heard.
We’re a proudly South African radio station. We always have been. Here’s the thing: Our licence says that we have to play a minimum of 40% local music. That’s never been a problem for us and we always play way more than that. Of course commercial stations don’t have the same sort of terms. They have to play 20 odd percent, which means they limit themselves to only the current popular bands, which are only popular because we broke them and put them into the mainstream market. We on the other hand, are constantly looking for new music that reflects who our Fans are listening to, and who they’re seeing live.
What bands can we look forward to in 2013?
Who knows? There are a bunch of upcoming bands that we’re currently playing who are definitely going places. But the bands to look forward to are the ones who are still out there, gigging, recording and practicing. But if you truly want to know what bands to look forward to the only thing you can do is listen. Just like we are.
Anything you would like to add?
We’re not just a Pretoria based radio station anymore. We’re now broadcasting into Jo’burg as well, which means we’re getting commercial station reach. So to the big boys: You can take our staff to try and make your stations as good as ours. But you’ll never be us. So you better watch out, because here we come.