Afropop and jazz prove popular with SABC radio jocks

Afropop and jazz dominated South African airwaves on Thursday morning‚ supported by hip hop and Gospel music as SABC’s 18 radio stations began trialling a three-month #LocalMusic experiment.

Metro FM was applauded across social media for their local music playlist‚ as were other stations including Radio 2000 and Tuks FM — the University of Pretoria’s rock team.

Amongst the popular artists who were getting airplay so far — as monitored by Tiso Black Star Group Digital — are older artists as well as top-selling hip hop performers — and even an Idols contender.

The radio hosts’ popular playlists included:

Don Laka (Jazz) – Metro FM

Stimela (Jazz) – Ukhozi FM

Zonke Dikana (Afro pop) – Metro FM

Lloyd Cele (Afro pop) – Metro FM

Ph Fat – 5 FM

Zahara (Afro pop)

Sipho Makhabane (Gospel) – uMhlobo Wenene FM

HHP (Hip hop) – Metro FM

Tsepo Tshola (Gospel) – Motsweding FM

Aka (Hip hop) Good Hope FM (Cape Town)

Msa Sukwene featuring Robbie Malinga (Afro pop) — Tru FM (Eastern Cape)

Other SABC radio stations such as Phalaphala FM‚ Thobela FM to name a few also followed by playing local music.

Local artists have long called for the percentage of South African music on a community or public radio station’s playlist to be increased. The artists argue that without radio airplay‚ they unable to grow an audience and thus cannot sell records.

Public reaction so far has been positive‚ with The Alpha Male™ ?@KaiMthandeni tweeting‚ “I feel home today @Radio2000ZA #LocalMusic #Emlanjeni” and Dallas By Default ?@DallasByDefault commenting “HAPPY to be hearing #new @DanielMarkham music “Zelda” on @kxtradio! #GoodStuff #LocalMusic #Denton #rockin“.

Renzo Sithole ?@RenzoSithole sent up a wish for up and coming artists to get noticed: “Dey always play the same international musicians from TV to Radio 4 da whole year‚ #LocalMusic new artists must be recognised as well.”