Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives, for World Radio Day, 2013
Springbok Radio, a former radio station of the South African Broadcasting Corporation in South Africa, closed its transmission at the end of 1985. It was the first commercial radio station of the SABC.
During 1950-1985 there was no dedicated effort to collect all the radio programmes for archives, and most of the programmes were recorded over one another to save resources, which was mostly in the format of reel-to-reel tapes.The SABC Radio Archives have found some of these recorded gems in the archives, but it was only by the passion of the listeners that a large collection of the Springbok Radio material was saved.
A Society for the Preservation of Springbok Radio was initiated by listeners, and for years a dedicated enthusiast, Frans Erasmus, collected and streamed the material on his own efforts, time and budget on the Internet.
Most of this collection was finally handed back to the SABC in 2012.
You can read more here:
– Handover of Springbok Radio material to SABC
– Frans Erasmus, an inspiration
Retha Buys, the custodian in the SABC Radio Archives, looks after this collection, and makes sure that a new stream of the Springbok Radio Revisited archive material goes live on a two-weekly basis.
The Springbok Radio Revisited website went live in December 2012: Springbok Radio Revisited. During the next two weeks you will be able to listen to shows from 1965, Call back the past, to 1984, Mr Scarface and Company, to mention only two. Springbok Radio Revisited listeners are very active on Facebook, and make suggestions, and sometimes sent in photos or even help with own recorded programmes which they donate to the archives.