Gale force winds cause dead air

By Cindy Witten
11 November

Radio stations throughout the mother city experienced difficulty broadcasting today, after the equipment on the mast situated on Tygerberg Hill broke off as a result of the gale force winds, causing stations to lose signal.

Bush Radio and CCFM were the worst affected, having no coverage whatsoever, while stations including Voice of the Cape and Radio Tygerberg experienced no coverage with their secondary transmitters.

Voice of the Cape's senior technical staff member Saawmiet Moos, says that it is business as usual. "Currently, two of our transmission sights are down, but we have to continue broadcasting because it's streaming and another transmission sight is still running," said Moos. Moos added that it is a Telkom issue and that Telkom will have to fix it.

Programme Integrator for Bush Radio, Adrian Louw, thanked the Bush Radio listeners for their support. “Bush radio, as a small community radio station is in the unfortunate position that it cannot afford a studio to transmitter link and has to rely on Telkom and Sentech to provide the signal to our listeners. We have to trust that Sentech and Telkom are doing their best to fix the problem.”

According to a Telkom employee who asked not to be named, the winds are too strong for employees to climb up the mast. Telkom is in the process of sorting the problem out by putting together replacement equipment. The network has promised that once the weather subsides, they will be able to send technician up the mast to do the necessary repairs.