Maravi

Errol Hickey and Radio Phoenix

Errol Hickey and Radio Phoenix
Written by Editor

Running a privately-owned radio or television station in this country is not an easy undertaking. For this reason, Errol Hickey and his team deserve a lot of credit for running a magnificent radio station for 13 years. Not even the fires could stop them. There are many impediments in running a radio station in this country. The economic environment is not favourable. We do not have a large enough commercial base to support a strong radio station.

The advertising income is very low for a radio station to meet all its requirements, pay reasonable salaries and other expenses to the so many people who contribute their services every second to keep the radio station going. One has to engage in calculus every day to meet the financial requirements of the moment. This is not easy.

What is sad is that those in government don’t see this or they simply don’t care. And instead of making the environment more conducive for the running of radio stations, they are actually creating conditions that make it much easier for such undertakings to fail. It requires a lot of commitment and sacrifice of personal resources to run a radio station. There is no big money that is being made by our radio stations. Even when it’s made, it quickly disappears because it’s ploughed back to meet a chain of pending issues and challenges.

The other problem is the myriad of legal impediments that the government has put up to regulate the operations of privately-owned radio and television stations. A private radio or television station can be closed by the Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services so easily. And that’s why any threat from the minister causes so much panic at any radio station. This is understandable and it’s not because people who run these radio or television stations are cowards. It is simply because the Minister of Information has given himself so much power to be able to deal a deadly blow on any radio or television station that wants to stand its ground. With this threat hanging over our privately-owned radio and television stations, it will be very difficult to encourage our people to invest in radio or television stations. And soon we will start to see radio and television stations with connections to those in power start to emerge with the sole purpose of boosting their political stakes. Pure commercial enterprises may start to disappear. Even the licensing system, if it continues unchanged, will increasingly start to favour friends of those in power.

We have applied before for a radio licence and we were denied one. We have also applied for a television licence and we have not gotten any. But when we analyse deeply the current situation, we think it was good for us that they didn’t give us the licences because it would have meant the newspaper subsidising the operations of the radio and television stations. This would spread our finances very thinly, threatening the entire undertaking.

It is very difficult to develop high standards of journalism under such circumstances. It is difficult to retain experienced staff for long with such tight finances. People want to grow with organisations they work for. If there is no growth in the organisation as staff get experienced and want to grow, they will go into higher growth industries. This will mean that such media organisations will always operate with novices because as soon as people get some experience, they leave to much stronger and secure sectors of the economy. And no amount of media regulation can correct that. If anything, it can only worsen it.

Errol and his team have demonstrated what can be done with radio if a conducive environment is created. We need more radio stations of the Phoenix standard. But we won’t get them if things remain the way they are. But we know that in this life, we get nothing save by effort. The Zambian people have a debt to settle with Errol and his team for the effort they have exerted to give us a radio station that has done such great work over the last 13 years. And that debt will be repaid not with cash to Errol but by them ensuring that a conducive environment required for the efficient, effective and orderly operations of radio stations is established by their representatives in government and other institutions of the state like parliament. Errol has personally benefited very little, if not nothing, by running that radio station. Radio Phoenix has actually milked Errol of huge resources. Clearly, the net beneficiaries from the operations of that radio station is us, the Zambian people and not Errol. This means we have a duty to ensure that Radio Phoenix and other radio and television stations in our country operate under a conducive environment created by our own efforts. Errol will personally lose nothing if that radio station is closed tomorrow because he doesn’t live from it, it doesn’t pay his bills. It will actually be a relief, from a financial point of view, because Errol will no longer need to subsidise Radio Phoenix. But this is not where the story begins and ends. Even the most ardent capitalists don’t measure everything in terms of personal returns. There is what is called public service to which every citizen has to make a contribution. It is therefore our collective duty to push the government and our legislators to ensure that this situation is not made worse by the imposition of more repressive, media unfriendly legislation.

We can understand Errol’s frustrations. His is a lonely undertaking – no praise, no support. This is not to say he got into this business and stuck into it for 13 years to be praised, to be commended. Some of us as Errol correctly observed have received a few praises here and there. But we have never been tortured by such things, by what people say about us or think of us. That’s something we don’t feel we have the right to concern ourselves about. It’s as if you were to fight a battle without seeking to achieve a goal – as if we have been struggling all these 18 years not to defend our people’s integrity and try to improve their well-being through good governance but to chalk up honours, to go down in history with awards of all sorts. Is any person’s glory worth all that?

When we remember all the struggles – the tremendous struggles, we have been involved in over the last 18 years and the efforts and sacrifices we have asked our staff to make, trying to defend our country from plunderers of the Frederick Chiluba type and all sorts of other tyrants and crooked characters, it’s clear that we couldn’t have been thinking about our own merits and personal glory even for a second at the course of the sacrifices made by so many people. For us, praise of whatever type was secondary, because it didn’t seem honest for us to ask of an atom of sacrifice from others for the purpose of having that sacrifice result in glory, in improving our image.

We have always thought we are defending certain principles that are of tremendous value at a time of confusion and opportunism in our country, a time when many politicians are feathering their own nests. Therefore, we think that what we are doing is of great importance for the future of our country, but it doesn’t make us believe that the future of our country is entirely dependent on us. What gives us great encouragement is not praises or commendations but to know that we are defending that future and that we are a symbol of that future and of those principles for a country filled with people who are hungry, exploited and suffering.

We have a clear, precise idea of our role, and all of those factors stimulate and encourage us in what we are doing. We think it will be of great value.

This is the way we also see the great work that has been done, that is being done by Errol and his team at Radio Phoenix. And we think that human beings should never draw away from the honest goal they seek and let themselves be influenced by issues of glory, honour, praise or commendation. The work that Errol is doing deserves all our support. Errol was actually calling on all of us to support and defend that work that is being done at Radio Phoenix and other radio stations across the width and breadth of our country. That work deserves support; that work needs support because it is under attack from opportunistic and tyrannical elements. That radio station does not, in truth, belong to Errol and those who work there. It belongs to all of us who benefit from its services and therefore we have a duty to make a contribution to its well-being in any way we can. But for us, the best way is to stop these opportunistic and tyrannical elements from carrying out practices and enacting laws that affect its operations.

Labels: ERROL HICKEY, GOVERNANCE, MEDIA, RADIO PHOENIX

posted by MrK @ 4:04 PM