please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article is written like a personal reflection or opinion essay that states the wikipedia editor s personal feelings about a topic rather than the opinions of experts . please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style . november 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . november 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message learn how and when to remove this template message ukhozi fm broadcast area south africa fm slogan uyawuzw umoya frequency multiple first air date 1960 format adult contemporary 1 owner sabc ukhozi fm is a south african national radio station based in durban kwa zulu natal that caters to the needs of the zulu speaking community . 2 founded in 1960 2 it is the largest radio station in south africa by listenership . 3 the station has a broadcasting licence from icasa . 4 ukhozi means eagle in zulu . 1 contents 1 coverage areas & frequencies 2 broadcast languages 3 broadcast time 4 target audience 5 listenership figures 6 history 6.1 background 6.2 the second world war the forties 6.2.1 radio services 6.3 apartheid era the fifties 6.4 apartheid era the sixties 6.4.1 radio drama and the revolution 6.5 apartheid era the seventies 6.5.1 separation of language services 6.6 political change the eighties 6.6.1 radio metro now metro fm 6.7 the nineties 6.7.1 from content to commercial 6.7.2 radio content monitoring 6.7.3 madiba magic 6.8 ukhozi fm the new millennium and beyond 7 references 8 external links coverage areas & frequencies edit kwazulu natal 1 gauteng 1 mpumalanga 1 north eastern parts of eastern cape 1 eastern parts of free state 1 eastern parts of north west 1 southern parts of limpopo 1 coverage areas & frequencies 2 tx station mhz pol donnybrook 92 7 v durban 90 8 h v durbannorth 92 5 v eshowe 93 4 v glencoe 93 1 v greytown 91 7 v ladysmith 91 0 h mooi river 92 2 v nongoma 92 9 v pietermaritzburg 91 4 v port shepstone 91 3 v the bluff 92 0 h ubombo 92 4 v vryheid 91 2 v broadcast languages edit isizulu 2 broadcast time edit 24 7 5 target audience edit the station caters to people ranging from young to elderly however it focuses on the youth . 1 listenership figures edit estimated listenership 6 7 day ave. mon fri oct 2014 7 859 000 4 787 000 aug 2014 7 616 000 4 585 000 jun 2014 7 623 000 4 671 000 nov 2013 7 711 000 4 705 000 aug 2013 7 426 000 4 637 000 jun 2013 7 122 000 4 437 000 may 2013 7 132 000 4 450 000 feb 2013 7 031 000 4 336 000 dec 2012 6 798 000 4 194 000 oct 2012 6 889 000 4 217 000 aug 2012 7 289 000 4 461 000 jun 2012 7 188 000 4 385 000 history edit background edit from its humble beginnings as a one minute war time report service to its current status as the second biggest radio station in the world ukhozi fm s history is a long and colourful one . ukhozi fm not just as a radio station that broadcasts in isizulu but is an archive of the battle for a state independent voice in broadcasting a space for preservation and creation of a zulu identity negotiating old and new world influences as a south african broadcasting corporation radio station each station is obligated to fulfil the mandate of the sabc limited . ukhozi fm has a history of delivering on its mandate of entertaining informing and educating the public . with regards to entertainment the station has promoted local content more so than any other has . this includes the first recording of ladysmith black mambazo in 1960 at its durban studios promoting the soul brothers abafana baseqhudeni mahlathini and mahotela queens to name a few . the station has supported many music festivals around the country . ukhozi fm is a station that has promoted traditional maskandi music through its programming that was championed by welcome nzimande who later became the station manager since his retirement . through its broadly based programmes news and current affairs and talk shows the station has grown its listenership to well over 7.5 million listeners . the second world war the forties edit radio as it developed in south africa in the 1930s became the space for the propagation of certain ideals and values from a central source . whilst the space for opposing views existed prior to 1939 the start of the second world war narrowed the scope for what ideas could and couldn t be transmitted . the economic influence and power of the english speaking sect in south africa resulted in radio being used as a tool for pro british wartime reports . in an attempt to make this propaganda as far reaching as possible led to the native affairs department commissioning charles mpanza to the south african broadcasting corporation sabc to transmit these wartimes reports in isizulu over the english medium wave service . he was later joined by h.i.e. dhlomo and then k.e. masinga who became the first permanently employed black broadcaster of the sabc on 23 december 1941 . masinga expanded the territory isizulu broadcasting occupied . since the material that was broadcast was pre recorded masinga was able to capture pieces of isizulu culture mainly music izibongo praise poems and amahubo isizulu anthems at multiple sites and then broadcast the alongside the wartime reports diversifying the use of the airtime given to isizulu broadcasting . his efforts eventually created a space large enough for the airing of pieces as extensive as izinganekwane folklore with the airing of chief above and chief below a musical play based on a zulu legend and co written with high tracey being aired in 1945 . radio services edit following the end of the second world war in 1945 the native affairs department withdrew its funding of black broadcasting no longer having the need for a pro war propaganda tool . it was also not economically feasible to continue the black services as only a few black people could afford the radio license and receiver necessary for receipt of transmission . however having noted the power of radio and its ability to dispense ideologies in a climate where urban black people were beginning to vocalise their political ideologies and concerns the sabc reinstated black services in 1946 . isizulu broadcasts were continued and grew to include a wider variety of material upon the official increase of airtime to 30 minutes per day . apartheid era the fifties edit the year 1950 saw the introduction of the population register act and the group areas act which were pivotal in the division of space according to race with the group areas act creating urban spaces for white persons . in the years 1951 1952 the focus shifted to the erasure of black spots from those urban areas with the bantu building workers act limiting the areas in which black professionals could practice their trades . the bantu authorities act simultaneously took away the unified black voice by abolishing the native representative council and implementing separation within the black community by creating rural homelands along language and ethnicity . the native laws amendment act and the natives abolition of passes and co ordination of documents act further restricted the black man s entry into urban areas . much of the change affected urban areas and therefore the rediffusion connection of homes to the sabc via cables of black urban areas . this rediffusion began in soweto in 1952 along with an increase in broadcast times 06 00am to 08 30am 14 15pm to 16 00pm and 18 00pm to 21 00pm for the three main languages namely isixhosa sesotho and isizulu . music drama and news remained the backbone of these broadcasts . the years 1953 to 1958 saw the addition of jabavu dube mofolo and noordgesig being added to broadcast network to accommodate the effects of the implementation of the bantu education act and the separate amenities act . increased airtime along with growing listenership which included the increasing black labour force as well at the educated elite in urban areas which had access to radio transmission allowed for greater experimentation with the material being broadcast . the catalogue of isizulu literature increased as well as the variety of music genres on rotation which then started to include american jazz township jive traditional music and even gospel music . this expansion of materials allowed radio to cater for the tastes of both the city elite as well as the lesser polished former farm boy workforce . apartheid era the sixties edit the strangling of oppositional political voices coupled with the unfurling of the euphemisms used for the apartheid policy which revealed itself as a means to create a hierarchical separately developed state marked the 1960s . the growing volume of the black critical political voices of resistance during the 1950s especially through the african national congress anc and her offspring the pan african congress pac along with the success of similar liberation movements across africa from the grips of colonialism made the need for a service that dispensed apartheid ideology to the black community a necessity as opposed to a luxury for the government of the time . financial flagging which led to requests for subsidies from the government the appointment of the head of the broederbond the afrikaner brotherhood driving the apartheid policies piet meyer to the position of chairman of the sabc board in 1960 and the subsequent squeezing out of gideon roos in 1961 killed any hope the sabc had of maintaining any kind of impartiality as a broadcaster . furthermore the sharpeville massacre on 21 march 1960 in which a peaceful protest organised by the pac against pass laws led to the death of 69 protestors not only resulted in the banning of the anc and pac movements ; it inspired a clamp down on political activity with the government liberally interpreting the term communism as defined in the suppression of communism act13 to mean a carte blanche exiling and banning of any politically oppositional voice . radio bantu the amassing of these considerations gave birth to an apolitical black radio service named radio bantu which came into being on 1 june 1960 by way of the broadcasting amendment act14 . its simultaneous creation with that of the approval of transmission over an fm system rather than short or medium wave service was no coincidence . radio bantu was to transmit in 5 languages isizulu isixhosa northern and southern sesotho and setswana to the respective ethnic groups in their respectively designated areas in pursuit of the separate development policy . the vhf fm system which connects with landlines and transmits as the crow flies provided the sabc with the capacity to control the range of transmissions connecting ethnically common areas and blocking out signals from other ethnicities stations . following the building of the first fm transmitter in brixton johannesburg in 1961 the first locally manufactured fm receiver was marketed in 1963 . these cheap portable gadgets which ran on batteries and were accessible to both the rural and urban listener broadening the reach of apartheid ideology cut out the possibility of receiving hostile i.e. politically conscious foreign broadcasts which were picked up by the unpredictable more expensive short wave receivers . radio bantu increased its broadcast time to 17.5 hours in 1962 ; over double the 8hrs they had initially received