A Trip to Johannesburg, Cape Town and Radio Days South…

Radio Days Africa recently took place from July 05 – 07 in South Africa ! Jan, overseeing our Classic Hits, Urban, Urban AC libraries, and Nadine went to Johannesburg for the conference. I feel like South Africa is an interesting place, beside Safari’s especially imaging wise, so I asked Jan for some impressions.  How’s the food, how’s the imaging and how do people live there? Enter Jan!

Jan, give us some general background info about the trip, about Radio Days Africa?

Radio Days Africa were in Johannesburg. It was a 3 day Conference with different panels about different topics all around radio. Started from music over social media and video to production and hosting. My part was to lead a masterclass about radio imaging on friday. I produced a music promo and showed different production techniques for the Urban format. Nadine Ellman, our Director of International Sales, went with me and also organized the panel. After the conference on Friday I visited Cape Town for two days before I went back home to Stuttgart.

What about the panels, what did you discover?

There were a lot of great panels, like the one from Chris Price who’s Head of Music BBC 1 and BBC 1 Xtra. It was pretty interesting to see how they search for new music. Martin Liss did two sessions about the importance of social media for radio stations. From local speakers I learned a lot about radio in South Africa and other countries in Africa.

What is the country like?

South Africa is amazing. I arrived there with mixed feelings because you often hear much about poverty, crime and how dangerous it is. But I always felt safe and never had the feeling it is that way. All the people I met were super friendly and  so nice. During my stay I got to know a lot of people and had an awesome time.  My advice is to  inform yourself before your trip, where to go and stay, then it isn’t too big of a problem. It’s like any major city in the world, there is good and bad areas, avoid the bad areas and be find :)..Unfortunately, it is winter in South Africa right now, so I missed the great south africa summer weather.
Any New food findings?
South Africa is well known for their BBQs especially the Cape Town area, where it’s called Braai. I had some great steaks from the grill, but also great salads, maize puree (pap) and dried meat (biltong). I also tried Tripe made out of first or second stomach of a cow.

How do people live?

The people I met do not live that different from how we live in Europe or the Us. But that’s just the feeling I had after 1 week in South Africa. I heard a lot of people still suffering from consequences of the apartheid and race separation. There is a lot of poverty and crime in certain parts in South Africa. They told me it’s getting better, but it will take a lot of time to eliminate all the social differences, cliches and the economical problems totally.