Swazi Music Radio (SMR) was a South African

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

broadcasting from

Swaziland Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

between 1972 and 1978. It was initially established as Swaziland Commercial Radio but was soon taken over by the South African entrepreneurs Issie and Natie Kirsh as a competitor to

LM Radio LM Radio is a radio station based in Maputo, Mozambique. Historically it was a shortwave station broadcasting to South Africa and Rhodesia from Lourenço Marques, the colonial era name of Maputo, hence the name "Lourenço Marques Radio" from 193 ...

which broadcast from nearby Mozambique. The studios were based in central

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

and the transmitters were in

Sandlane Sandlane is the westernmost town in Eswatini. It is located close to the border with South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the sou ...

in Swaziland, just across the eastern border of South Africa, not far from the small town of Amsterdam. Programmes were recorded in Johannesburg and the tapes taken by road to the transmitting station for broadcast the next day. It had been hoped that the

medium wave Medium wave (MW) is the part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the daytime ...

transmission would reach the Johannesburg area during the day, however long distance medium wave propagation in the former

Transvaal Province The Province of the Transvaal ( af, Provinsie van Transvaal), commonly referred to as the Transvaal (; ), was a province of South Africa from 1910 until 1994, when a new constitution subdivided it following the end of apartheid. The name "Trans ...

was poor and only really effective at night. Daytime listening was on

short wave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the High frequency, high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (10 ...

. During the years it operated, SMR recruited many of the announcers who had been on

and SABC stations, among them Gary Edwards, Frank Sanders,

John Berks John Berks (born John Berkowitz; 24 August 1941 – 4 June 2022) was a well-known South African radio presenter. Known for his role as a breakfast presenter on Radio 702 in Johannesburg. His broadcast career covered many countries in Southern Af ...

, Darryl Jooste, Leon Fourie, Barry O'Dee and Gordon Hoffman. Another former LM radio announcer George Wayne also returned briefly from Australia to join the station. (Stan Katz, who later went on to become one of South Africa's most prominent broadcasters, joined the station in its early days as a junior programming assistant). Overall, SMR was not commercially successful as it could not compete with the superior technical transmission of Radio 5 (now

5FM 5FM is a South African FM radio station that follows a Top 40 music format and is owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), South Africa's public broadcaster. SABC announced the appointment of Mr. JD Mostert as Business Mana ...

) which took over from LM Radio when that station closed in October 1975 and relocated from Mozambique to South Africa. Operated by the South African Broadcasting Corporation, Radio 5 was heard via local medium wave transmitters in all the major cities in South Africa and also had good short wave coverage. When SMR eventually closed, the studios and transmitters were used to broadcast three ethnic radio services - Radio SR, targeted to the

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

African market, Radio Paralello 27 which broadcast in

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

and Radio Truro aimed at

Indian South Africans Indian South Africans are South Africans who descend from indentured labourers and free migrants who arrived from British India during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The majority live in and around the city of Durban, making it one of the l ...

under the direction of radio veterans Rob Vickers and Zena Watkins. These stations all closed down in the 1980s. When commercial broadcasting licences were issued in the South African 'homeland' of

Bophuthatswana Bophuthatswana (, meaning "gathering of the Tswana people"), officially the Republic of Bophuthatswana ( tn, Riphaboliki ya Bophuthatswana; af, Republiek van Bophuthatswana), was a Bantustan (also known as "Homeland"; an area set aside for mem ...

, SMR's directors Natie and Issie Kirsh established Channel 702 which became

Radio 702 702 is a commercial FM radio station based in Johannesburg, South Africa, broadcasting on FM 92.7 and FM 106 to the greater Gauteng province. The station is also webcast via its website. It claims to be Johannesburg's number one news and talk ...

and then Talk Radio 702. The first Channel 702 transmissions originated from the studios of the original Swazi Music Radio.

External links

The Olga Patricia Transmitters in South Africa
Radio stations in Eswatini Radio stations established in 1972 Radio stations disestablished in 1978 1972 establishments in Africa 1978 disestablishments in Africa 1972 establishments in Swaziland {{SouthAfrica-radio-station-stub