Broadcasting during the global pandemic

ABOUT TESSA

During her studies at Stellenbosch University, Tessa managed the local campus radio station and then moved to Johannesburg where she joined SAFM as a producer. She left South Africa for New York to complete a postgraduate degree at Columbia University. Upon her return to Southern Africa, she freelanced for Voice of America, and then relocated to Cape Town.

Remember December 2019? Global news channels were broadcasting images of rapidly

rising hospitals in parts of China amid the spread of a new virus. I vividly remember watching those stories and hearing hosts on CapeTalk reflecting what they were seeing on television screens without realising, at the time, that the same virus was about to wreak havoc by impacting all aspects of our lives.

When I look back at the past two years it seems surreal and exhausting. It also seems shorter, in one sense, because the months spent in hard lockdown have blurred together. But when I look back at my diary and read the detail of the myriad tasks, queries, to-do lists, meetings and back-up plans jotted down I have renewed appreciation for what we have weathered, not only on a personal scale (as a member of a broadcasting team and a nuclear family) but also as part of humanity. Of course, this journey that requires ongoing adaptation and patience is nowhere near over.

As the virus continues to mutate, so must our plans, our thinking and our response to the pandemic.

It has been a massive learning curve to cover this ever-changing global phenomenon while also worrying about staff, preparing for worst-case broadcasting scenarios and caring for loved ones.

While many of our listeners and global citizens were complaining of either losing some work or being furloughed, our work ramped up. At the start of the outbreak in South Africa there was new information daily. Show teams had to have the latest statistics regarding infection and hospitalisation rates updated by leading scientists and epidemiologists. They had to inform our audience of developments in South Africa and international trends and global developments. The impact of the pandemic on the global economy was another broad theme we needed to remain familiar with, not to mention what was happening in Cape Town and in South Africa. Then, we moved to Level 5 lockdown and our teams, like everyone else, had to work from home while trying to conduct home-schooling and adjusting their families to a different lifestyle. Some colleagues had a renewed sense of purpose and said they were glad to feel relevant. Others battled survivor’s guilt as they lost family members and sometimes were retraumatised when they took a call from a grieving listener who wanted to share a similar experience.

Unlike some other industries we could not shut down operations or stop broadcasting when sales dipped and staff became infected. Countless listeners contacted the station to thank our teams for keeping them informed and being their companions, especially when they felt alone during extended periods of isolation.