Media
The Northern Cape’s vast distances are well suited to radio, but newspapers continue to be distributed across the province.
The distribution teams of major newspapers printed for Media24 in Bloemfontein and Cape Town cover a lot of tarmac in getting their newspapers to the far reaches of the Northern Cape. Volksblad’s drivers put in nearly 19 000km, while Die Burger’s clock up more than 25 000km on a daily basis. Volksblad’s circulation end point is Kakamas, while Die Burger is delivered right up to the Namibian border at Alexander Bay.
Kimberley has its own newspaper institution. The Diamond Fields Advertiser (DFA) first saw the light of day in 1878 and is now in the Independent Newspapers stable. With a daily circulation of just over 10 000 and readership topping 77 000, the DFA is an influential and trusted source of news and information.
A number of community newspapers operate in the Northern Cape. Caxton produces the Gemsbok Advertiser in Upington while Media24 has free newspapers in Kimberley (Express and Noordkaap) and Kuruman, Postmasburgand Kathu (Kalahari Bulletin).
Radio
The South African Broadcasting Corporation has several national channels serving the Northern Cape (including Umhlobo Wenene, Motsweding FM and Radio 2000) but also has a station that broadcasts in the languages of the San people, !Xun and Khwe. X-K FM also uses Afrikaans.
Since becoming a commercial radio station in 1996, OFM has massively increased its footprint and now broadcasts to the Free State, North West and southern Gauteng, and to the eastern half of the Northern Cape. Owned by AME and the Kagiso Trust, OFM targets LSM 7 to 10, age 25-49, and claims more than half-a-million listeners in that band.
The western half of the Northern Cape is covered by Kfm, a commercial radio station based in Cape Town which aims to play ‘adult contemporary’ music.
Community radio stations in the Northern Cape include:
• Radio Kaboesna – based in Calvinia, Kaboesna targets Afrikaans, English and Xhosa speakers
• Radio Riverside – targeting Xhosa, Setswana, English and Afrikaans speakers in the north
• Radio Teemaneng – broadcasts from Kimberley in Tswana, English, Xhosa and Afrikaans to a weekly audience of 73 000
