The Main Reasons Why Sole Essential Live is Off-Air
At the risk of being vulnerable, I’ll be sharing this bit of truth while maintaining a certain level of transparency (hopefully) without compromising or jeopardizing our current position, professional brand image and future projects in the media & entertainment sector:
That being said, one is truly sad and disappointed to announce that ‘Sole Essential Live’ will no longer be a part of Sedibeng FM’s program line-up.
We’re extremely grateful for all your support and marketing efforts <3 Although we’re equally grateful to Sedibeng FM for (briefly) giving us the opportunity to host on their platform, I’ll still highlight the reasons for our not-so-sudden departure and also risk taking one for the team by sharing a few explicit details about our discussions and their unprofessional conduct:
See, the bitter truth about this whole situation is that we somehow found ourselves and our program being side-lined unfairly – somewhat dismissed, if you would, but I’ll explain everything about in a second.
This entire thing happened shortly after we suddenly got suspended for three weeks after missing only one episode. Mind you, this one particular episode would have not been missed if had the radio station just simply honoured the agreement + terms of conditions of our partnership, instead of failing to do so, not once, but six times consecutively.
Furthermore, we even communicated (about 24 hours before that one particular episode in question) that unfortunately we may be facing a few challenges and somewhat suggested that we may not be coming, but then again, those challenges would have NOT existed if had they simply just played their part and delivered on promises made from the beginning.
Granted, the follow-up may have not been done in a timely fashion – I’ll admit that much and take full responsibility for our actions, in face we did that graciously until things started going south – but to suddenly suspend a team that supposedly has full autonomy without any formal meeting(s), no hearing, and no official warning: NOTHING OF THAT SORT?
Egos aside here; but a random series of vague Facebook messages + some “we will call you” responses whenever we try to get clear and honest answers about our position will just not cut it. I mean, are those the type of answers that we are and/or would’ve been expected to give to our potential sponsors and brand partners, especially if had they confirmed by then?
To make matters worse, when it became quite clear that ‘Sole Essential Live’ would not be going back on their airwaves anytime soon, we started to lose interest and then sent out a little friendly message this past Saturday afternoon requesting a formal meeting – whereby our intentions were to officially end this partnership & go our separate ways without any bridges being burnt whatsoever, but yet again – we were met with total silence. No response, fokol. Even after follow-ups. So basically it’s quite clear that this one bridge had already decided to burn itself. Hence; the decision to create this post.
Nonetheless, in the grand scheme of things, and I’ll try to be very blunt on this one: Sedibeng FM’s lack of professional courtesy, poor management tactics and bad communication habits has brought numerous other dedicated and passionate radio personalities to tears and there are testimonials to back this up.
Not to mention, there have been talks for a while now about the radio station’s ‘poor management systems’ and other depressing issues (which we will not get into in this post) amongst other fellow Vaal-based [notable] DJ’s, and a handful of other community radio stations’ on-air personalities (and/or their representatives), plus a handful of Sedibeng FM’s former employees.
Naturally, one chose to ignore these talks and kept defending the radio station’s brand image because, aside brand loyalty, one genuinely understood that managing such a project of this magnitude is not an easy task at all – especially if you’re fairly new in the broadcast industry & highly under resourced.
Unfortunately, the root of the problem is neither the resources nor any of their on-air personalities (who are very passionate and extremely talented), but rather something else entirely.
In conclusion: it is indeed a blessing in disguise that this all happened at this early stage of the radio show, otherwise it would have been an even greater blow financially. Anyways, that’s the long and short of what happened! I hope you now know what to expect exactly when/if you’re thinking of dealing with that one particular radio station in the Vaal and also, this kind of explains why you’ll hardly ever hear any formal radio adverts playing on that particular frequency. Harsh truth, but it’s the unfiltered reality of this whole situation.
Thank you once again for your continued support. You played a key role in marketing the show by pushing well over 500 personalized posters across various social media platforms.
Hopefully, you’ll continue to show the same kind of support to/for myself, Jabba The Deejay and the rest of the #SoleEssentialLive team when we eventually manage to find ourselves a new home.One Love – Sole!
