ABSTRACT
Studies on radio and audiences in the digital age show that a new hybridised ecosystem has arisen, and radio broadcasting has been integrated into networking cultures. This has affected how radio content is consumed and circulated across the globe – and South Africa is no exception. However, abundant literature on radio in South Africa and Africa at large has under-theorised the subject of commercial music radio and audience participation in an increasing networked society. This study attempts to fill that lacuna. The chapter is theoretically informed by the access, interaction, and participation (AIP) model of Carpentier (2011). It explores how two regional commercial music radio stations (YFM and 947) use Twitter as a tool to relate and interact with their respective audiences. Of particular interest is why they are using it, what they are doing with it, and how this affects the on-air content, before, during, and after broadcast, if it does so at all. The chapter demonstrates that commercial music radio listening for these two stations, particularly YFM, is now overlapped by discussions, comments, feedback, and opinions on Twitter, both connected to radio and separate. However, using the AIP model, we question the audience participation levels in content production. We will show that there was in fact no actual audience participation, but only interaction. For 947, Twitter is mostly used as a promotional platform to direct their followers/listeners towards the activities on air.
