Soweto TV, South Africa's first Community TV Station granted a licence for a full year-long run, made South African media history in Orlando West with the switch-on and its first live broadcast on Sunday, July 1.
Soweto TV is a volunteer community television initiative - made by Sowetans for Sowetans, which will evolve into a fully commercial enterprise over the coming year.
The switch-on took place between 16h00 and 18h00 on Sunday at the new Soweto TV studios at Tloreng Primary School, Vilakazi Street, Orlando West.
The station is looking to provide a training platform for all volunteer producers, directors, technical and production staff who would like to help keep this station on air.
Soweto Community TV is drawing on a range of Sowetans who have TV and radio experience, as well as powerful Sowetans who would like to grow their experience in talking to Soweto.
Auditions have brought forward a number of known and unknown candidates. Presenters who invaded viewers homes on Sunday night included
Masello Motana (Ntombi on
Home Affairs) and Charlie.
Soweto Community TV is an interactive "talk radio on television" concept, where both presenters and producers of all shows engage with Soweto viewers about issues relevant to Sowetans.
Soweto TV is about Soweto every day, in every household, and involves volunteer producers, directors and researchers driving the station content and production until it becomes a commercially viable entity.
Programming line-up includes gospel music, spiritual talk, sports, entertainment, women’s talk, Soweto Today (current affairs around Soweto), live news feed every hour on the hour from The Sowetan Newspaper; and a Youth interactive show.
Soweto Community TV will go live every weekday from 18h00 to midnight, with repeats packaged the rest of the day. The weekend schedule includes a live sports block from 12h00-17h00 and on Sunday - Gospel and Spiritual Talk.
The independent channel will allow anyone in Soweto, the Ekurhuleni region or the West Rand to tune in.
If you’d like to be a part of the Soweto community, watch Soweto Community Television for further details.
If you'd like to know how to tune into Soweto Community TV follow the easy steps below.
Step 1: Press "menu" on your TV or remote control
Step 2: Go to search
Step 3: Let it search on UHF band
Step 4: Skip e.tv channel while searching
Step 5: Press "stop" when you see Soweto TV Channel
Step 6: Store the channel
Have any of our Soweto readers watched the new station yet? If so, what are your impressions?