RB has responsibility for accuracy

| Wednesday December 5, 2007 00:00

Hang on there: wasn't Sinatra as American as blueberry pie? Now comes the music and you recognise the unmistakable voice of Bob Marley. If you like Bob Marley you'll listen for the whole hour while between discs the DJ talks about that Sinatra who isn't Frank.

This is what happened last Sunday on Radio Botswana's 9.15 p.m. classical music programme 'For you alone'. The presenter talked about Handel, but not the famous one we all know, while she played music by Mozart without ever telling us what particular pieces they were. By the way, the opening and closing theme music on this programme is by the real Handel, but she didn't mention that.

'For you alone' is an oasis of classical music in Southern Africa. (In Zimbabwe, Jonathan Moyo saw to it that such reminders of the European colonisers' culture disappeared from the airwaves.) It used to be compared by Jimmy Molefhe whose unassuming and loveable manner I still miss. The new presenter should stop bombarding us with irrelevant facts about composers, which she obviously gleans from textbooks, and instead tell us what each item is called and who played it. There is nothing wrong with her choice of music - it's just the prattling that gets on one's nerves.

On another Sunday she persisted in pronouncing Haydn as if the vowel rhymed with maiden rather than tighten. She should really consult an expert or a pronouncing dictionary about such details.
  
You may think this is a minor matter, but Radio Botswana is a public broadcaster and has some responsibility for accuracy. Young students of music are not helped by such misleading information. If this had been broadcast in Britain, the BBC's switchboard would have been overwhelmed with phone calls from listeners, but Radio Botswana's details are tucked away in the blue government section of the telephone book and give no e-mail address, so I guess the presenters lead a peaceful life.
With best regards,

John Schmid
BULAWAYO