These took place from the Durban studios of the South African Broadcasting Company (SABC), in 194... more These took place from the Durban studios of the South African Broadcasting Company (SABC), in 1941. Innovations in microphone technology, moving from carbon microphones in the 1920s to ribbon microphones by the 1940s, gave fuller timbre to the voice of the radio presenter, and considerably reduced the distractions of unintended noise. Such technological evolutions added to the impact of the voice that would sound first in Zulu on the radio. In the critical cultural scholarship of the region, voice has not received as much scholarly attention as other instruments of information, by which models of technological administration were elaborated, in relation to the racially segregated state and its particular vision of society. This paper is concerned not so much with the fact that African audiences were now welcomed as listeners of broadcasts, but rather the nature of the relationship between themselves and the technology of broadcasting. "Zoooloo!", K.E. Masinga exclaimed, standing below the microphone. The sound of his greeting streamed through the electric wires of the machinery. It sine-waved through the ether and eventually shot through the radio-receiver in someone's home. But who was he greeting? There were no listeners of Zulu broadcasts in those days. It did not matter that it was two days before Christmas; no one expected to hear Zulu on the radio that evening. The drawn-out greeting seemed to express an invitation to someone who was far away. Masinga must have stood still for the cue to speak. 1 Any sudden movement or change in breathing could cause a big "pop" in the sound. Although loud, his greeting is deadened by the sound-absorbing foam that lines the walls of the recently built Durban studio (Dawes, 1973, pp. 124-125). But by now it is too late to pause and ask the engineer "Did it work?" or to say "Can we try it again, baas?"
These took place from the Durban studios of the South African Broadcasting Company (SABC), in 194... more These took place from the Durban studios of the South African Broadcasting Company (SABC), in 1941. Innovations in microphone technology, moving from carbon microphones in the 1920s to ribbon microphones by the 1940s, gave fuller timbre to the voice of the radio presenter, and considerably reduced the distractions of unintended noise. Such technological evolutions added to the impact of the voice that would sound first in Zulu on the radio. In the critical cultural scholarship of the region, voice has not received as much scholarly attention as other instruments of information, by which models of technological administration were elaborated, in relation to the racially segregated state and its particular vision of society. This paper is concerned not so much with the fact that African audiences were now welcomed as listeners of broadcasts, but rather the nature of the relationship between themselves and the technology of broadcasting. "Zoooloo!", K.E. Masinga exclaimed, standing below the microphone. The sound of his greeting streamed through the electric wires of the machinery. It sine-waved through the ether and eventually shot through the radio-receiver in someone's home. But who was he greeting? There were no listeners of Zulu broadcasts in those days. It did not matter that it was two days before Christmas; no one expected to hear Zulu on the radio that evening. The drawn-out greeting seemed to express an invitation to someone who was far away. Masinga must have stood still for the cue to speak. 1 Any sudden movement or change in breathing could cause a big "pop" in the sound. Although loud, his greeting is deadened by the sound-absorbing foam that lines the walls of the recently built Durban studio (Dawes, 1973, pp. 124-125). But by now it is too late to pause and ask the engineer "Did it work?" or to say "Can we try it again, baas?"
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