Being the first person to celebrate 35 years with Algoa FM is an achievement managing director Alfie Jay says is due to the inspiration and support he has had from his colleagues, peers, and now staff over the years.
Jay joined Algoa FM at the beginning of 1990, four years after it started broadcasting as a regional SABC radio station. It was privatised in October 1996, and is now the leading regional commercial radio station with a footprint stretching from the Garden Route to the Wild Coast and inland through the Karoo.
His career started at the broadcasting coalface as production assistant, then news reporter/journalist, technical manager, programme manager, and operations director.
He spent 15 years behind the microphone for Algoa FM before choosing management over being a presenter in 2006.
As part of the management team, Jay has helped build a culture of “fun is a serious business”, which resulted in Algoa FM winning the coveted Station of the Year Award in 2018.
As managing director since March 2019, Jay has been instrumental in transforming the station into a profitable, multi-media brand.
He credits the success of navigating the impact of the Covid 19 lockdowns and the rapidly changing media landscape to the strength of his “Team of Champions” and their shared passion for radio.
The Algoa FM radio business returned to pre-Covid levels of profitability within just two years of the lockdown “through an empathetic approach to client needs, tactical partnerships, and strategic business, as well as community collaborations.
“Thanks to the diverse positions I have had the privilege of holding, I know this business backwards. What management taught me over many years is that leadership is a choice and that you cannot be successful without good people,” he says.
Three of the people who Jay says inspire him to “to do better and more” as managing director, are an administrator who joined the company as a cleaner in 1997, a temporary receptionist who today is Algoa FM’s leading salesperson, and an intern who joined in 2016 and now heads up the station’s outside broadcast team and acts as the company’s health and safety officer.
“Many of my other champions ensure that Algoa FM is recognized as a trusted advertising solution by clients, a strong and engaged community partner by stakeholders, and for award-winning, entertaining content by our listeners,” he says.
One of his biggest achievements as managing director, says Jay, is to have taken Algoa FM from a Level 6 to a Level 2 B-BBEE trading company in a space of six years.
“Transformation is to compliance what leadership is to management. It’s a choice – not a job,” says Jay.
It has been a busy six years. The business has relocated three times and navigated through the Covid disruptions and load shedding, while “importantly, building trust in the brand while increasing profitability.
The station’s team of presenters – most of whom were appointed by him – consists of several award-winners, television stars, and people with international experience.
They keep Algoa FM’s audience engaged across multiple channels. “When I started 35 years ago, radio was something that stood on top of your fridge, in the lounge, or in the dashboard of your car. Today listeners are platform agnostic in that they can stream Algoa FM through multiple platforms or just listen to us on their tried and tested free to air FM radio.”
Jay believes change is best managed by focusing on the “how” rather than the “what.”
“Our ‘what’ is to continue to be the leading and most admired media brand.
“Our ‘how’ is to engage in the facts, to do so fairly, accurately and within context, all the while serving the interests of nation building and a better life for all.
“This is also our ‘why’ and what I believe makes us the leading and most admired media brand, and I am proud to lead this team of champions.”
For Jay, growth in leadership does not only come from what you do for a living, but also by serving the sector in which you are engaged and the community at large.
An active member of the National Association of Broadcasters since 1997, he previously served at executive level; was the lead radio consultant who acquired the commercial radio license for M-Power FM (Rise FM); the current co-chair of the Broadcast Research Council of South Africa; the board lead on safety and security at the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber; and a member of the social and ethics committee of AME Ltd, Algoa FM’s listed holding company.
In 2022, he was inducted into South Africa’s Radio Hall of Fame for his contributions to the industry.
Looking to Algoa FM’s future Jay says that “success isn’t going to come from major shifts in technology or big achievements, but rather from the passionate execution of mutually beneficial strategies built on values, integrity, and trust.”
Video: Tuned in for 35 years
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Alan Straton
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