OFM transcends and remains within reach

The former president of the Coca-Cola Company, Robert Woodruff, focused the Coca-Cola brand towards the strategy ‘Within an arm's reach of desire’. This was to ensure that the beverage was accessible to anyone, at anytime, anywhere around the world. It is from this philosophy that OFM and its parent company, Central Media Group, derived our strategy to be always be ‘within reach’ of their audience.

OFM’s aggregated eco-system exists terrestrially across four provinces and 20 transmitters, digitally on our website, mobile, and desktop apps, across three streams, as well as social media and third-party platforms such as LiSTN, Open View, and audio streaming services.

As an agri-proud Central South African brand, within this ecosystem exists the lifestyles of those over the age of 25, within the socio-economic range of SEM 7 to 10. The brand exists to reflect this region’s way of life through music, information and entertainment presented by personalities who reflect and lead this way of life.

OFM’s licence conditions, determined by ICASA, set Afrikaans and English as the two languages that the brand may officially broadcast in. Geographically, Afrikaans remains the second-most spoken language in the Vaal, the Northern Cape, North West, and the Free State. It is from these insights and the ICASA prerequisite that OFM has derived our strategy of ‘Afrikaans first’, as a means of achieving the most success from our audience.

Terrestrial broadcast

OFM’s coverage extends from Upington to Bethlehem, and from Lichtenburg to Colesburg, covering the Free State, North West, the Northern Cape, as well as southern Gauteng. This terrain is equivalent to a landmass the size of the United Kingdom or New Zealand. Eleven national roads dissect the terrain, which lead to Johannesburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London, Cape Town, the West Coast, and Namibia.

Digital

OFM is presented online at ofm.co.za, on a privately developed mobile and desktop app, all of which stream three channels: OFM, OFM Stasie2 and OFM Extra. OFM Stasie2 is an all-Afrikaans music-streaming platform that offers music in the country’s third most spoken language after Zulu and Xhosa. OFM Extra is a miscellaneous platform that is commercially available to those who wish to impermanently stream their own commercial content. However, for times when no commercial activity is streamed on OFM Extra, the brand’s most successful dance product – The Music Man Mix – is streamed 24/7.

Podcasts, considered the fastest growing media format in the world, provide additional opportunities for OFM’s audiences to connect, consume, and indulge in content that is in their own language and presented by familiar, national and local personalities. OFM’s podcast offering extends from its own locally generated content, to podcasts curated by the American network and publisher, Wondery.

In September 2023, OFM/CMG’s parent company, African Media Entertainment (AME), launched LiSTN audio app, which serves audio content from its own properties (and others) to audio enthusiasts, introducing audiences to a diverse selection of audio that ranges from radio to podcasts, and from playlists to streaming options. The app offers AME, OFM and associated brands the chance of being discovered. The AME LiSTN app lists its subsidiaries, OFM, Algoa FM, Moneyweb, OFM Stasie2, Simply Smooth, Simply RnB, and Simply Gospel, as some of its many content offerings.

NTR (Non-Traditional Revenue)

While defined as neither a platform nor a medium, radio’s ability to connect extends further than its terrestrial and digital offerings. OFM’s non-traditional revenue model has provided solutions for clients, personal engagement with audiences, generated revenue, and carried the brand’s CSI objective beyond expectations. The below-the-line activity is an additional means of connecting with audiences and provides an opportunity for commercial activity with personal engagement.

Throughout its 37 years, OFM has remained Central South Africa’s primary commercial broadcaster and the sound of Central South Africa. The learnings of over three and a half decades, coupled with decisive leadership, has contributed to the brand transcending into an Artificial Intelligence-driven society to meet the opportunities presented by the digital age. The OFM view is not on where radio begins and ends, but on where radio terminates, and whether terrestrially or digitally, the brand remains WITHIN REACH of a modern community and delivers a quality audience to its commercial partners to remain number one in Central South Africa.

Tim Thabethe is the Programme Manager for OFM, the Sound of Your Life.