The latest radio-listenership figures (RAMS, December 2010) confirm Tshwane FM’s status as one of the fastest-growing stations in Gauteng. They show Tshwane FM with 53 000 listeners, a remarkable figure given that the radio station only started broadcasting full-time in late 2005 and only recorded its first listeners in August 2006.

When it first went on air, TUT Top Stereo’s audience were the students and staff on the campus of the Tshwane University of Technology, however, Tshwane FM, now reaches out to all young cosmopolitan listeners within range of its signal. The radio station’s presenters are nearly all TUT students, plus one or two staff members.

Tshwane FM prides itself on its unique music and talk content. The station’s most popular music genres are R & B, hip-hop and house. But presenters have considerable freedom to play their own choice in music and to talk about whatever issues they feel are relevant. Tshwane FM’s format is 60% music and 40% talk. Of the music, the station is committed to between 45% and 50% local content. "Our primary broadcast language is English with periodic deliberate switches into the presenters’ home languages. Effectively Tshwane FM broadcasts the way people speak, using English as a basic language of communication, and slipping into home languages when appropriate," it says.

Tshwane FM has gone a step further and now broadcasts 24/ 7. "We’re confident that Tshwane FM is on track to become the country’s biggest campus-based radio station," it says.