The Amsalu Podcast
Welcome to The Amsalu Podcast—a raw and authentic space where faith meets everyday conversation. Join Amsalu and a dynamic new co-host as they dive into the world of media, Christian perspectives, and Christ-centered insights. This podcast is all about genuine and unfiltered conversations—the meaningful, the mundane, and everything in between. As Amsalu and the co-host grow more comfortable in their space, you’ll experience conversations that invite you into deeper reflections and community. Tune in and be part of a journey that brings faith to the forefront of everyday life.
The Amsalu Podcast
How One Engineer Turned Radio Into Ministry
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A radio in a sewing room convinced David there had to be a person living behind the wall, feeding the music and sending voices into the house. That childhood wonder didn’t fade. It became a decades-long journey through electrical engineering, Christian growth, and the gritty reality of building stations when the odds and the regulations weren’t friendly.
We talk about what Christian radio looked like when South African broadcasting was tightly controlled, why shortwave stations from outside the country shaped faith and perspective, and how FM changed expectations overnight. David shares the frustration of trying to create youth-friendly Christian programming when “the pop stations didn’t want the message” and “the Christian stations didn’t want the youth sound,” plus how theological training and hands-on ministry helped him bridge that gap with better craft and deeper purpose.
Then we get practical: community radio, the dream of “Radio Peace” in a tense city, and KNI Radio’s wild rhythm of one-month event licenses that still managed to reach whole valleys. We also wrestle with today’s digital media and algorithm-driven feeds, and why David insists radio only works when it stays person-to-person, with tools that support human connection instead of replacing it.
If you care about Christian broadcasting, community radio, media ministry, or starting a podcast with purpose, this one will give you both history and direction. Subscribe, share this with a friend building in media, and leave a review with the biggest idea you’re taking from the conversation.
Welcome And Opening Prayer
SPEAKER_01All right.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01Welcome. Welcome to Absalu Podcast.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, Judah.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So yeah, I like to start the episode with a bit of prayer and close it off sometimes with prayer. So if we can start with that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Lord Jesus, as we come before you this morning, we just want to thank you, Lord, for this time, this opportunity. And we pray, Lord, that um you be in the room.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Lord, we thank you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. We thank you for kids as well. But um, more than anything, Lord, we invite you into this conversation and we ask that um your your name be praised. May you be praised in this time. And uh may we have lots of fun in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
David's Story And Early Life
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, this has been a few, I think I can say now a few years in the making. Um I think since since the first time we came up here to the berg, I'd wanted to, I mean, that's where the podcast journey started, and I'd wanted to interview you. Um, primarily because a lot of what I do, a lot of what um you've seen KG and I get into um aligns with what you've done for the past few decades. And so yeah, I'm very grateful for this opportunity. Um and uh yeah, so in starting with it, uh who is David? And um yeah, just a brief, brief, brief upbringing. Where are you from?
SPEAKER_00I'm I grew up in KZN. I lived most of my life here. I grew up through um I was born in the 50s, grew up through the 60s and 70s. I was in Cape Town for four years of the 70s, it was a great four years. And uh we lived in the UK for two years, late 70s, early 80s. Um I I yeah, I've I'm the father of uh four children and now the grandfather of uh twenty. Oh wow. No, not twenty, it's ten.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome, you know. Um and then and then more so, can you take us back about 40 years? How did your journey in radio begin?
SPEAKER_00My journey in radio began further back than 40 years. Um as a child, I was fascinated by the radio in my mother's sewing room. I was quite convinced that there was somebody that lived behind the wall.
SPEAKER_01It's little box.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Well, he spoke through the box, but I knew he couldn't fit in it. So he must live there, and I just didn't know who fed him and how he managed to play such beautiful music. So um, and then as as I grew up, I uh realized that the sounds that came out of that little box, I could tune them in from all over the world, uh, from communist China and Russia, from um, you know, South America and and all over the world, and I could listen to these voices speaking different languages and English and uh hear all sorts of different viewpoints. Of course, that was the days of um kind of growing tensions in South Africa, and there were many people who wanted to uh tell us South Africans uh what we were doing wrong, and it was very interesting to get all those views and to try and make sense of it all.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Wow, okay. So so it it it it stemmed from this curiosity about this box. Yes. And then you discovered it has frequencies and stations.
SPEAKER_00Yes. So I I came into it really from the technical side. I then went on uh to study electrical engineering um and uh that is that was my approach. It was only after I'd grown as a Christian and uh saw my role and responsibility and calling um as a child of God that I started seeing the potential uh for Christian content on radio. And I started tuning in at international radio stations, um HCJB from Quito, Ecuador, and Trans World Radio from Monte Carlo, and uh FIBA from the Philippines, and I I just I got a whole um inspiration from what could be done. And God spoke to me through messages I heard on the radio as well. Um so that was a lot of my Christian growth.
SPEAKER_01That's amazing, and like I'm just thinking of of of of what you said, like um the inspiration came from all these different places.
Christian Radio Under Government Control
SPEAKER_01Was Christian radio something that was prominent in South Africa? Was it given also the the time you were living in?
SPEAKER_00No. I mean that this was part of the attraction. It it was uh it didn't exist. Oh wow um because all radio for South Africa was controlled by the government um and there was only the SABC within the country. So if you wanted to listen to anything else, it came from outside. And uh yeah, you there were all sorts of things from from outside, and including Christian radio. And um the first Christian radio station, well, we had Radio Pulpit, which um had Christian airtime on a government station. Um but then uh the independent Christian radio came with uh Trans World Radio in Swaziland um in the 1970s. Oh.
SPEAKER_01That is who you got me curious about my homeland, Swaziland.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yeah, that was I I I visited there on a number of occasions in the 1970s, um seeing the radio station come into being and and visiting it. I even applied for a teaching post in Swaziland. I mean, it was also part of the attraction to get out of the apartheid government in South Africa, um, but I couldn't escape uh compulsory military and I couldn't get permission to go and work outside the country.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And okay, I think you have touched a bit on it, but like what did Christian radio look like back then compared to today?
SPEAKER_00Um Yeah, it was very uh things were very different. Uh well I think the biggest change has been um digital media and uh the the that anyone can actually produce anything, you know, a message can send a message instantly to anyone anywhere in the world. And this is I mean that's only been in the last few years. Um but it developed uh you know, Trans World Radio from Swaziland was only available on shortwave and medium wave at night, but it wasn't clear reception. Yeah. Um Radio Pulpit was quite limited in what uh they could do. It it was um kind of fitted into it was part of the SABC empire, and so it was tainted by that to some extent, although there was a lot of good work also done by Radio Pulpit. Um and you know, gradually uh th they were pushed out. Um so it uh it there's been a development over the years.
SPEAKER_01And um, I mean, we've had we've had a few ongoing conversations around content and content structure, and I'm curious as to um the the the content of radio back then. You know, was it was it what style of was it preachers over the whole time?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, look, radio for growing up, um, you know, through my student days and school and so on, uh everyone used to listen to LM radio, all the young people. Um so this came from uh Mozambique and was independent radio. We listened to it on shortwave. Um so everything that happened in the pop scene was on LM radio.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um so that was uh and then trans world radio came in more or less at the time that uh you know people started moving away from shortwave because the government then introduced FM and it people got used to the the clear reception on FM. And um we also at that time had the homeland radio stations, um Capitol Radio and 702 that were also independent and were broadcast from uh areas within South Africa that were not under the apartheid government. So um and then uh the Christian radio came in on that, but was was still Swaziland. Um it was really a sh a short wave, uh mainly uh although it medium wave at night, but medium wave reception was never very satisfactory. Yeah. Uh it was um scratchy and crackly.
SPEAKER_01Oh man. It's crazy now. Like you would like I'm I'm not I'm sure a lot of people aren't aware of what FM, AM, yeah, all these different things.
SPEAKER_00But we're just used to clear sound, which you know didn't uh it it was a you know a privilege in in those days.
SPEAKER_01We immediately look at the device like is there something broken in the device? Is there yeah? Yeah, okay.
Youth Focus And Building Stations
SPEAKER_01No, that's excellent. Um and um was there a moment early on when you realized this was ministry and not just media for you?
SPEAKER_00Um yeah, there's a whole history, well, a whole thing here because when I I committed my life to the Lord uh in high school, the kind of the end of my high school years, um then I sort of wondered, do I because I I was reasonably good at the science and maths and so on, so and interested in engineering. So it was obvious that I should study engineering at university. Where does my Christian calling come into that? So, but I continued, I studied engineering um and graduated, uh, and then started working in electronics communications engineering field. But I still I started then producing radio programs. I was very keen to use radio to reach young people with the gospel because I mean you were asking about the style of Christian radio. The initial Christian radio, it was absolutely there was no drum beats, there was no sort of pop music, there was just preaching and very kind of sedate old-fashioned music as far as us youngsters were concerned.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I started producing my own programs that um reflected something that was more uh youth-friendly. Um I didn't go very far with it, and in fact, it was because there was no radio station that would take that kind of music, no Christian radio station at that stage. The uh pop radio stations, you know, LM radio and so on, were not interested in the Christian message. Um, and the Christian radio stations were not interested in the youth message. So uh it it was a a struggle. Yeah um you know, after I'd worked in engineering and done started producing a few radio programs, I saw the need to get some more theological training to to grapple with these issues. And um I'd got I got married during this time as well, so uh we were married in 1976 to to Janet, I got married, um and then in uh 70 um 78 we went uh to Bible college in England for two years. Um and I really it it I got a solid grounding in in the Word of God. Um at the end of that the opportunities that I thought would be there for involvement in Christian radio had closed. Um and I went back to my engineering work, but I went back a lot more mature, I was able to do much better at my engineering than I had done before. Because everyone said, ah, you take two years off, you'll never pick it up again. And but I I picked it up much better than I did before I was before we took the break. Yeah. And I did sort of four years and then joined the team of a ministry called African Enterprise, um, reaching the cities of Africa by word and deed in partnership with the church. So uh I was producing radio programs for follow for evangelism follow-up. In other words, uh, we would focus on ministry to a city um and do uh uh meetings throughout that city and in big stadiums. So I was involved with the sound, setting up the sound for the stadiums and then producing radio programs to follow up on local radio stations after we'd left. So that that was uh an exciting part. I was given more training in media and Christian media, particularly uh by an organization from Scandinavia. Um so the AE African Enterprise really gave me a good grounding, and I I worked there for 14 years. At the end of that time, the uh doors had opened for community radio, and we put together an application for a community radio station in Peter Maritzburg, and we were the first full-time licensed station in South Africa, community radio station. It was a community radio station, but with a lot of Christian content and Christian foundation. Um we didn't make it financially, it was a real struggle.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But uh the it was uh really it was groundbreaking in that um it just showed what could be done and what couldn't be done.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. And so so if I'm getting you right, um national radio pretty much was kind of um we spoke about this in in in in in in one of the episodes with my brother, but the Becky, if I can use the the example of Becky, the Becky of the time was Nash was more nationally focused than community focused. Oh yes.
SPEAKER_00Which would then at the end of I mean community radio uh it it didn't exist.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00This was the first community radio station with a there had been some sort of one month event focused stations. Um, but when you're focusing on an event, it is very different from having a long-term focus within a a community. And part of the problem is that community doesn't really exist. Uh you take a city like Peter Maritzburg, it's it's a uh just a massive tension between the different races and different political viewpoints, and it was kind of the the capital of uh KZN, but or was it, and was the capital in Ulundi, and so all of this stuff was um you know in tension, and there was still uh fighting um between the kind of IFP and and uh ANC. Um so there was a whole lot going on. I mean, the first name that we had for that radio station um in the start of the application progr process was Radio Peace. It it was we wanted it to be a platform where people could listen to each other and understand other viewpoints so that we could work together for the future of the country.
SPEAKER_01Building a sort of middle ground?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, building a ground of understanding because people grow up in such different um uh you know backgrounds with different views and uh yeah. And we need to understand each other. And I I think the same you see the problem these days with social media is that the algorithms just keep on feeding you where you've come from, and they don't give you the other perspective. So there is still a need for this um to to listen to each other.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. And I mean in some of in some of what you've been sharing, I just see a lot of the the the challenges we face today on on a media level, uh radio, social media, actual broadcasting of of different forms, those challenges come up. Um, the differences, the the the buy-in as well into ideas of communication um that will make true impact. Um and I think that's that's the that's always the the pattern of that things that have true impact are usually the ones that are the struggle. You know, we need to put money together to get community radio, or we need to put this together in such a way without all this external help or anyone else helping, because the focus should we invest in this, true change will come and it might move faster than we'd like it to. Um the the the the interview you you made me watch with Bonsai actually is also stemming into what I'm I'm I'm saying is that you know not many want true change or or where there's power, change is a very big enemy. Um because because it means I don't get to I mean we're all individuals at the end of the day. So as much as you might think for the greater good, there's still that bit of you that you're gonna be.
SPEAKER_00Well, my view of the greater good is always different from yours. So but as we communicate, we can start to understand the other perspective and then uh come up with something that enables people to work together because th that is that's what it's about. Instead of just um greedily taking what I want for myself, uh we've we've got to grow together, manufacture together, grow things together, do things together, um so that everyone can benefit.
SPEAKER_01True. And greed produces um mediocrity, which is not good for spaces like radio um and media. And uh triumphs and impact now. Now we're looking at the at the at the netty gritties and the moments you went through. Um, you know, you you've helped start and shape multiple Christian radio stations. What moments stand out most for you?
KI Radio And Lives Changed
SPEAKER_00I I think that for me, and something I haven't actually talked about so far. Um after leaving Peter Maritzburg from 2001 to 2011, we ran KI Radio, which was a Christian community station that ran purely on event licenses. So we would apply for a one-month license. At the end of that, we would be all fair, and we'd have to put an application in for the night for for the next one. Um we only managed, I think, at most three in a year, but we kept going um over those ten years. Oh wow. And that had such an impact. The the kind of turning moment on that was when we we said quite early on that this is a Zulu language station, and w we got community buy-in. Um and it it it worked. Um we with events there were normally uh stadium events and uh I mean they the the first one was um Lizy Stadium in Durban and the um station manager I was working with then said, Hey Dave, we booked on Lyze Stadium. I said, uh when? Saturday. I said no. But um we it it happened and we filled the stadium um just on air promotion. Oh wow and uh after that we didn't look back um and uh yeah it it it was it was a kind of it was full of tension. I was just saying I I didn't get paid a s a cent from that project the whole time. It was a lot of tension, a lot of work, um, but it it was great. Um it yeah, it was part-time, but it at times it was like 24 hours part-time. The station broke down in the middle of the night, and you're trying to sort this out and that. Oh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. But also you just I just I I see the the the the the love of the industry, yes, in in in your willingness to actually put up with that, you know. Um I think very easily so too. You could have just kind of set yourself up to be in in in uh a radio station or part of the radio industry where you get paid well and you you you do the work, execute, just do the upkeep. But there was something there seems to be something more when when it's it's it's a God based dream, um, and it's a God-based passion because now it's not like hey, I can I can do this everywhere else successfully and not have to put up with some of the hassles, have to put up when it comes to doing things like this.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So and that's the beauty of where God puts us. Yes. Um, you know, KG and I always have these these moments of like these people don't see like I really could be doing this on a bigger scale, but I'm here.
SPEAKER_00No, you've gotta, I mean, that that's the thing. The fact that uh we were very disappointed not to get that community license because we had had applied for it. Um and it it was not uh it was unfairly issued to somebody else who messed it up. But there were two spare frequencies and then eventually just one, and then there weren't any. Um so we were able to to run these event licenses over those 10 years. Um and when I said I didn't, I mean we did make quite a bit of money on that station. We we made enough to uh you know pay just about everyone else.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I was just there uh mainly on the technical side and to assist with administration. But um the uh the rest of the station was very su I mean the station was very successful.
SPEAKER_01And is KNI still around No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00I mean the people still I mean I keep on meeting people that uh were involved and it it unfortunately what happened is we tried to convert that success into a commercial license. Uh we were granted the commercial license, but I it was to try and um combine that sort of free flow of community with uh a commercial owner who didn't wasn't comfortable with running things like that, it didn't work. It was a disaster.
SPEAKER_01When you think about the lives impacted through radio, what stories stay with you?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Judah, I just I I it the problem is to talk about these um I can't mention names. Uh there were mainly from my perspective, there were people that came in as presenters even from Radio Maritzburg days, and they cut their teeth on radio and Radio Maritzburg and they went on to become famous in the bigger stations further down the line.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00As well as, you know, all the uh particularly the the gur-gos and that uh people in the in the homes that whose lives were just uh so transformed by a radio station that spoke the language that they were used to and just encouraged them um in in the Word of God and in uh living out a Christian life. Yeah. Yeah. Um yeah, it's it's uh there were many lives that were impacted.
SPEAKER_01I can imagine um just even linking up the the the whole uh your childhood story of thinking about this little box that in many communities radio is an amazing phenomenon. And then to get it customized to your language, it it it expresses a great level of care.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And I mean, I I think one of the uh inspiring stories is that of course we were off air usually for two two months or so, two to three months, and and then the station was back on again. And it used to be shouted across the valleys, ah, K and I's back on again, and and um everyone would kind of tune in. And you know, within 24 hours, we would you know have the whole place uh throbbing to the sound of the radio station.
SPEAKER_01And and and I see that culture still today, um uh just just staying down the valley is that um things like if electricity comes back or majority of the community supports one soccer team or the other, and so you hear certain portions at different goals, or electricity's back, you hear electricity's back, and then yeah, and then everyone just comes outside. And I mean it's yeah, it's nothing big to celebrate, yeah. But that community just it's and it's it's crazy how now we think of things like we need social media and things to market and try draw attention, whereas word of mouth has has made such a great impact um in the past and still today, I believe.
SPEAKER_00Um the problem is today uh there's so many options and life is just fragmented. Um you know the things are are more complicated and it's yeah, it's just it it is good to look back on those days, but um just to keep going with the uh the spirit of of love and truth uh and to try and communicate that um on radio channels and on social media channels. Um yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um you know, and I think kind of this there's I'm I'm coming to the to the core of even what was in your heart when you started radio of young people. But um usually uh people if you've been in the industry for a certain amount of time, you you've come from different places where uh the industry has been really excellent, uh be it radio, television, and then you see the oversaturation of it as well and the compromises made over time, and usually by the time a whole lot of new technology and new um and and the industry evolves, you get some people who say, Oh, the good old days, or uh it was more like refined here and this and this. What would you say, having experienced and gone through radio for the past four decades more and looking at it now, is do you have hope, or do you feel like there's there's some critical things lost and that could ultimately destroy the radio
Hope For Radio And Next Steps
SPEAKER_01industry?
SPEAKER_00Yes. No, there is there is hope. The thing is, radio is a person-to-person medium. So um when we use it well, there's hope and there's communication. Um it's when we particularly when we use technology in a sloppy way, um, it destroys it. And we look the technology you c these days you can do a a whole lot. I mean, you can have a computer doing most of the work for you, but you've uh in the end it's a person-to-person medium. So um use the computers, but make sure that people are are relating to people and reaching people and communicating with people.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um and use the computers to try and uh get around uh some of the um the red tape and the you know hanging on waiting for this and that and and so on, um just to try and streamline things rather than replace things.
SPEAKER_01Let the tools not not steer you from the the the main goal.
SPEAKER_00Tools facilitate rather than replace. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And so for someone like me stepping into Christian media now, and and and a few of us, I think you've seen you've seen um definitely me and KG uh on the journey. But um I think you've also seen through the radio trainings you've done over the the years that there is young people who have an interest in in the thing. So what wisdom would you pass on?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it I think that the wisdom is that each of us needs to have the guidance of the Holy Spirit, ultimately uh the the real wisdom is in God's word, communicated through his Holy Spirit. And as we allow God to use us to communicate his message of love, so it will have impact. But if we're just producing a cheerful noise, well, there's time for a cheerful noise, but not too much of it. There needs to be uh the real gems of truth and um contact and communication in that. So do your best to you to do everything um well but rely ultimately on God and on his Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01Most definitely, most definitely. I hope you I hope you're listening. Whoever's out there ready to start some radio and and and and journey on media. And if someone feels if someone listening feels called into media ministry, what would you say to them?
SPEAKER_00Start where you are. I I mean it right the way through history, people have felt, well, you need to go and study this and study that. Yes, do the studies. But I mean the amazing thing now is that anyone can run a radio station or to or can use their Facebook or the whole range of um digital media that are there um effectively and just to to build from where you are and have an impact um with your followers and w you know, even with strangers. Think of ways of reaching people uh who have needs. There's so much loneliness, um so much need these days. And part of the problem is that a lot of those people are only receiving very um uh distant messages uh through social media without personal contact, and you need to find ways of of breaking through the algorithms and to it to produce uh real contact and um and to share be able to share the love of God.
SPEAKER_01It's very it's very that one's sticking with me. Um it it it's really stick close to God and you have to start somewhere. Um and yeah, you know, I I I'm I'm very curious about more and more. But um I think just just getting that window of of seeing how much media has been around. It doesn't only start with us, um it does, it didn't come with the technology and everything, the the the newer, newer technology, but it it radio media has had a very wonderful journey, a powerful journey, especially in in the in the Christian community. And um we hope to just carry the baton on to the next generation as well. Um and so yeah, thank you, thank you for sharing 40 years.
SPEAKER_00And uh just may the Lord just bless you as you listen to him and move forward.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, thank you. Well, Msalu Podcast, we out.