Rebel radio station Capital 604 is back, supported by KwaDukuza listeners

Playing groovy tunes and continuing to stick it to the man, South Africa’s most beloved rebel radio station is back on the airwaves.

Capital Radio 604 is playing music again, after a 25 year hiatus, this time using a 24-hour online radio platform.

KwaDukuza resident, Vinay Perumaul (63) is one of many ex-listeners doing their best to spread the word far and wide, hoping to get enough support so that Capital 604 can return to regular station status.

“Capital 604 was really important to me and a lot of my friends back in the 80s. To have some of that magic back on the air is extremely exciting,” he said.

Picture this, you are young and liberal, riding down our country’s coast with the windows down at the height of the 80s.

Botha has just crossed the Rubicon, Apartheid begins to fail from within and from outside sanctions, things are looking up towards the birth of South African democracy.

But how could you know? State media refuses to acknowledge the situation and continues to disseminate National Party propaganda. In comes Capital 604, a beacon for many during the dark days of Apartheid, playing sinful music and telling real news.

“It was a station designed to tell white people what was really happening to the black people in the country. Not a whitewashed version that they had been getting from SABC,” said Craig

Johnston, who was integral to the online reestablishment of the station.

Founded in 1979 by Martin Rattle, Capital 604 was essentially a land-based pirate radio station.

Hosted in the Transkei (an independent ‘homeland’), Capital 604 defied government rules on profanity, censored music and importantly, censored news until its closure in 1996.

“We all listened to it back then. It was one of the only media outlets that told it like it was on the ground, with disc jockeys of different races. We did not feel dictated to, it felt like it was made for us, by people like us,” said Perumaul.

Aside from its importance as an outlet, the station’s rebel counterculture and free speaking, quick thinking deejays made it cool.

It might seem an arbitrary point to make, but it certainly makes reaching people much easier if they want to be reached in the first place.

“It was the first time that I had ever heard the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin, those first experiences were life changing.”

Johnston, another Capital 604 superfan and filmmaker, made a documentary about the station and its protagonists called Music Power: The Story of Capital Radio 604. 

The experience prompted him to rekindle the station along with ex deejays, Dave Simons and Steve Smith, working around the clock to open it online in March this year.

Take a trip back in time with your favourite musicians, its free!

To find the station and be transported back to your youth, visit capital604.com/live.

You can find the documentary at www.capital604.com/documentary.

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