ChaiFM – it all started with a dream

PETER FELDMAN

They were driving together at the time. Kaler – CEO of ChaiFM, the Jewish community radio station – recalled the “peculiar” sensation she had when her mother told her. “It was like I had a bird’s eye view of my life,” she said, “and I knew that this was what I was born to do for the community.

“This is honestly how it all played out. My mother said she had not had a dream for years and was now compelled to tell me about this one. She remembered it so clearly. “Starting the radio was what I was meant to do and that is how it happened.”

This Sunday, Kaler and her ChaiFM team celebrate the radio station’s ninth birthday.

Kaler launched ChaiFM in 2008 during one of the worst global financial crises ever and she had to secure funding. Looking back, she says, there were giant challenges ahead. One of these was to to ask her staff of 45 whether they would be prepared to work for six to eight months as volunteers. Only four of them refused.

In an interview with the SA Jewish Report, Kaler said she knew nothing about the radio business and the technicalities involved – but she persevered.

This Greenside High School alumnus had a background in marketing, having worked in the commercial sector. She had never been involved in community work before. However, that didn’t stop her.

“I phoned ICASA, the independent broadcasting association of South Africa, and asked them how I could apply for a radio licence. They said I was in luck because for the first time in 13 years, they were sending out invitations to applicants to apply for new licences.”

The process proved to be yet another challenge. Her first submission was 200 pages. Her final application was so immense that it had to be conveyed in two trolleys.

It took three-and-a-half years before ChaiFM was granted a licence – but a rocky road still lay ahead.

Kaler knew from the start what she wanted in a radio station. “I had a full picture in my head what it was going to be in terms of sound, feel and the information we were going to cover. But not everybody was supportive of that. I think people were worried about their own agendas and that they wouldn’t have a voice.”

An early stumbling block occurred when a well-known advertiser pulled out of a contract for which Kaler had budgeted and was counting on. “They pulled out on pay day after we had been running the advert for a month,” she recalls.

“I needed to find money to pay salaries that month and it was very difficult. The toughest time was when I had to retrench 13 people from a staff of 25.”

Asked how she got through the tough times, Kaler said help often came from unexpected quarters. “Sometimes people you think are going to help you, don’t. This is true about life. I have always remained loyal to those who have helped us and that is how we get through.”

Over the past nine years, ChaiFM has won numerous radio awards. These included a Liberty Best Daytime Radio Show Award and a Sanlam Best Business Show Award. The radiothons, where funds are raised for community organisations, are special, too.

“It is amazing how the community comes out in support of one another, and how philanthropic our community is. We count our blessings. It is a beautiful thing.”

Kaler recalls milestone events. The station had been on air for a mere three weeks when Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s 22 day offensive into Lebanon in 2008 exploded.

“We had to cover this war and I remember a moment when an IDF spokesperson being interviewed by our presenter, had 90 seconds to get into the bomb shelter, and was running fast. This was the drama of live radio.

“I also remember in 2014 when Israel launched Operation Protective Edge. As rockets were being fired into Israel, and they were sounding the red alert siren in real time, the impact of that was absolutely massive.

Listeners heard it all over the world and that was really a watershed moment for us. For the first time people heard about ChaiFM and they were listening to us 24-hours a day and most stayed with us. It was excellent radio.”

Kaler said that one of the huge moments she recalls”, was when they had a radiothon and a five-year-old mentally challenged child called in to pledge R5. It was R4 from him and R1 from his one-year-old baby brother. “It was a poignant moment. Children took pocket money, which they were saving for art supplies, and donated it to the cause.”

Kaler believes in the future of children. It is one of the reasons she conceived Chai Kids. “Nobody else does talk radio for children,” she said, “and I’m talking globally. We give these children a platform for an hour every day and different young presenters are utilised.”

When ChaiFM was launched, Kaler’s vision was to serve the community and to unite the various factions. “The community was quite fragmented at the time,” she remembers. “We didn’t really see eye to eye or understand one another and the divide was getting greater and greater.

“When you have a platform for conversation and you can share ideas, then it is not so threatening. It is very important to have that connection. It doesn’t matter whether you are traditional, secular, Reform or Lubavich, the connection to one another, to Israel and to G-d is important. This is what ChaiFM is all about,” she proclaims.

It serves as a platform that connects to all. “I have no doubt that it has changed the demographics of Jewry in South Africa,” she contends.

But Kaler doesn’t rest on her laurels; she has conceived a bold plan for the future. It involves reaching more young people through ChaiFM platforms and getting them involved in community work.

Kaler praised those who over the years had become involved with ChaiFM and its ideals. “It’s been a humbling experience growing the station and reaching out to the community.”

As for her journey, she says, it has been “interesting”. Before ChaiFM, she recalls a time when she “wanted to find out what the Buddhists were talking about. They were talking about things like meditation and spirituality. It’s something Judaism does talk about, but rabbis often did not at that time.”

However, Kaler’s ChaiFM journey has brought her to following the philosophy that you “find yourself by losing yourself in community service when you work for a greater good”.

And this has been to ChaiFM and the greater Jewish community’s benefit.