Thought of the day: Simulcast

Remember watching Beverly Hills 90210 on Simulcast?

For the youngsters and the non-South Africans, let me explain. Beverly Hills 90210 was a show based in the USA, in English. But for broadcast in South Africa it was dubbed into Afrikaans. And for those who wanted to listen to it in English, there was a radio broadcast of the show, in English, at the same time as the show was aired on TV. So you could tune in your radio, turn off the TV sound, and listen to the show in English. Sometimes the speech and pictures would get a bit out of sinc, but that was just par for the course. Some TVs even came with "simulcast" radio featues, where the TV itself could be tuned in to the radio and you could get your sound from the radio station automatically.

Remember?

Now lets think about this for a moment. The programme came over to us from the US in English. We then dubbed it into Afrikaans and broadcast it in Afrikaans. And made secondary provision for those who wanted to listen to it in English.

Wow, what a mission.

But it just goes to show that people were serious about promoting their language. And it also goes to show that it is quite possible to find innovative ways of including many languages, if we care to do it.