Dan Corder on his history-making TV deal and building trust with his audience

The Citizen

14 hours ago

According to Dan Corder, the licence deal doesn't mean that eNCA will have editorial control over his content.
In what is a first for South African podcasting, broadcaster Dan Corder's video podcast, The Corder Report, has been licensed for distribution by eNCA.
'The deal is amazing. Podcasting in South Africa is growing but in some ways we haven't been able to grow as much as because we haven't got funding, we haven't got people paying money, haven't had advertisers believing in podcasting, having legacy media recognising its value,' Corder told The Citizen.
According to Corder, eNCA won't have editorial control over his content.
'eNCA saw the podcast, really enjoyed it and said 'we just want to license it, we don't want to change it, we don't want to have any editorial oversight, we just want this to be part of our stable',' shares Corder.
Essentially, Corder will now be compensated by the broadcaster, which he says will allow him and his team to do more work.
'Our podcast didn't have money put behind it, we were just making it because we believed in it and I was spending money made from other places to pay the staff,' he said.
'We will post about half of the show in video form on YouTube but the full show only exists in video form on the eNCA website. It's exciting for viewers because now they get to see the full episode.'
Corder has a show on eNCA which airs on Mondays. The podcast, licensed by the news broadcaster, airs from Tuesday to Friday.
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Corder the trusted storyteller
He has built organic rapport with followers and now with a major news channel like eNCA.
'I think one of the reasons why people trust my storytelling is that I'm very real, like I'm very who I am, I'm very [much of] a human being,' says Corder.
He says the authenticity he expresses on camera in his podcast or show comes from his background in radio, where he organically connected with listeners.
'I truly believe the best version of radio in the modern era is you need to be the person's best friend, sitting in the shotgun seat next to them in their car as they drive to work in the morning,' he said.
'That's the person who people want to welcome into their car, into their lives.'
Corder says what has also made his podcasts attractive is that everybody loves the news. 'It's just not everyone understands how fascinating South African news is. You'll be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't like the news.'
He says there might be many South Africans who are more familiar with British or US news. 'That's mainly because they've been exposed to more entertaining coverage of American news than South African news,' he says.
He mentions late-night TV shows such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which deliver the day's news in a satirical way.
'I just thought well, if I go online and I am very clearly myself, not trying to be a hard news journalist, I'm not trying to be a reporter and I'm not using big English, I'm just being myself and I've got the humanity and the emotion. If Fikile Mbalula says something funny, I will laugh even if the story is quite heavy.'
There's an element of educating his audience in his videos, as he uses a green screen behind him to show his viewers what he's talking about by literally pointing to it, similar to science and maths teacher William Smith.
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Rebuffing scepticism through authenticity
Corder is aware of the dynamics in South Africa, particularly as a white man of privilege and that the majority of South Africans might be sceptical of trusting him.
'The scepticism makes sense,' he says.
'We live in a country where not even 35 years ago black South Africans were subjugated and exploited by the white minority. I understand and accept people's scepticism of me as a white person.'
Corder is the son of former emeritus professor in the faculty of law at the University of Cape Town, Hugh Corder. His father was the longest-serving chair of public law from 1987 to 2020.
'If I just describe that to you, you probably wouldn't immediately imagine 'Dan Corder and his politics' you'd probably think of a more right-wing kind of person and maybe like an explicit DA voter or something like that,' Corder candidly says.
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Corder on radio
Corder's career in broadcasting began about a decade ago while he was in Cape Town at Good Hope FM, and, like a true radio geek, he says: 'I am first and foremost a radio presenter.'
He rose to become a host of the 5FM breakfast show in 2021.
It was only in 2022 that he began using the social media platform TikTok as a means to share his thoughts.
'I started posting videos because I wanted to talk about the news in my own style, which is a little bit comedic and with some commentary,' he said.
Sometime in 2023, he began hosting the podcast The Issue with Dan Corder, which was available on YouTube and other streaming platforms.
The following year, when the general election took place, Corder, together with his team, put in a lot of work, which led to his work being noticed by eNCA and sparking a conversation about him hosting a TV show.
A few months ago, Corder was announced as part of TikTok's African All Stars Series, which gave audiences a look into the lives and experiences of 11 South African creatives doing well on TikTok.
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