Sorry - got into this discussion a little late: hectic end of the year, and not always enough time to browse the forum.
The magazine was originally started by Loek Wiermans, but when he left for the Netherlands, it was taken over by Lourie Coetzee (proprietor of Electrosonic, these days) and Ultra Litho, who used to print the magazine. Loek would eventually return to SA sometime in the late 1990s, and start Multimedia.
Meanwhile, I first started writing for AVSA after an approach by Peter Wilson. Peter was then writing reviews and selling ads for the mag. He later left AVSA to work for Soundlab, first in Jhb and later in Cape Town, and recently moved to Australia.
Bob Pryers and I have owned AVSA since the early 1990s, and it has remained an independent publication - by now, easily the longest running specialist hi-fi, AV and music mag in the country. Two decades old, in fact ...
The AVSA radio slot ran on 5FM with Phil Wright, and later on SAFM with Rafe Lavine, but with all the changes at the SABC, it eventually got the chop.
As for my reviewing credentials ... I'm a trained journalist with a love for music, nurtured at first through playing violin for the best part of 13 years during my childhood and teens, followed by a stint of sound engineering concerts for many of SA's artists and bands in the early 1980s (as a freelancer, while at varsity). And yes, it is definitely all about the music!
Deon Schoeman
