I feel happy and grateful. I am extremely grateful that I was given a platform to connect with listeners, working on radio was a childhood dream for me and I am blessed to be able to ply my trade on the medium that captured my imagination as a child.
Throughout my career, I have worked both behind the scenes as well as on-air at every radio station that I have been lucky enough to have worked at. I felt that now, more than a decade of learning on and off-air that it was time to take up a bigger challenge on the operational side of the business.
I have been the music compiler at Jacaranda FM for over two years. Recently the opportunity to take on more responsibilities and plug into the operational and programming team on a bigger scale came about. Jacaranda FM has a really solid team running the ship. It’s exciting to be part of an operation that always looks for new ways to enhance and grow the product.
I’m really excited about working with the team to ensure that what you hear on the radio from a music and sonic identity point of view is always in tune with our programming strategy and most importantly, always in tune with what our listeners want to hear.
I fell in love with radio as a teenager. I applied for a slot as a radio DJ on Tuks FM the moment I set foot on campus as a first-year. Jacaranda FM’s Drive time host Rian van Heerden was the station manager of the station at the time, he was my first boss.
I love that we get to connect with listeners, we get to be the soundtrack of someone’s life. Radio is intimate, during this past 18 months of the pandemic radio has shone in it’s role as a trustworthy, real-time connection.
I plan on entering this new role with an open mind. There are several ways to enhance a product, always new ways to consume a product and I’d like to be nimble enough to adapt to those changes and adopt what could be of use to us.
Winning three SA Radio awards has been very rewarding but my biggest career highlight was actually getting onto commercial radio and being able to live my dream.
My family. I owe every part of being to them. They are the biggest motivation for everything I do.
Never stop learning. Understanding the business side of media as well as you understand the creative side of media will hold you in good stead.