Sunday 21 April 2013

In Living Color part 1


I guess I should tell you what I do for a living. I mean we have been doing this thing for a while now and I don’t think I have told you exactly what I do.

I am a radio presenter at my local community radio station based on a university campus.  People call us a campus station but we are not. Sometimes I get a little defensive if someone refers to MFM 92.6 (that’s the name of the radio station I work at by the way) as campus radio station. We cater to the entire community. Not just the students. Another thing that sometimes gets me riled up is when people call us Maties FM. We were Maties FM nearly 10 years ago but the name changed to just MFM and we became independent. The next question would then be what does the M stand for? In turn I would reply with what does the 5 in 5FM stand for? Then if they can’t give me a valid answer then that would be the end of the conversation.

I digress terribly though. I do the Nightshift show from 00h00 – 03h00. The hours are odd but I think that is exactly where I belong right now. People who are up at that time are insomniacs or students up late studying or busy with assignments or something like that. With that said I see where they get the campus station thing but that’s besides that point. I like to think of the people up at that time as crazies because, well they are and so am I.

I think it my 3 hour mental asylum. I get to hang out with people just like me for those 3 hours. I don’t like to talk to people I like to talk with people and because of that this little group of friends who listen to my show almost religiously has come to my attention. They call themselves Team Nightshift.

They are 3 girls and one guy who would come together in study groups and listen to my show and I guess they started to actually the madness I was spewing in their direction. They started tweeting and texting me in studio and like that we became friends. I met them a few weeks after we became friends on radio and we hang out every now and then. I must admit I do I mean did; well still do have the tiniest crush on one of the girls in this group. My show is Monday to Friday and everyday after my show I try to tweet them all personally to thank them for hanging out with me on the show. I do that because they have no idea what it means to me when they actually hang out with me. My audience has expanded far beyond this little team but I still hold them very dear to my heart.

 

 


 

I love my job for many reasons, a lot of which I can’t mention but here are a few.

I love my job because how many people can say that they do what they love everyday of their lives?

I love the environment I work in. It is the one place in my very small world of Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa that when you walk in to all kinds of discrimination disappears. Where I work you aren’t black, white, colored, gay or lesbian you are a friend, a brother or sister. We love you regardless. We make fun of each other because we are family. Gay, lesbian, black, white and colored jokes are the order of the day and we all laugh together at them. We don’t take offence to anything because why the hell would you? Its 2013 and taking offence in this day and age just means that you are trapped in the passed and you are no fun at all.

When we go out we look after our own. Yes we may have our little quarrels which to my knowledge seldom happen but we still love working with each other. There is a sense of sincerity in the “how are you doings” and the “what’s ups”. We actually want to know how are you doing and what is up.

Forget all the free shit we get every now and then and the opportunities we get from the place we work at. Just being part of a collective of people that love each other outside of our respective families makes working where we work so amazing. Not a day goes by without people sharing a laugh. Being a part of something like that is truly something special.

So now you have a little insight as to what I do and where I do it.

Take care kids!

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