It is not every day that you hear of someone pursuing their dream career from a young age and being a success but Lloyd Madurai is such a success.
At the age of 40, Lloyd Madurai has achieved more than most in the radio industry, in fact some might call him an over-achiever, with a career in radio spanning 27 years.
Lloyd pursued his radio dream from an early age, 13 to be exact. He worked over weekends at The Wheel Shopping Centre Radio Station, in Durban called “WCN – Wheel Communication Network”. After spending a year doing in-store radio and, at just 14 years old, Lloyd submitted his demo tape to East Coast Radio (ECR) and a year later, Lloyd was awarded a contract with the station to host the weekend midnight to 6am show.
In 1999 at the age of 21, Lloyd was approached by Primedia to join 94.7 Highveld Stereo as the station’s music manager and weekend presenter on the Sunday morning breakfast show and Friday nights 10pm – 1am party show. After 5 years at Highveld, Lloyd was appointed as programme manager at Jacaranda 94.2 and was instrumental in directing the new station strategy, which grew in both ratings and revenue for the Kagiso Media Group. Lloyd’s role evolved and later he became the head of talent, content and programming for Jacaranda 94.2 and RMFM.
In 2014, Lloyd wanted to build a station with the idea of an “Old Skool and R&B format”. He invested all his time and energy into building a strong, well supported application based on research and a sustainable revenue model for a community station to be known as Hot 91.9fm.
Hot 91.9fm went on-air for the very first time on Monday, 17 November 2014, with McFadden & Whitehead’s “ain’t no stopping us now”, which set the upward trajectory for Hot 91.9fm.
The station under Lloyd’s leadership and guidance employs a staff of over 50 people. The ratings continue to grow with over 249 000 listeners in the upper LSM of JHB North with most spending a quarter of an hour listening across all the time channels.
The station’s “Hot Cares” project takes care of those in need weekly within the community with sustainable self-funded projects by Hot 91.9fm, including food, medical, housing and education.
Lloyd continues to innovate with new digital platforms as well as TV applications for Hot 91.9fm as a content provider in order to enhance the audience experience.
In 2018, Lloyd became the youngest inductee in the Liberty Radio Awards Hall of Fame. Lloyd Madurai continues to make a positive impact in the radio industry and has earned his place in the South African Radio Hall of Fame.
May his story inspire those to pursue their dreams with a tenacity which will see them succeed.
HOT 91.9 FM is a proud Media Partner of the NSBC.