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From: 2010-09-23
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Vic Hall
Vic Hall is the regular presenter of Saturday Scene, the popular light jazz programme on Saturdays, from 9am to noon. Martin Hesse chatted to him in the FMR studio during his show, in-between announcements.
Vic Hall is so at ease behind the microphone, and has such an array of stories to tell from his days in radio, one would automatically assume that broadcasting has been his full-time occupation. But for Vic –who hails from the UK but considers Cape Town his home – the role of DJ has always been a sideline, albeit an important one. His career is in the business world of retail, and it was through an offer from one of South Africa’s big grocery chains that he immigrated here in 1982.
As a boy in his home town of Loughborough in Leicestershire, Vic says he was enchanted by the atmosphere of the local fairgound, with its hustle and bustle and blaring music. This led to the excitement of the dance floor, and Vic became proficient as a DJ, doing regular gigs at English nightclubs and eventually becoming resident DJ with EMI, sharing the stage with acts such as the Three Degrees and the Supremes.
He later joined a radio station near Reading and found being alone behind a mic in the studio a very different environment than a rowdy nightclub. It is here, he says, he learned the challenge of radio, a lesson he has conveyed to young broadcasters he has mentored. “It’s essential you talk to an individual, “ he says, “and visualise one person listening to you.”
Radio has featured large in Vic’s life in South Africa. In 1989 he worked for Radio Good Hope, and then moved to Johannesburg, where, in 1990 he began working freelance for Radio 702. At the time, 702 was primarily a music station, and was broadcasting from Garankua in the “independent” homeland of Boputhatswana, although it also had a studio in Johannesburg. It was on 702 that Vic says he set a record for on-air broadcasting. From the studio in Garankua, just outside Pretoria, he handed over at the end of his show to a presenter in Johannesburg, to discover that the cable linking the two centres had been severed by thieves. By the time someone was able to travel out to the isolated studio and take over from him, he had been on the air for a gruelling 9½ hours.
In 1995, 702 dropped music and became a talk station, and in 1997 Vic found his way back home to Cape Town, taking up a national position in retail. The following year, FMR’s Leslie McKenzie approached him to take over the Saturday Scene slot from Eric Allen which, apart from an 18-month break in 2002/3, he has presented ever since.
Inserting a disc in one of the studio’s CD machines, Vic says his taste in music is very wide, and includes the classics, but feels his presentation style is best suited to the easy-listening jazz mix he plays on Saturday mornings.
“For me”, he says, “what’s important about music is the memories it evokes.”
Judging by the appreciative calls he gets from listeners, he’s getting it just right.
