As all good stories, it started out with the love of music! Musician Shandor Potgieter spent most of his time in the OFM Studios, doing interviews. The bug bit and to his delight he was offered a weekend show on the radio station. The show was named Shandor’s Wild Weekend, and from the start, it definitely lived up to its name. Shandor then moved to daytime radio, closely followed by an offer to host The Good Morning Breakfast on Monday to Friday alongside Sam and Lesley. “Two absolute legends – and here we are!” says Shandor.
No two days are the same for Shandor. “My day starts at 4am. I get up, take a shower for as long as possible to make sure that I’m awake, and then I’ll get to the studio around 5am. We then run through the show, put everything in place, and take to the track at 06:00!” he explains. “The pace of this show is go! go! go! – as it should be – bringing you the inside scoop, the latest news, the best music and a ton of laughs!” When the clock strikes 9:00, the team takes a breather and starts planning for the next day!
Shandor loves to get active and exercise after a good day’s work and to then spend quality time with his wife and son of four years old. “I find I am more creative when I get moving and one needs to be in the moment and enjoy the time you have with your family!”
Before becoming a radio personality, Shandor was a full-time musician. “I mostly play guitar but I always try my hand at learning new things. I love folk music, classic rock like Queen and the Beatles, and, of course, current pop music like Ed Sheeran; so it is really all over the show!” he shares.
Shandor was born in Phalaborwa, moved to Bloemfontein, then to Gonubie, to Stellenbosch, and finally back to Bloemfontein. “This is where I met my wife and where our son was born. Bloemfontein and central South Africa is home!” In Shandor’s spare time he loves to cook, especially with fire, he tries to travel as often as possible, and he does lots of adventurous things. “I also recently took up running and completed my first half marathon… in my driveway! This was really wild!” he laughs.
A recent highlight was Shandor being nominated for a SA Radio Award. “That was cool but to be honest, it’s a highlight to just be able to do this for a living! This is the best job in the world and you get to do crazy, cool things every day! But if I have to single out something, it would have to be the opportunity that was given to me to do the breakfast radio show at one of the leading radio stations in SA and to learn from the greats like Nick Efstathiou and Tim Thabethe.” When he reveals how he would one day like his son to also do what he loves, it shows how much he loves what he’s doing.
Shandor has had the privilege of interviewing many well-known people in the music industry, more recently the likes of Jason Mraz, Aloe Blacc and Arnold Vosloo. “One that stood out, was Evita Bezuidenhout and Francois van Coke at the Free State Arts Festival two years ago. It started as an interview and ended up with me losing a challenge and him tattooing a lightning bolt on my arm,” Shandor says with a huge smile.
Shandor and The Good Morning Breakfast team just want to have fun with everyone every morning. He invites listeners by saying, “There are big things coming, but that being said, there are bigger things happening on the show every day, so just join the fun and find out for yourself!” He concludes, “Be kind to each other; Show love; Stay safe; Stay tuned in to The Good Morning Breakfast on OFM and have a good one!”
