When you’re hot, you’re hot. And Lloyd Madurai is sizzling! So is the radio station he heads up. So it’s no surprise it’s just scooped – again! – Best Local Radio Station, along with Best Local Show, in the 2025 Best of Joburg Readers’ Choice Awards.
Lloyd Madurai loves radio – has loved it ever since he was a kid growing up in Overport, Durban, when someone offered to teach him everything he needed to know about the medium. That act of kindness set Lloyd on a path that would eventually see him heading up one of the most successful stations in Gauteng: Hot102.7.
Because ‘success’ means different things to different people, it’s worth noting that Hot 102.7 has managed to garner not only industry acclaim – winning, amongst other awards, honours at this year’s New York Festival – it also receives an enthusiastic thumbs up from listeners across Gauteng.
In fact, the station was recently named the Best Local Radio Station in Best of Joburg (for the fourth time in as many years), as well as Best of Pretoria and Best of Ekurhuleni for two consecutive years. What’s more, the morning team – Parkie, Bunny and Simon Hill – won Best Local Radio Show.
How, exactly, does Lloyd manage to get it so right? First of all, he’s had loads of experience, working at many of South Africa’s leading media companies before setting up Hot 102.7’s forerunner, community station Hot 91.9. Here, Lloyd focused on a niche in the market, gathering together some of the radio legends that South Africans aged 35 and older had grown up with, and broadcasting the music they still love. The move to a commercial station came about when Lloyd and his consortium purchased Classic FM.
“I’ve sat in the same studio as most of our country’s industry greats – Mark Pilgrim, Jeremy Mansfield and Darren Scott,” Simon affirms, “and I’ve been able to learn from them, too. They knew what made great radio, and I always keep in mind the lessons they taught me.”
That’s one of the secrets of the breakfast team, he adds.
But it helps that the irrepressible trio are friends, too – or, as Lloyd puts it, the type of people whose conversation you might listen in on at a coffee shop, feeling as though you have something to add, and certain they’d value your contribution. “On air, they’re exactly the same people they are in real life: there’s Parkie, the kind of guy everyone wants to invite to their braai; Bunny, the voice of reason; and Simon, our maverick who says the things everyone else thinks, but is afraid to voice out loud.”
Bunny agrees. She came to Hot 102.7 through the station’s academy, which Lloyd established so that radio hopefuls could enjoy the same opportunity that was given him, teaching them the basics free of charge. “I didn’t realise I could knock on the door and ask for a job until Lloyd gave me a chance to work on the station,” she says. She started out writing copy for the station, then graduated to hosting her own show on Hot 91.9. “I was a complete mess on my first day! Lloyd ran out of his office because he could hear I was pressing every single button I could!” She learned the ropes quickly: “The feather in my cap is losing a Radio Award to Mark Pilgrim – if you’re going to lose, it might as well be to a legend!”
Since Simon has been involved in radio since his student days, he has plenty of his own cringe moments to look back on. There have been notable mispronunciations of artists’ names (“that was a beautiful tune from Sade” [to rhyme with ‘paid, instead of Shar-day]), as well as his inadvertent ‘Christmas in July’ moment. “I had two minutes of time on air before the news, and I didn’t want to fill it with talking, so I looked for a short song. I chose a track from a big band without properly looking at it, so I didn’t notice that I was playing a Christmas carol – five months too early!”
Close as they are, like any close friends, the breakfast team also have their niggles. “Simon can’t stand it that I sing along to every song we play! I always think of him like a flower: first thing in the morning; he has to slowly unfurl. On the other hand, I’ve already been to gym by the time I walk into the studio, so I’m flooded with endorphins and can’t wait to get going!” Bunny says.
It’s the little foibles like these that keep Gautengers listening to their favourite station. “Radio is all about being real; about connection. Your favourite presenters are there when you’re happy, there when you’re sad, there when your house is empty and you feel like having a dance. We’re the original influencers, with you no matter what you’re going through,” says Bunny.
“Absolutely,” Lloyd says. “With radio, you always know what you’re going to get!” – in other words, many more hours of laughs, many more hours of singalong tunes, and many more hours of fun.
Turn up the volume … add these to your playlist!
Simon’s top 5 Old Skool Jams:
Boston More than a Feeling
Mr. Mister Kyrie
Jackson Browne Somebody’s Baby
Christopher Cross Sailing
Johnny Clegg African Shadow Man
Bunny’s top 5 Old Skool Jams:
Whitney Houston How Will I Know
Doobie Brothers What a Fool Believes
Aretha Franklin I Say a Little Prayer
Queen Don’t Stop Me Now
Prince Nothing Compares 2 U
Details: Hot1027.co.za, @hot1027
Article by Lisa Witepski.
