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A radio gem in the making

aiming high: Ayanda Mdluli on her weekly slot 'Bona Fide' at YFM Photo: PUXLEY MAKGATHO
aiming high: Ayanda Mdluli on her weekly slot 'Bona Fide' at YFM Photo: PUXLEY MAKGATHO

As I walk in, she's standing behind a desk with her headphones fixed on her neck, dancing in the chilly to YFM studio.

"I'm usually alone here, but I dance and sing to keep myself busy and warm," says Ayanda "MVP" Mdluli.

But the 24-year-old's show has enough heat to keep her warm throughout the two hours. I walked in during one of her features, Double Up Tuesdays.

"We play two songs from the same artist," she says. Sounds of former The Soil member Samthing Soweto are playing loud.

For years YFM has been an institution for young radio personalities to hone their talents and become some of the best jocks on South African radio.

The likes of Unathi Msengana, who is on Metro FM's breakfast show; DJ Fresh, who holds 5FM's breakfast slot and Paul Mnisi, who is now on Power FM, are some of the best and influential voices on radio groomed by the 99.2 frequency radio.

But unlike most DJs who knocked hard on the YFM door, Mdluli was roped in while still doing her breakfast show on campus radio, at University of Pretoria's Tuks FM.

She received a message on Facebook one day from YFM's station manager asking her to come and try out on the station's graveyard slot.

"At first I thought it was spam and ignored it. But I finally called because my friends said I should," she says.

"Only to find that the offer was actually legitimate."

This was in 2013 and the bosses were impressed with her, and they asked her to stand in for daytime DJs when they were absent.

"I just came in and let my work speak for itself, because a lot of people looked at me funny and thought, 'who's this girl with the red Afro?' when I got here," she says.

Standing in for other colleagues made the producers realise that she deserved her own show during the day, which she got.

"I hosted the weekend show, which was from noon to 3pm and I enjoyed it a lot."

The KwaZulu-Natal native once again proved to the station that she belonged in the primetime daily slot, "which gave birth to the show, Bona Fide".

"The show is authentic, real and I do something different every time," she says.

 

She also does voice-over work after her show on some days. This is where she says she can make her voice sound perfect and all lady-like because on the radio show she sounds "real".

Mdluli studied drama at the National School of the Arts.

She says South Africans shouldn't be shocked if they see her on their small screens one day.

 

Just like the greats who came before her, she says she would like to host a prime time show one day.

tiwaneb@timesmedia.co.za

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