Thousands of listeners around the country were left with eerie silence for about an hour as their favourite SABC radio stations went quiet.

Affected radio stations included Metro FM, 5FM, Radio 2000, SAFM and RSG.

“Guys Metro fm suddenly gone quite on us..  shutdown.. almost 30 min, no radio..” @oupa38 tweeted.

“I was wondering [what’s up with] my radio I even went to my car to check if it's my radio... I'm in Bloemfontein,” Moshugi London Moshugi wrote of Facebook.

“Never mind that. We got over the fact that we lost PSL games in the beginning of the season so nothing's new,” Retshoanelegile Nziswa Jimmy Makoko complained on Facebook.

SABC has apologised for abruptly going off air and blamed it on the power outage in Auckland Park, where the SABC offices are located in Johannesburg.

“SABC would like to apologise for the disruption of broadcast services for all Johannesburg-based radio stations between 07h00 and 08h00 this morning,” spokesperson Vuyo Mthembu said.

“The disruption of broadcast services was due to power failure in and around the Auckland Park area where the SABC building is located, and the back-up generator not being able to kick-in as expected.