Tribute to Sarel Marais on Darren, Keri, and Sky
The former radio presenter and first voice
on-air on East Coast Radio’s, predecessor Radio Port Natal, passed away this
week.
Sarel Marais was the first announcer on our radio station years ago before it was sold and renamed East Coast Radio.
The radio legend was from Durban North and lived there for most of his life, except for the years he worked at Radio Highveld.
He was married to Patsy Marais, another old SABC stalwart.
As the 1960s approached, the SABC was rapidly developing, a brand new building was built and called the "Broadcasting House" situated in 100 Fort Road and was officially opened on 21 August 2021. Radio Port Natal was able to carry out its first official first broadcast from the new building on May 1967. The first male voice on the radio was Sarel Marais and the female voice was Laetitia Vorster.
We interviewed Keith Millar, former Technical Producer at Radio Port Natal, about Sarel's life and his radio journey. They worked together for over 50 years.
"His breakfast show was very popular, if not the most. It was the same for his show at Radio Highveld," he describes.
He also shares that what people enjoyed about Sarel was that he was fully bilingual.
In this tribute, take a listen to how radio sounded back in the 60s:
"Sarel was certainly a great and rather quirky character. He was very popular with his listeners. He set high standards and expected the same from other," Keith says in his description of Sarel's personality.
We were able to get you more audio from the 1960s, radio sounded way different than it does right now:
Radio Port Natal was sold and became East Coast Radio on 01 July 1994.
The fallen radio presenter had a passion for radio and implemented creative ways for people to listen and engage with radio content.
Sarel Marais also discovered the famous Afrikaans singer, Cora Marie, who also worked at a regional radio station, Radio Hoëveld, in the late 70's. He gave her the nickname "Bossiekop" and played her song "Gee Haar 'n Roos" one Tuesday evening. He thought that people wouldn't listen to the radio while 'Dallas', the American series, was on played on TV, but the song exploded, becoming part of Afrikaans music royalty.
He worked with the likes of the late Jeanette Hanekom, Isabel van der Linde, and Les Franken.
He was the opening act to what is now an internationally-acclaimed radio station and we continue the show and say, may his soul rest in peace.
Keith shares that the funeral proceedings are as follow:
Venue: NG Kerk in Umhlanga
Date: Thursday, June 10.
Time : 11AM
Main Image: Pexels