ROAD RUNNING

Rory has built a successful career in radio , MC and comedic work

Rory was born and raised in Port Elizabeth ( now Gqeberha ), and he says his desire to work in radio started when he was still young . “ When I was 13 , I won a competition at Algoa FM to go to Johannesburg with the breakfast show host at the time , Daron Mann . It was in March , on Red Nose Day , and there were 12 winners from different commercial radio stations around the country picked to be a part of a show broadcast on M-Net . We had to take a key from a bowl and try unlock a door of a miniature house , and the key that opened it would be the winner of a R450,000 home in Cape Town . I didn ’ t win , but on that weekend , Daron said to me , ‘ Rory , if you want to have fun and make okay money , go into radio . It ’ s a jol !’ When I got home , I told my parents I wanted to go into radio because Daron Mann said it is the best thing in the world , and they were just , like , okay , Rory .”

In my 20s , when I was studying for a BA degree in Communications and Media Studies at NMMU , there was a sports presenter position at Algoa FM because Derek Alberts had just left , so I applied and got the job . Two years later I became Daron ’ s producer , and told him he was the one who inspired me years ago to get into radio , and now I was working with him . I was with Algoa FM from 2005 to 2013 , and then I moved to Durban to produce the Drive show on East Coast Radio about eight years ago . I still miss PE , the people , and especially the beaches . You can actually swim there !”

Rory is currently the executive producer for the Carol Ofori show , and his role is to put the content and show prep together for the show . “ I ’ m working ahead of the presenter all the time and updating the shared Google doc , so I can type things that she can see live . Also , because we ’ re so close and we get on really well , I often join her on segments or links , when she calls me to join so we can talk about a story , or what happened the day before . I find the work really stimulating .”

Finding His Funny

In between the media studies and starting his career in radio , Rory also completed an Honours Degree in French literature , which may seem a bit odd , but he explains there was method to the madness . “ In my third year I was doing French as a subject , and they dangled the carrot in front of me offering a trip to France to do a journalism course . The French

government paid for everything , and I stayed in Paris for a whole month , living in a hotel , while I did the course . Since it was towards the end of my third year , I thought it would be a bit rude not to do something to say thank you , so I signed up for French Honours . I loved it though , and can still speak a little of it .”

The other thing Rory signed up while still at NMMU was stand-up comedy , and unsurprisingly , there ’ s a story behind that as well – par for the course with such an interesting character . “ About 10 years ago , I was a bit drunk one night at a comedy show in a local pub where one of my co-presenters did a show . The organiser told me he thought I was quite funny , too , so would I do a show the next month . I was like , yeah , I ’ ll do comedy next month , because I ’ m f *** ing funny , whatever … And then when I woke up the next morning , I realised what I had done . So , I prepped a little gig , and I loved every second of it , and I ’ ve been doing comedy non-stop since then .”

Barry Hilton has been a mentor for Rory in stand-up comedy

Images : Marathon Photos , Yoshen Nair and courtesy Rory Petzer