Johannesburg-based radio station HOT 102.7FM is reflecting on a successful and award-winning two years in business, after celebrating its second birthday on July 1. The station was launched in Gauteng on Thursday, 1 July 2021, in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
HOT 102.7FM said it has gone on to carve out a niche for itself by focusing on the basics of playing popular ‘Old Skool’ music that resonates with its upper SEM audience, high-quality presenters, a personal relationship with its listenership and the use of the power of radio to do good in the community.
“I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built in such a short space of time, despite a challenging commercial climate and the tragic loss of some key staff and on-air personalities,” said Lloyd Madurai, managing director of HOT 102.7FM.
“What we’ve managed to build is a radio station that knows its audience and is able to deliver a compelling radio product to that audience, along with tangible results for its commercial partners,” adds Madurai.
It’s been an incredible run for HOT 102.7FM, adds the station. Not only has it maintained commercial success, built market share and onboarded a host of new blue-chip advertisers, but it also founded the HOT Radio Academy and struck a string of mutually beneficial media partnerships with the likes of the Joburg Super Kings (global partner), the DP World Lions, the Emirates Lions, and the Ferrari Owners’ Club of South Africa.
The station has also raised over R15-million (US$813,564.88) for charity at its annual Hot Cares Teddython fundraiser and has run a series of engaging consumer and trade competitions, including sending listeners and trade partners to the ABBA Voyage concert in 2022.
HOT 102.7FM was named the winner in the Best Local Radio Station category at the Best of Joburg Readers’ Choice Awards in 2022. It walked away with the My Station — Most Votes Award at the 2022 SA Radio Awards — an event at which it received 13 nominations.
HOT 102.7FM additionally received global recognition by being honored as a finalist in four categories at the 2023 New York Festivals Radio Awards in the United States.
“To be recognized on the world stage — and at the ‘Oscars of the radio industry’ — was just great affirmation of the path the station is on. Being honored by global heavyweights in the world of radio says so much about what we’ve built here at HOT 102.7FM and the quality of the radio product we’ve taken to market,” said Madurai.
To celebrate its second birthday, and in honor of its New York ‘gongs’, HOT 102.7FM is running an on-air competition through the month of July, playing off the number two, that will culminate in two listeners heading to the Big Apple on an all-expenses-paid four-night stay in the American city.
Competition details are available on the station’s website.