What started out as a radio station broadcasting in Durban to mainly the Indian community has today become one of South Africa’s most–loved Indian Radio Station. Indian programmes started in Natal in 1932 and were broadcast from the old studios in the Durban City Hall on Mondays and Fridays from 18:00 to 18:20. There were no ‘live broadcasts and the programmes in Tamil, Telegu, Hindi, Urdu and Gujerati consisted entirely of music played on gramophone records. The very first announcer was the late Abel Peters who was known as ‘Thunderbolt’.

The Indian programmes were always broadcast from the transmitters of the English Radio Service at the SABC. In 1983 the SABC realised that there was a great need for a fully-fledged radio station aimed at the Indian community. Isabel van der Linder was the first station manager, followed by Fakir Hassen who was appointed as station manager from 1985 until 1995. His tenure was followed by Khalik Sheriff, then Naresh Veeran, Shanil Singh, Gail Samuels and currently Alvin Pillay heads up the station. Thirty years down the line, the station has broadened its listenership and reaches a countrywide audience. With more than 360 000 listeners - the station has been hailed for keeping Indian culture alive.

LotusFM celebrated its 30th birthday on Tuesday, 8 January 2013 and what better way to have started the day than not just listening to ones favorite radio station but watching a live simulate broadcast on SABC3’s Expresso Morning Show. The show featured LotusFM’s Morning Rush Show driven by one of their most talented presenters Neville Pillay and his team, who was also accompanied by station manager Alvin Pillay, marketing manager Donne Henry and programmes manager, Santosh Beharie.

LotusFM further heated the airwaves with a surprising birthday line-up, showcasing previous and existing on-air presenters, airing the best of 30 years. The finale was the Top 30 song competition count down, revealing song 45. Radha (Album – Student of the Year) as number one and the lucky LotusFM winner walking away with R30 000 cash prize.

Station manager, Alvin Pillay says: “For an Indian radio station which has become multi-cultural, the station has now grown into a big national radio station and this is fantastic for us. Let us continue supporting the station, so that it enjoys many more birthdays.”