Durban Youth Radio moves to its new premises in Florida Rd, Durban in mid-March.
Durban Youth Radio has been broadcasting from the BAT Centre since 2012. Its move to Florida Rd symbolically marks the beginning of a new era for this tenacious, cutting edge youth-focused station
One of the fastest-growing community radio stations, DYR was founded in 1995 at the then University of Natal as a purely campus radio station. In 2000 it became a self standing Non Profit community platform and can be heard on 105.1FM.
Durban Youth Radio has gone through a seismic shift in the last 20 months. Now known as DYR105.1FM, the proudly Durban brand has gone from strength to strength, quickly finding its feet as a deliberately anti-format, slightly eclectic but already immensely popular local radio station.
Two years ago it grew quickly with an endless stream of great music aimed at the city’s youth. Much of its success can be attributed to Kevin Minter-Brown and Cameron Claassens, both experienced radio professionals, who joined the station to help turn it around, and more importantly to comply with the community license regulations which, amongst other things, stipulated that the station should have presenters, local news and community information.
Within weeks, young Durban DJ-wannabe’s were thrown into the deep end and given shows, and began training on the job. It created quite a stir from the start – the moratorium to take young talent, train them, put them on air and bring their knowledge and passion for the city, while constantly learning the craft of radio has always been at the forefront.
Kevin Minter-Brown presents DYR Breakfast every weekday from 6-9am and has been instrumental in developing the DYR brand and orchestrating the station’s imminent move to brand new premises in Florida Road. Cameron Claassens has championed the technical challenges of DYR and built sales systems and almost single-handedly wired up the brand new studios.
Tebogo Mashego, with over 15 years experience in community radio has worked countless hours to draft a constitution and do all the administrative work and recruiting and fundamentals that have kept the station running as it begins to find its feet
DYR has featured hundreds of interviews with Durban musicians, artists, scholars, bands, entrepreneurs and community members, while following its music-focus format. DYR provides a valuable platform for Durban music-makers. It prides itself in giving new undiscovered musical talent a break by giving airtime for unsigned original artists. Its playlist is quirky and brave, playing music by young artists – many of them local – for young (and young at heart) listeners.
“We are thrilled to be making this move!” says Minter-Brown. “We enjoyed our time at the BAT Centre and are hugely grateful for their years of support. While we have enjoyed every minute of being based in the picturesque harbour, we have outgrown our premises and the need for new studios became an urgent matter Our move to Florida Rd coincides with a considerable upgrade process and improved technical infrastructure within Durban Youth Radio. We can’t wait to be operational in our new studios with our new state of the art broadcast technology.”
Minter-Brown says: “We met with Urban Lime, a company heavily involved in regeneration of the city, and made plans to move into their new Florida Road development. We have been relying on a lot of Durban business to help us with our needs, and many have donated or sponsored or traded the things and services we need – for which we are enormously grateful!
“We are pleased to announce that our move is scheduled for mid-March. As part of our migration from one studio to the other, the good news is that we are installing a new state-of-the art transmitter which will vastly improve our signal clarity, and ability to reach far and wide throughout our city – so DYR will continue to grow with, and reflect the sound of the 031,” said Minter-Brown.