John Berks
King of broadcasting, father of commercial talk radio, pioneer of prank calls, the first shock-jock – he has had plenty of names over the years but to those in the industry and his legion of loyal fans, he’s just Berksie, and the recipient of this year’s MTN Lifetime Achievement Award.
When the definitive history of radio in South Africa is eventually written, he’ll be one of the main faces on the cover. A man who in his decades behind the microphone – always with his headphones at full volume much to the annoyance of his sound engineer – understood and practised the two core principles of broadcasting:
that the craft is always about a one-on-one relationship with your listener, and that on any given show day you bring your authentic self to the programme whatever mood you might be in. And of course the show always goes on no matter how you feel. Illness, or a rough night before, is never an excuse.
John Berks was born in Krugersdorp on 24 September 1941 and grew up in Klerksdorp. He worked in a soap factory and at the Germiston Advocate newspaper prior to passing an audition with LM Radio’s Gerry Wilmot having been turned down the previous year by another radio management legend Rob Vickers. John moved back to Joburg as programme manager in 1969. He left LM in 1970 and worked variously for Swazi Music Radio, Springbok Radio, Capital Radio 604 Transkei and Radio 5 as it was then. His most significant move, though, was to Radio 702 in October 1981 where he quickly became the most popular voice on the air. He left 702 in the early 90s but went back to join Gary Edwards who had been the station’s programme manager to co-present the John and Gary talk show. This show became the pulse of Johannesburg for many years and heralded in a new era of radio during the transition to democracy where South Africans finally started opening up and talking to each other.
Berks had a unique ability to draw the very best out of callers, seizing on a phrase or a comment and milking it for all it was worth. The secret he always told younger broadcasters was to listen carefully. He was also not afraid to ask the simplest of questions, the ones we all wanted to but felt stupid doing. He combined that ‘everyman persona’ with the inherent understanding that radio at its essence, whether the format was music or talk, is a medium of entertainment and that his greatest daily accomplishment would be to have people say, ‘Did you hear what Berksie said this morning?’.
John finally retired from 702 in the late 90s. He lives in Johannesburg and part of the year in Cape Town and commutes regularly to the United States where he has family. To a person, everyone we spoke to about John recognised his massive talent, his love for radio, his keen and wicked sense of humour, his delight in impersonation; his appalling golf swing; his love of the standards, and his perpetual willingness to listen to up-and-coming young broadcasters and offer them nothing but praise and encouragement. Berksie, the radio industry salutes a giant – we love you, man.