Colourful John Robbie signs off after 30 years

IF YOU ever felt like shooting John Robbie for something he said on radio, you would have to get in line behind Eugene de Kock.

He revealed some time ago to Robbie that his name was on the rightwinger’s hit list. “We didn’t like this Robbie on the radio”, was what he told Robbie when he interviewed De Kock off-air.

But in 30 years of being onair, Robbie has seldom shied away from controversy. He remembers being bold enough to send a cheeky message to president Nelson Mandela on a dinner function menu.

Madiba had just become president and 702 only managed to get a few seats to a broadcasting media dinner that had been monopolised by the state broadcaster.

Frustrated, Robbie scribbled on the menu something to the effects of “Mr President, it’s not a long walk to the table at the end of the room, we’d also love to speak to you”.

It worked, Mandela obliged. In the 40 minutes he spent at the table Mandela also told Robbie to “shut up” at one point, before breaking into a smile. “I think Bill Clinton and I are the only two people he’s publicly told to ‘shut up’,” says Robbie.

The day after the announcement of his retirement from the station (but not from working life), messages have flooded his inbox and the switchboard from everyone from Joe Public to Jonathan Jansen and Tony Leon.

Robbie’s been a master at using the commercial radio platform for everything from product endorsement, to taking on tough interviewees, sparking important conversations, to getting people to sign up as organ donors.

He signs off officially in January.

See John Robbie’s column on page 26.