The Pumamouse Website: South African Old-Time Radio: Vintage Radio: Host Hans Bac

South African Old-Time Radio
Vintage Radio Host Hans Bac

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Welcome to the "VINTAGE RADIO HOST HANS BAC" webpage of
The Pumamouse Website!

As you may already know, the "VINTAGE RADIO" program currently airing on RADIO TODAY 1485AM is being hosted by Hans Bac.
Mr. Bac is no stranger to RADIO TODAY's listening audience. For some time, he has been the host of the weekly nostalgic music program "NOSTALGIC JUKEBOX" on RADIO TODAY that airs on Fridays from 8:00PM to 10:00PM. Now, he also delights listeners every Thursday night from 7:00PM to 8:00PM as the host of "VINTAGE RADIO".

Hans Bac recently shared his personal recollections of his early days in radio with The Pumamouse. An excerpt of his account is included below for your enjoyment with his knowledge and kind permission.
Dankie, Hans!!!

If you are lucky enough to reside within the broadcast range of the
RADIO TODAY transmission signal, make the most of your good fortune! Please be sure to tune in to 1485AM every Thursday night from 7:00PM to 8:00PM, and listen to the best of surviving South African Old-Time Radio productions, hosted by Hans Bac.

"1485AM…The Voice Of Entertainment"
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The Pumamouse
(MaryAnne)
August 2002

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"Vintage Radio Host Hans Bac"

THE VINTAGE RADIO NAUGHTINESS OF
HANS BAC

I must tell you a story of when I worked at the SABC. The year was 1956, the place was Cape Town. I had just left school and applied for a job with the Corporation. My hobby was repairing and building radio
sets, so the only vehicle for this sort of career was to join the Corporation
(or so I thought). The other option was to do an apprenticeship, get very low pay for five years, after which, with some extra studies, I would be qualified to be a radio engineer.

My ambition did not allow me to waste such a long time on apprenticeship. I joined the Corporation in the Maintenance Division, but to start off, I had to do Programme Controlling. I certainly did not mind this, and I learnt a lot in a short period of three months. At this time, I had been put into the Maintenance Staff, and my career was set to leap forward.

You are probably aware that the Corporation at this time ran only three National programmes, namely the English Service, the Afrikaans Service, and the Commercial Service, being Springbok Radio. Now, Springbok Radio originated from the Johannesburg studios. At Cape Town, we just had to man a control desk, to check that the station remained on the air without interruptions.

The feed was supplied by the National Post Office in the form of Music Open Broadcast Channels. They supplied us with two routes, so, should one fail, we immediately had to switch to the alternate route. The Controller would sit at his desk for 1.5 hours at a stretch, when relief would be given for a 30 minute period, then one started again for the next 1.5 hours, filling an eight hour day. Some of us would read, others spent time on the phone, phoning their friends, etc.

One Sunday, a pretty young girl with the name of Wendy, (her surname fails me at the moment), had just started in the job. I was on duty in the Main Control and, to pass the time, I said too my superior, Dan Hugo,
"I am taking a walk to see all is well in the various studios." I arrived at the Springbok Radio Control Room, and Wendy was on duty. She said
to me, "This job is so boring, especially on a Sunday."

Now, on Sundays, no commercials were allowed to be played, no pop music. Only sponsors names were allowed to be mentioned, but no mention was to be made of what the product did or stood for. For a
young teenager, this was hell. Wendy said to me, "It's a pity we cannot pick up Lourenco Marques Radio." (They could play anything, that was the reason for the station's popularity at the time.) Naturally, being
young, I agreed with her. I left it at that after a little longer chat.

I got back upstairs and asked Dan, "Would it be possible to pick up LM Radio and feed it into the Springbok Control Room monitor?" We had a radio receiver in Main Control, used for Short Wave standby transmissions. We duly tuned into the 25 meter band, and there it was, loud and clear. Quietly, we took a patch chord, plugged it into the Springbok Radio Control Room monitor. Then we sat back and waited
for the results. Five, ten, and fifteen minutes passed by. We heard nothing from Wendy.

Eventually, a phone call came from her desk. In absolute jubilation, she confirmed that she had LM Radio and Springbok had just disappeared. We of course said, "That is not possible." So, both Dan and I went to see her in the Control Room and confirmed that it was indeed LM Radio that was on line. We pretended that we were not the culprits of this gag, and we made her write a report and put it in her log.

After a while, we had to own up to our prank, but it passed some of the time. We were her best buddies after this, and when she was on duty
on a Sunday, she would always ask us to give her LM Radio...