Lotus FM

South African radio station

Lotus FM
Programming

Frequency	87.7 - 106.8 MHz
Format	Indian ethnic
Ownership
Owner	SABC
History
First air date	1983
Links
Website	http://www.lotusfm.co.za

Lotus FM (formerly, Radio Lotus) is a South African national radio station based in Durban, loosely similar to the BBC Asian Network in the United Kingdom, that caters for the needs of the Indian South African community. It combines a mix of Indian music, news, current affairs, interviews and entertainment. Lotus FM targets South African Indians between the ages of 25-34 (core) and 35-49 (secondary) in the LSM 7-10 segment.

Lotus FM has occasionally been the subject of complaints, with people of South Indian descent claiming that the station's broadcasts favour Hindi music over Tamil music.^[1]^[2]

The Lotus FM studio complex is based at the SABC in Durban, next to the famous Kingsmead Cricket stadium.

Disc jockeys

The following is a list of On-Air Personalities who present and produce shows on the station (including weekends)

Alan Chetty
Alan Khan
Althaf Suleman
Ashit Desai
Aksoy Turkish
Avin Moorley
Byron David
Deon Chetty
Diresh Sinath
Enrico Pillay
Julian Lurie
Jailoshini Naidoo
Josh Michael Reddiar
Karusha Chetty
Mala Lutchmanan
Manick Thor
Mihir Sharmin Govindasami
Navitha Gajraj
Nicholas Pillay
O'Neil Nair
Pravina Maharaj
Raeesa Mahomed

Rakesh Ramdhin
Ravi Govender
Ryan Naicker
Sareshan Pillay
Shirdika Pillai
Shaastra Nagasur
Sudhisha Naidoo
Suresh Harilal
Sanobar Khan
Sahendran Kandasami
'n Protea Petalje
Tharshey Naidoo
Varshan Sookhun
Veena Lutchman

^[3] ^[4]

Frequencies

The station broadcasts in FM on the following frequencies throughout South Africa

Coverage Areas & Frequencies^[5]
Area	Freq.
Durban	87.7 MHz
Ladysmith	87.9 MHz
Port Shepstone	88.2 MHz
Pietermaritzburg	88.3 MHz
North Coast	87.7
Durban North	89.4 MHz
Glencoe	90.0 MHz
Cape Town	97.8 MHz
Port Elizabeth	98.3 MHz
Pretoria	100.1 MHz
Johannesburg	106.8 MHz

Listenership Figures

Estimated Listenership^[6]
	7 Day	Ave. Mon-Fri
May 2013	339 000	189 000
Feb 2013	323 000	186 000
Dec 2012	331 000	189 000
Oct 2012	323 000	181 000
Aug 2012	317 000	178 000
Jun 2012	331 000	187 000

References

^ "TimesLIVE".
^ "TimesLIVE".
^ Saffee Siddique died on 23 November 2012: http://news.artsmart.co.za/2012/11/death-of-saffee-siddique_2452.html
^ CJ Benjamin was fired after a breach in company policy in 2009. http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/lotus-fm-dj-to-fight-for-job-1.460722#.UjmO5dUoEwY
^ Lotus FM Website (Profile) Archived 2013-05-27 at the Wayback Machine
^ SAARF RAMS (Presentations)