How fate decided on Lerato’s radio career

Lerato Maila says she has never imagined herself to be one of the people behind the mic, all she ever wanted to become was a psychologist.

By Cherrol Skosana

The passion driven radio personality, Lerato Maila, well-known on air as ‘LeeLove’ says her willingness to learn has turned her into the self –taught personality she is today. She was taught the right way to read news and do financial indicators, most of which she learned by just listening to other news readers. She taught herself to read sports and traffic because at some point on her breakfast show The Capital Breakfast on Tshwane FM, she had to host a three hour show all by herself.

HER ASPIRATIONS

Lerato has always been fascinated about the magic creation, the creation of the final product people hear on radio and see on TV. “As a child I’ve always wondered what exactly is done behind the scenes so that we could watch what we see on TV and hear what we hear on radio. But like any ordinary young child those were just questions with no answers to,” she says. As inquisitive as she was as a child, never in her wildest dreams did she ever imagine herself to be one of the people talking behind the mic today.  “I always like to say that I feel like radio chose me and not the other way round, considering the fact that fresh from matric I always knew that I’m going to be a psychologist. However, my results were not adequate to qualify me to study in the psychology field so I opted for a bridging course in Events Management at Varsity college,” she shares. And from that year onwards she would like to believe that fate had already decided that psychology wouldn’t be for her.

HOW SHE GOT INTO RADIO

Shortly after graduating for the events course at Varsity College, Lerato had no plans on what to do next with her life. Luckily enough, a friend came to her with information pertaining Tshwane FM auditions. “The initial plan was to accompany a friend to audition but to our surprise, I found myself auditioning too but I didn’t make it through. Five months later, I was called by the same radio station to come and co-host a Saturday night show which played for an hour,” she explains. Lerato gradually worked her way up into doing a weekday radio show.  A year later, she started reading news for the afternoon drive show which she later became the host of. In less than a year, Lerato had already moved on to the breakfast show of which she’s currently the host, newsreader, traffic reporter and a team leader.

INSPIRATION AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Lerato draws her inspiration from her mother, firstly seeing as a single mother her strength and firmness and her strict hand with which she was raised is to this day highly admired and appreciated. “More inspiration comes from one of the industry giants in the radio field Thuso Motaung, whom I grew up listening to every weekend ever since I can remember,” she says.  Lerato has received recognition in the radio field such as two liberty awards nominations for the best campus breakfast show and the best campus news reader. Other awards nominations include the 2018 Pheli awards for the best Radio personality and the best radio show ‘The Capital Breakfast’.