KTV was launched by Mnet in 1990. There was so much excitement because nothing on television for kids existed in South Africa.
Mnet searched the entire country for talented, gorgeous and confident kids who could handle the pressure of intense fame and long gruelling hours in the studio under hot studio lights. After months of auditions, Mnet made their final decision. All presenters were between the ages of 7 and 13 and they were Candice Hillebrand Kim Frickleton Bodine Hametner Heather Mckensie Wayne Kopping Mathew Stewardson This was still in the awful time of apartheid so no African presenters were hired but when President Mandela was released the same year, South Africa luckily began to change and in 1992 KTV hired their first African presenter Clenton Motoung who became so unbelievably popular and loved. The presenters spoke English as well as Afrikaans. Bodine had a lovely brother called Gerhard who would come to the studio every day and watch his sister and one day, Mnet decided to audition him and he was a complete natural on screen and became a permanent presenter. KTV was a massive success from day 1. The hours were intense for the presenters. KTV was on air every week day from Monday to Friday 3pm to 5pm and then they would film live every Saturday and Sunday morning from 7am till 11am. The studio started off as a loft but gradually became cooler and more modern as it turned into a diner where the kids could snack on sponsored foods throughout their time on air. There was a live studio audience which was extremely popular. Kids would queue for hours in the hot African sun hoping to get a place in the studio and to catch a glimpse of their favourite presenter. The KTV presenters became so incredibly famous that whenever they went out in public, they had to have 24 hour security otherwise they would get mobbed. Every year, the presenters did a Summer Tour where they toured the entire country and did a performance on stage which included singing, dancing, playing games with the excited audience as well as filming television segments. There was one instance at The Waterfront in Cape Town where the presenters were on stage and, all of a sudden, the security barrier was crushed and thousands of manic kids ran up on stage screaming and grabbing the presenters. Kim and Candy had their clothes ripped off them. They were so shaken and frightened that security had to carry them over everyone's head into a secure locked off area. After that, Mnet was more careful about crowd control and bodyguards! The programmes KTV aired were very popular and at that time it was The Tennage Mutant Ninja Turtles that rocked our world! KTV also did so many in studio fun shows like Roundabout which was a news show created for kids by kids and was presented by Wayne Kopping and Kim Frickleton. It featured interesting news on what was going on in SA at the time as well as visiting Robbin Island and interviewing President Nelson Mandela when he was finally released from Jail. This became our most popular segment along with Simba Surprise which was presented by Candice Hillebrand and consisted of her going to someone's house first thing in the morning whilst they still slept and surprising them in bed with Simba The Lion. The excitement at the thought of a visit from Candy was insane! KTV also had Playback which featured the top music videos at the time and whenever a group visited SA, they would come into the studio for an interview. The KTV presenters all went to normal schools, none of them were home schooled but they had to study for exams etc whilst at work, it wasn't as glamorous as it looked. The hours were long and gruelling. The studio lights were hot, the scripts were long and they had to learn wevery single word by heart, no reading off autoque was allowed and the wend call time for them to be at the studio was 4 am so they never got the chance to go to parties the night before so they did make sacrifices but the pros far outweighed the cons as they traveled the world first class and went to fun places like Disneyworld and London etc. KTV stayed on air until 2011 when it finally said goodbye. A SAD DAY FOR SOUTH AFRICA AND FOR MNET. Over those years the presenters changed a lot as the original gang grew up and decided to change career paths or some of them moved overseas for work opportunities. I am so happy there is still such a love for KTV. The Twitter account and all the stuff online proves how much KTV lives in our hearts. It was a time of innocence and carefree days as we were all young and hopeful and it was before iPads or iPods or iPhones existed 😬And so the magic of television was even more special. Hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane with us and thanks for sending in so many photos and memories to add to our treasured collection 🙏🏻 We are trying to organise a reunion of the original presenters so we can find out what they are doing now and we can have some fun looking back at their best and worst work!!! Hold thumbs it works out ❤️ KTV ❤️ KTV ❤️ KTV ❤️ KTV ❤️ KTV ❤️ KTV ❤️ KTV ❤️ KTV ❤️ KTV ❤️ KTV ❤️ KTV |