Heart 104.9FM’s Breakfast Show host Aden Thomas on Wednesday broadcast an emotional eight-minute farewell, simultaneously on radio and on Facebook, to his sacked former colleague, Clarence Ford.
Clarence, 54, had been with the station for 24 years before he was dismissed with immediate effect on Monday, amid allegations of bullying by station management.
Aden called the news of his abrupt departure and a “sucker punch”.
He said the industry was a tough one and those who ply their trade in it for many years know that the end must come at some point.
“For some, that discussion or email or call comes sooner than it does for others and then there are a handful of us who have been blessed beyond measure to have survived for a decade or two and, in our case, three decades and beyond as broadcasters,” he says.
“Such has been the history and the legacy of Clarence Ford, the true godfather of radio and one of the original trailblazers in our industry in this city.”
Aden spoke of his debt to Ford and fellow broadcaster Dmitri Jegels, both of whom he said had redefined the possibilities for broadcasters in Cape Town.
Touching on the controversy around Clarence’s dismissal, he said: “I don’t necessarily share Clarence’s sentiments around some of what is floating in the media at the moment, but that’s a discussion he and I can have over a glass of whisky some day.”
Choking back tears, Aden concluded: “Our craft is better off for having had you, it is definitely the poorer for having to say goodbye to you but I think you, more than anybody, knows that in order for that next generation to move on through, we’ve got to vacate at some point.
“Our number is up and it very seldom comes at a time of our choosing and as contractors we’ve got to understand that, but, dammit man, it’s been one helluva ride.”
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