Based: Cape Town
Host of the popular KFM 94.5 drive time show Flash Drive with Carl Wastie, broadcast weekdays from 15h00 to 19h00, Carl Wastie (32) has become much more than just a household name. The award-winning radio personality – who this year marks his tenth anniversary in the radio industry – also hosts The Coca Cola Top40 SA every Saturday from 10h00 to 14h00 on KFM 94.5, lends his voice and personality to television inserts, emceeing and voice-overs, is an avid amateur five-aside football player, and still finds time to be father to eight-year-old Zac.
Named as a Liberty Radio Awards Bright Star in April 2018, Wastie has always lived by a philosophy that incorporates hard work and fun by the bucket load topped by a seemingly boundless energy. After matriculating in 2003, he took a gap-year to work and assist his family. In that year, Wastie found the time to be a video store manager, a football and water-polo coach, a UPS salesman, a mall promo guy as well as an emcee. But it was whilst working at the video store that a customer – who recognised Wastie’s immense untapped potential – handed him a bursary application to study Psychology at the University of Cape Town (UCT)…
In Wastie’s final year of studying, he was once again spotted but this time he was invited for a voice test at Good Hope FM. The successful test led him to his first stand-in on commercial radio, where he joined Ryan O’Connor on The Drive Show. Shortly thereafter, O’Connor left and Wastie took up the position of being the fulltime sports presenter on the weekday breakfast show The Drive Show featuring Paul Playdon and Tracey Lange. In 2009, Guy McDonald replaced Paul Playdon as the host of The Drive Show which Wastie still presented sports for. Together they took the show to greatness and won the MTN Radio Award in 2009 for The Best Afternoon Drive Show. In 2010, Wastie moved over to the breakfast show, and six short years later, in 2015, Wastie was given the opportunity to present the weekday daytime show Afternoon LIVE as well as the Good Hope FM Hot 30 every Saturday morning. The former being the station’s most-widely listened to show.
Wastie-ing no time, the video store manager come sports presenter come radio show host, joined the KFM 94.5 on-air team in 2016, hosting the weekday mid-afternoon show The Switch. Not long after that, he was given the drive time slot which so many now love and enjoy every weekday between 15h00 and 19h00. The Flash Drive with Carl Wastie, sees Wastie joined by sports presenter Barron Hufkie and traffic presenter Zoë Brown, who together help commuters battle the afternoon traffic with hilarious segments such as DansDag*, Wildcard, Wannelaas*, Weekend Starter Edition and Psy-Carl-ogy; the former being a segment which gives Wastie the opportunity to stretch his Psychology Major muscles as he encourages listeners to call in and vent or get some much-needed advice on a matter, which he tries to soothe away by playing a related song as ‘therapy’. Through the years, Wastie has worked with and emceed for brands such as Baskin Robbins; Coca-Cola; Huawei; Mercedes-Benz; MTN; Pizza Hut; Vodacom and Volkswagen; to name only a few. Having come from a family steeped in creativity, Wastie is not shy about getting his hands figuratively dirty and always looks to offer his clients innovative and engaging event concepts that complement the client’s needs and equally match his unique emcee style.
