By Liezl Maclean

Lights! Camera! Action! Jeremy Maggs speaks with a smile broader than the open skies. You’ve all seen him on telly, anchoring away and tackling some of the toughest topics in town.

 Jeremy is one of SA’s most well-known television, radio and print journalists. He currently co-anchors the Primetime news show – News Night - on DStv’s eNews Channel with Nikiwe Bikitsha. It was actually inevitable that Jeremy would end up in the media industry. He comes from a family of big readers and his mother was a very good writer. “I think the first thing my mother did when I was out of nappies, was to sign me up at a library,” he jokes.

“I’ve always read a lot. I think by the age of 15 or 16 I had a sense that I wanted to go into journalism and that is the path that I followed. And I’ve never wanted to do anything else – I’m lucky!”

Having studied Journalism at the then Natal Technikon, Jeremy began a career in journalism writing for such publications as the Eastern Province Herald and Durban’s Sunday Tribune. His first radio job was at 702 where he stayed for ten years, becoming the station’s news editor and regular current affairs anchor.

When asked which aspect of the media he enjoys most, Jeremy chooses his words carefully – for him, it’s a tough call. “I’ve done it all – print, radio and television – and I’ve always enjoyed what I was doing at the time. I have a deep love for radio. But I also love television. I love the process, the adrenalin, the immediacy and the drama of show business.”

But being a news anchor is not all just glitz and glamour. It’s hard work. Broadcasters are exposed to heat from lighting equipment and its also difficult splitting your concentration between focussing on the person you’re interviewing and having someone talk into your ear all the time. According to Jeremy you need to be focussed, have a lot of stamina and be broadcast fit in this game. “The secret in broadcasting is not asking the questions, it’s listening to the answers,” he says with a big smile.

At News Night, his day is a busy one and as Jeremy puts it, his work day starts when he opens his eyes in the morning! “It’s critical that I listen to a variety of radio news bulletins in the morning and then I also make sure that I’m reading the newspapers thoroughly,” he says while sending a message on his blackberry. One can’t go into this job without knowing what the news landscape is, so for any budding journalists out there, it’s important that you have a ‘nose for news’ and an insatiable curiosity.

“You have to be interested in covering the truth. You need a strong moral centre and you need to be able to tell when people aren’t telling the truth – a skill which you develop with wisdom. And then of course, you need to have a sense of show business,”

But back to his work day. When Jeremy arrives at the studio at about 15:30, he reads into the rest of the day. “I find out what has been on the channel during the day to get a sense of what the day’s news landscape looks like.”

This is followed by meetings at 16:00 and looking at the ‘running of the day’s programme’ – the order of the stories in the bulletin - that Jeremy will be hosting.

“We also discuss the guests that we’re featuring for the day. Ideally in a three-hour programme we have about nine to ten  guests in the show. Nikiwe and I will then discuss who’s going to interview who. It’s a process of agreement on consensus.”

That’s followed by yet another meeting. This time round with the output editor and executive producer – who Jeremy mentions are very critical people in the mix. During all of this Jeremy is still reading into what they’ve got planned for the bulletin and constructing interview preparation.

At about 17:00 it’s make-up time. “In my case it doesn’t take too long because boys are easier than girls,” Jeremy jokes, while pointing out that he’s still reading and trying to get a sense of the upcoming bulletin.

“At 17:58 our microphones are set up, we’re seated and the technical director is running through the order of the bulletin, just making sure that the cameras are in place and then we start at 18:00,” he explains.

“There are days when it’s hectic and there’re days when it’s not – that’s the nature of 24-hour television,” he beams.

And for Jeremy there is nothing more rewarding than doing a good interview. “It’s great when your questioning has been thorough and vigorous enough to get the person to say something they wouldn’t otherwise have said. I like that,” he says with a cheeky grin.

But be prepared: showbiz certainly also has its tricky moments. “I remember when I first started broadcasting on radio I did an interview with a fairly well-known politician. It was honestly one of the easiest interviews ever but I was still very wet behind the ears. He was sitting in front of me and I totally blanked out – I didn’t know who he was! The feeling of perspiration developed all over me. I panicked and can’t even remember what I did. It was horrible – I’ve tried to blank it out,” he shudders.

His advice for anyone who wants to break into the game: “Don’t wait for the door to open, break the door down! Don’t just send your CV in, find someone who’ll champion it for you, and pester that person. Do something creative in getting into the industry. Be prepared to work for nothing and have a strong opinion about things.”

And with those final wise words, he dashes into the studio for a live recording. That’s the nature of 24-hour news.