Thato Sikwane dropped out of his legal studies to become a DJ in 1994. Today, he’s sold more than a million records, laughed away the cultural divides on the SABC’s pop channel 5FM, and is aiming to open an independent station in Johannesburg.

At 37, the 1,85m radio entrepreneur, better known as DJ Fresh, has never taken an overdraft or a bank loan en route to building one of SA’s lowest-profile, high-performance entertainment companies.

“Every move I’ve made is on gut feel,” he says.

“I haven’t studied branding, marketing or management. I just don’t take risks; I find opportunities that complement my business and put them into play using resources I can trust.”

Botswana-born and studying at a Boston City campus, he joined Johannesburg’s edgy new YFM at start-up in 1997. Its daily play list of kwaito, hip-hop, R&B and dance music snagged a million listeners a day, mostly from SABC stations with dated formats. The hottest programme was DJ Fresh’s house music show; it introduced his own brand of township and international dance beats, and led to 23 mix albums that have sold nonstop ever since.

Sikwane has also spun his visibility in broadcasting and concerts into advertising campaigns — the latest was Nintendo’s commercial for the holiday season.

“I cross many markets on radio and TV and live gigs, as I’ve shown over the past dozen years,” he says, swigging designer water at a cafe nearby the SABC before heading off to his weekday 3pm-7pm show.

“Being in the right place at the right time as new trends emerge is important. The crossover of music as a cultural and commercial force in our society is astonishing. I’ve stayed in step with that evolution.”

Sikwane has cultivated that marketing synch since 2002, when YFM sidelined its street-level appeal to go for a share of Gauteng’s lucrative advertising market. The station moved from a large house in funky Bertrams to sleek studios and offices in Rosebank’s fashionable mall, The Zone.

Taking over the breakfast show against Highveld Stereo’s prized Jeremy Mansfield, DJ Fresh opted for the sharp-sharp approach. His image, soaped up in a shower cap, was plastered over billboards at major intersections. His format switched from nightclub cat to the Big Dawg of the morning rush hour, using comedy, music, sexy phone-ins and lively debate on the issues of the day. Leading politicians, sports idols and tabloid sensations lined up to be guests on the show.

His popularity affected rival stations. By 2005, 5FM, Kaya FM and even KwaZulu-Natal’s East Coast Radio had offers on the table but he was not interested in another morning show. A year later, 5FM offered him its afternoon drive slot.

“I chose 5FM to expand my market,” he says. “I wanted to relate to listeners in every part of the country without changing the style I was known for. As a brand, I wanted to retain my Gauteng audience while reaching the whole country: to have the best of both worlds.”

That brand combines his national radio footprint and his success as one of Africa’s top producers of dance music.

It is a resumé that began when he was a teenage dance DJ at Gaborone’s Maruapula High, where he shaped his own style from a blend of Metro FM’s Treasure Tshabalala and the beats being played on New York’s hot black station, WBLS, taped for him by a family friend at the United Nations.

As a young student at the University of Botswana, Sikwane joined campus radio and won the regional Lemon Twist DJ of the Year title. Covering all career options, he then opted to study law in Johannesburg, where the new democratic government was licensing indie stations for the first time.

Breaking through on YFM, he made his name by mixing slower forms of America’s house music craze for the kwaito market, and released his first Fresh House Flava album in December 1998. It sold 100000 copies, a success he has maintained by taking his latest mixes to Miami’s annual DJ Conference and getting them sampled by big-name DJs on the world club circuit.

He is one of them. DJ Fresh has been playing large venues in his own country and in London, Ibiza, Miami and Moscow, with colleagues such as Masters At Work and Frankie Knuckles.

Today, he estimates he earns up to R75000 from three club bookings a weekend at home — although he points out that fees here are often less than their real worth when measured against the crowds a headline DJ can attract to the venue.

“If you are in demand as a DJ, you should not be working for less than R30000-R50000 a show,” says Sikwane.

“But even ahead of the demand that the World Cup will bring this winter, our DJs are generally undercharging.”

On average, he says, the fees being charged by artists (recorded bands and singers) are in the R70000-R100000 range for an outdoor booking, for a 20-minute set often backed by music on disc.

The average DJ for the same event might charge R10000-R20000 for a show that keeps the audience dancing for between two and three hours.

“To me, and to the promoter, a DJ makes better business sense,” says Sikwane. “As spending slows, we are getting more bookings than recording artists. In my own case, I can offer completely different sets of music from show to show — moving from Soweto to the East Rand to Sandton, say, in a period of 10-12 hours.”

When setting a fee, the only reliable gauge of a dance DJ’s worth, he explains, is the door count. “If I believe a gig is worth R100000 but I’ll do it for R70000, I’m really saying that I can only deliver a certain number of people at the door,” says Sikwane.

“If, for example, I charge the promoter R10000 and he charges R100 at the door, he’s calculating that I can only attract 100 people. But if I guarantee you 500 people at the door at R100 a head, I’m worth R50000 before sales of food and beverage are factored in.”

The maths is simple but many DJs do not bother to crunch the numbers, he shrugs. “That’s certainly the way that the big artists do it here and overseas. When Madonna does a concert, the door is hers: she brings them in and the promoter makes his margin on the concession sales.”

Sikwane takes a similarly hard line with offers to host TV shows. In the ’90s, his weekly Studio Mix show on the SABC was a viewership favourite. Since then he has avoided TV work, no matter how much it could benefit his annual income.

Ryan Seacrest, he acknowledges, is the top-earning international DJ because he is a worldwide brand — using his exposure on American Idol to complement his syndicated radio show and red-carpet interviews for the E! Entertainment network.

The South African market is not yet ready for a brand to grow that big, he says. “I’d like a TV deal but it has to be the right one. Negotiations start with what I bring to the table in terms of my radio audience.”

It is a major weapon. Sikwane has integrated his national audience since 2006; his radio show is up 15% a year due to a rise of 45% in black listenership with no loss of white fans. Advertisers are loving it, he agrees, with a Tom Tom endorsement just concluded and a Touareg parked outside from his Volkswagen sponsorship.

“A lot more brands want to associate with me,” he says. He has a handful of other deals on the table, starting in March.

Meanwhile, he is finishing up a double album of mix tracks with another 5FM DJ, Euphonik, for the Miami DJ Conference in March.

It is a worthwhile venture. In 2002, Nike picked up a Dutch DJ’s mix of an Elvis Presley hit, A Little Less Conversation, for its World Cup campaign. “If just one big-name DJ or producer or advertiser picks up on one of our mixes as an anthem for the 2010 World Cup, sales will be huge,” Sikwane smiles.

His biggest entrepreneurial move, however, is joining a consortium applying for a broadcasting licence for a new Johannesburg station.

Should broadcasting regulator Icasa green-light the bid, the Big Dawg’s roar will shake up the radio market as radically as it did when the first indie licences were handed out in 1997.

“It would mean me moving to the new station’s breakfast show,” Sikwane admits, “but that’s not decided yet. I’m not doing it to make money. If that was my motivation I could have moved to Highveld Stereo some time ago.

“For me, the excitement of being with a new station backed by substantial business and radio experience is to have a strong voice in the boardroom as well as the studio.”

I wanted to relate to listeners in every part of the country without changing the style I was known for.