Veteran South African radio DJ and sports broadcaster Darren Scott has passed away after battling an aggressive form of skin cancer, which had resurfaced several times over the years. Darren spent much of the past few months in the hospital battling stage four malignant melanoma for several years. He is survived by his sons, Mark and Matthew.
Tributes from friends and fans came pouring remembering the passionate and professional legend. The veteran broadcaster, who was in the United States with his children, said he had to return to South Africa to work in order to fund his cancer treatment.
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Scott started his career at Capital Radio from 1984 until 1992. When he matriculated from De La Salle College (Johannesburg) in 1981, instead of pursuing a career in radio, Darren studied medicine at the University of Pretoria. While at TUKS he spent a lot of time at TUKS FM which was still only a campus radio station back then. His interest in medicine faded quickly and in his second year, he decided to abandon his medical degree and pursue a BA Communications Degree at RAU. After Capital Radio he went on to work at 702 Music Radio, 702 Talk Radio, 5FM, East Coast Radio, Jacaranda 94.2, Hot 91.9FM, OFM, and Mix 93.8FM, on all of them either prime time Breakfast or Afternoon Drive Shows. He has also worked on television, for a period of 25 years. He started as a continuity announcer and presenter of the music show “Hot Hits” on Mnet, before becoming their first sports presenter on Supersport, where he anchored major sporting events between 1988 and 2011. He is best known as the face of rugby on Supersport, hosting major rugby matches and internationals, anchoring 3 Rugby World Cups, and hosting the legendary “Boots & All” with Naas Botha for 15 years.
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He has been nominated for over 30 Liberty Radio Awards, of which he has won 14, including the Best Breakfast Presenter or Show for every year he was nominated. He was also the SA Sports Journalist of the Year in 1997 and has won 1 X You Magazine Personality of the Year Award and 2 X People Magazine Sports Presenter of the Year awards. “I’ve always had my heart set on radio,” he said in one of his interviews.
