Riaan Cruywagen will release an autobiography at the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival this year. It will be available in stores from April 2. The man who knows the news before the news happens, has enjoyed a prosperous 47 years in broadcasting, of which 37 were spent as an Afrikaans newsreader.

Four publishers approached him over the years to try to persuade him to write the autobiography, but it was Johnny le Roux, of Naledi, that eventually managed to get Cruywagen to write, Wat’s Nuus.

Cruywagen explained:

When my 4-year-old grandson heard I am writing a book, he asked very innocently: ‘Grandpa, why do you write a book? Why don’t you go and buy one?’ Over the years, as one socialises around the fire or a dinner table, you start telling stories about broadcasting’s old days, things that are not as widely known. Then people ask: ‘Why isn’t it written in a book?’

Le Roux said of the tell-all:

Among other things, Riaan tells why he laughed so hysterically during a broadcast in the eighties, why he appears in music videos these days and sits in a jacuzzi with beautiful, half-naked girls.

Here’s a short documentary that was made about Cruywagen in 2009:

And this was Riaan enjoying popular culture for last year’s advert for the Loerie Awards:

[Source: Channel24]