Radio Jamaica Celebrating 70 Years

Page 10 Sunday July 4, 2021 Ownership Change In the mid 1970s, another change came to RJR as the Government, under Michael Manley, acquired ownership of the station from the British Rediffusion Group and divested RJR to a range of “people- based organisations,” including trade unions, credit unions, farmers, professional associations, and staff. RJR became fully Jamaican-owned and began setting the standard for Jamaican-owned broadcast media. The legally mandated diverse nature of the company’s shareholdings remained intact despitemovement in the ownership of the shares andRJR, merging with The Gleaner Company, to become The RJRGLEANER Communications Group in 2016. Corporate Citizen RJR’s ownership has been reflected in its corporate policy as RJR has consistently been concernedwith being a good corporate citizen, initiating numerous programmes to support charities and needy institutions, and adopting a number of community groups and institutions as special targets for assistance. It is a beloved entity in the Lyndhurst Road area as evidenced by the incredible demand for its annual calendars. Acquisition of Television In 1997, RJR acquired most of the assets of the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation in a deal with the P.J. Patterson led government. RJR renamed JBC-TV Television Jamaica (TVJ) and JBC Radio 2 HITZ 92FM and revamped their programming. With all the new media now owned by RJR, including JNN (Jamaica News Network) and Reggae Entertainment Television (RE-TV) , it was decided that it would be more efficient to reinvent RJR as a group of companies with its various components. The RJR Communications Group then comprised eight entities, including Multimedia Jamaica (its multimedia arm) and TVJ SN (TVJ Sports Network ). In 2004, RJR moved all of its operations based at the former South Odeon Avenue home of JBC to Broadcasting House at 32 Lyndhurst Road, where it had established a brand new media centre to house both its television operations as well as its modern news centre. In 2016, RJR and The Gleaner Company Limited merged to become the RJRGLEANER Communications Group, and as a result, two more radio stations were added to its ownership, Power 106FM and Music 99FM . However, as a regulatory condition of the merger, Music 99FM was sold this year. It in no longer available on Over The Air transmittion, but is still available online. In 2020, a decision was made to revert RJR 94FM to its original name, and its lead station was rebranded as Radio Jamaica 94FM , bringing the station full circle to its 1950 genesis 70 years ago. continued from page 9