Radio Jamaica Celebrating 70 Years

Page 48 Sunday July 4, 2021 I n a conversation with Ronald ‘Chippie’Wallace , Supervisor, Engineering Department, the following information was offered: “In terms of outside broadcasting for radio, we currently have eight outside broadcast units. Around Kingston, we use mainly transmitters to send the signal back to master and then out to our subscribers and listeners, and outside of Kingston, we use mainly Access, which is Internet-based. Regular OB remote transmitters are used in Kingston. Normally, we do not do more than seven outside broadcasts simultaneously because although we have eight units, we have only seven technicians, so to use the other one, we would have to contract an outside technician. During Cross Country Invasion , we actually do eight simultaneous outside broadcasts.” Wallace added: “Nowadays, the size of the broadcast team has grown significantly. Back in the early days of radio, it was mainly two-person teams that went out on outside broadcasts – one announcer and one technician-engineer, who also drove the unit. Nowadays, the common number is anywhere from four to five people: one or two announcers; an engineer-technician; a driver, who most often also does branding (feather banners and other branding items); a DJ, who spins the music; and a producer. What this has meant is that we are limited not just by the number of units, but by the amount of technical equipment. If you have two announcers, you need two wireless microphones, then you have a DJ, who needs a portable DJ unit even if it’s just a virtual unit on a laptop. And, of course, the vast majority of our outside broadcasts are promos. These are when one of our advertising clients buys time on one of our regularly scheduled programmes to do a specially targeted marketing exercise, for example, the opening of a new outlet for a retail group; or the opening of a new agency for an insurance company; or, perhaps, the availability of new products at an established entity. RJR also does a number of internal promotions, the biggest one of which for Radio Jamaica and the RJR Group is Cross Country Invasion , which entails taking some of the station’s most popular announcers and personalities across the island to meet their fans at a series of live concerts and fun events.” In the very beginning, back in the ‘50s, RJR started outside broadcasting very early as this was part of the vision for the station from the onset, so the station did outside broadcasts of Parliament, special national events, as well the Talent Parade , live from the Carib cinema. At the time, live broadcasts were done by two-person teams via repeaters around Kingston and via telephone in rural parishes. However, the telephone transmissions suffered from lack of technical quality, and, therefore, RJR tried to move to OB via wireless as early as possible, although this was limited by the availability of repeater stations. One of the most popular outside broadcasts in the early period was racing from Caymanas Park, which made Brim Brimble a household name. Trevor Johnson , Production Manager, Outside Broadcasting, 21st Century Outside Broadcasting In the past 70 years, there has been a revolution in how RJR conducts outside broadcasts. We spoke with two of the group’s principals in this area to understand how the changes have affected operations. continues on page 49