Radio Jamaica Celebrating 70 Years

Page 58 Sunday July 4, 2021 ADVENTURES IN RADIO Alan Magnus Magnus remembered travelling to work one morning during the height of a political campaign. When he came to a roadblock manned by some of the supporters of one of the political parties, they refused to let him through until Magnus pointed out: “If you don’t let me through, how I going to let the nation know about the roadblock?” At that point, they opened the roadblock and let him through. Derrick Wilks Derrick Wilks remembers: “We were doing Central Invasion in Junction, St Elizabeth, and we were broadcasting from Ardenne Country Villa Guest House. Richie B was the announcer, and I believe it was Tony Allen who was the DJ. We were told that the place to be was there. I had a room in the guest house and was listening to the broadcast, which was superhot, hyped to the max. I was anxious to join in the fun and went downstairs to the main room for the broadcast. I opened the door, expecting a massive crowd, and there were four people in the room. That is how you can paint a picture for radio when you are truly professional.” Peter Brown On one occasion, Peter Brown was heading to Manchester High School for an outside broadcast when the vehicle stopped running on Melrose Hill. Eventually, he was able to get assistance to call for a wrecker, which came about an hour and a half later. The wrecker hoisted the van aboard and headed up to Manchester High School, where he was just in time to air the outside broadcast from atop the wrecker. Milton Walker Mr. Walker vividly remembers: “The day after the earthquake in Haiti, I got a flight on a private plane to Port-au-Prince, not knowing where I was staying or anything else. When we landed, I rented a bike, and that was my transportation for the two days. My food was some bun, crackers, and water that I took with me, and I slept in the parking lot of an apartment building. The adventure didn’t end there. On my return flight, I had no seat and flew from Haiti to Jamaica, sitting on the floor of the aircraft.” Dionne Jackson-Miller Mrs. Jackson-Miller reminisced: “The wonderful thing about radio is that all hell can be breaking loose and the listeners never know. I remember once I was doing Beyond The Headlines at a hotel in Montego Bay, when the annual CARICOM Heads of Government meeting was going on. I had what turned out to be bronchitis although I didn’t know it at the time. I was interviewing Ambassador Richard Bernal about some weighty trade matter, and I kept wanting to cough. Because he was on location with me, I couldn’t just turn off my mike and cough. So I would ask a question, then rush into the bathroom to cough while my producer signalled to him to keep talking. I’d come back, ask another question and repeat. He was quite bewildered but very obliging! And the interview still turned out well!” Jeffrey Brown Jeffrey Brown remembers doing an outside broadcast from Vere when the transmitter element got damaged, and he had to effect a ‘tun han mek fashion’ repair using a wire clothes hanger. Gary Allen In 1992, President Bush made an announcement on US television that US forces would be going into Kuwait, in effect, starting the US-Iraq war of that period. Mr. Allen recalls: “Having watched the announcement, I was tasked with going downstairs to the news centre and making the announcement on radio. I interrupted the sportscast that was ongoing, much to the chagrin of the sports department, and went live on air. This was in the period of the liberalisation of the Jamaican petroleum industry, and ‘liberalisation’ was the catch word of the day. So I punched in the news break theme music over Ian Andrews reading the sports news and grabbed the microphone, and I announced, ‘President George Bush of the United States has just announced that the liberalisation of Kuwait has started’, and then I paused, realising that I had said the wrong thing, so I said, ‘the liberalisation has started’, and I realised that I had said the wrong thing again, and I said, ‘I am sorry. The liberalisation of Kuwait has started’, and then I said, ‘President Bush announced that the freeing of Kuwait has begun.’ I just could not get the word ‘liberation’ out. After I left the studio and returned upstairs, I saw Lester Spaulding, and he said ‘Young man, for the rest of the week you need to have a sign on your head saying liberation’. So when I reached the newsroom upstairs, everybody was silent, and I felt like I could fall through the floor.” Covering the news and offering outside broadcasts is not always a straightforward matter. Radio Jamaica has always been willing to go the extra mile to get the story, make sure it gets to listeners and keep the audience entertained. Below are some intriguing stories about the adventures of Radio Jamaica’s staff.