- Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer
Tricia Spence, afternoon radio DJ 'Wild Child', is also an actress on Royal Palm Estate, the popular local television soap opera.
Avia Ustanny, Outlook Writer
THERE IS a trailer/truck coming down the hill, breaking the speed limit. There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
This is the feeling you get when caught in the rush of Wild Child's verbal onslaught. The motorised metaphors keep coming to mind.
Dallying between English and Jamaican like a racing car, Tricia Spence, a.k.a. 'Wild Child', explains in otherwise serene surroundings at the Ashanti Restaurant in Hope Gardens, St. Andrew that she grew up in a bilingual household.
Mom, Violet, was Chinese. Dad Michael Spence was black.
The struggle against being typecast and the fight to be accepted has defined the life of this young woman, who refuses to give her age, but says that at she has lived many lifetimes.
All of this has toughened her and created a totally unexpected, unquantifiable being;
"I love butterflies ...
"I hug trees all the while."
A NATURE LOVER
Chatting a mile-a-minute in the still mid-morning air, Spence is explaining that she is a nature lover who also blends a strange mixture of eastern philosophy and western beliefs in her outlook on life.
"Hugging trees is a way to get rid of negative vibes."
We listen, never making the mistake of thinking that the DJ is a lightweight, intellectually or otherwise.
In her 'former' life, the Wild Child with a master's degree in international buisness management to her credit has been a lecturer at the University of the West Indies. But, soon realising that the 'academic thing' was not for her she moved on to a more satisfying and still evolving career in media.
In November 2003, when Radio Jamaica launched her programme in the hot afternoon slot demitted by Richard Burgess (Richie B), no one knew what to think.
It was a first for the radio station which hitherto featured mature hosts.
Wild Child herself recalls that she got the butterflies in the stomach as she would not be keeping company with "people who I revered."
She was honoured. Afraid. Determined.
But, her previous stint at Zip FM as Wild Child had prepared her for running her own show. Her ambition and determination to be different did the rest.
RJR, she says, was a new experience, a whole different kettle of fish. "You were thrown in at the deep end and told to swim.
RJR has a tough audience. "I did not know if they wanted a younger person."
She was also challenged to make the show her own, instead of falling under a familiar shadow. Clearly she has done this.
Today, apart from celebrating her first year, it is clear that deadly dialogue is her forte.
"You just can't come and play music and not open your mouth. They are a learning audience. You play acid rock and you speak about it too."
Her audience, Spence notes, is no special age group, no particular market niche. "They are a wide cross-section held together by one single factor -- they like to learn".
Feedback by texting, email and telephone calls, is constant.
"You watch global trends too, " Spence says.
And, for the DJ, no criticism is unwelcome. "If you don't like it call me. Mi back broad. Mi skin thick."
"I try to be positive. Don't bother with the sensationalism and cynicism. there is too much of that already."
Not married
Along with presenter pal Nyron, Spence says that she continues to learn. Jamaicans, she says, "love diversity." To give them any less is disrespect.
Spence, who with a smile admits she is not married, said that she is in a relationship. She also adds that she had no children. Typically, she tells even more than one expects to learn.
"I have my moods," the DJ reflects when asked to respond to her characterisation as sometimes shy, sometimes bad.
"Some days I am pensive. Other times I am loud."
The graduate of Holy Childhood High School said that she was advised by her principal to take up drama. She does not think that she has fallen too far off.
Her dreams for the future include the unexpected; "I would love to own my own spa," she says.
In the meantime, there is nothing she likes more than being at one with nature.
"I love nature, love very long hikes, the sea, listening to the waves.
"I love looking after my dogs. I love being at home where there is no noise, listening to classical, jazz, Latin, drumming, those things that you would not hear at work."
This is Tricia today. Tomorrow might bring out another creature.
"I can't say whether I am left right or centre.
"Things change.
"Just like the weather, I have my seasons too. That's how I am."
