For Your Listening Pleasure
(Some fifty years after its inception radio is still the most powerful, far-reaching form of media in Jamaica. More than 2 million of the island's 2.5 million people are said to be radio listeners.)

Almost everywhere one goes in Jamaica one hears the sounds of music and voices of people expressing their opinions on numerous talk shows. Offices, street corners, restaurants and bars ­ anywhere you find a group of Jamaicans gathered, you will more than likely find a radio playing.

Radio's relationship with the national psyche began as early as 1939 when the first broadcast was transmitted via a shortwave "ham" operated unit from the Seaview Ave. home of the unit's owner, John Grinan. The call sign was VP5PZ and it offered wartime news and information for a half-hour once a week.

By 1940, Grinan had negotiated with the colonial government to set up a station that became known as ZQI and the frequency and variety of broadcasts increased. But listenership never totalled more than 100,000 given the relatively high cost of radio sets.

Then on July 9,1950, (fifty-one years ago) commercial radio broadcasting began when the government, like those in many other Caribbean territories during that decade, granted a license to the Jamaica Broadcasting Company a subsidiary of the British Rediffusion Group. This signalled the birth of the Radio Jamaica and Rediffusion Network or, as we know it today, RJR. Four transmission sites were established across the island to carry the medium wave signals. This early RJR was quite British in character, producing a very BBC-like format. Slowly but surely, however, more and more Jamaicans moved in and some of the flavour of Jamaica began to be heard.

Popular shows included Talent Parade, opened by Karl Magnus' regular "Well, look, here's something that just came to me!" line, and originally produced by Archie Lindo and Hugh Wilson. Talent Parade showcased local talent broadcast from the Carib Theatre and helped to launch the careers of well-loved entertainers including Ranny Williams and Louise Bennett. Other popular shows included Alma Mock-Yen's Tea Time and Marie Garth's Busy Bee Club for children. Favourite announcers and programme hosts emerged including: Merrick Needham, possibly best known for his ceremonial outside broadcasts, Dorothy Hosang (Lannaman's Lollipop Land for children) Adrian Robinson, Tony Verrity, Roy Reid (Reid at Random), Radcliffe Butler (The Butler Did It, Midnight Mood), and Dorothy La Croix, better known as Dottie Dean.

In an effort to broaden listenership in the early 1950s RJR distributed some 200 "little brown radio boxes" (rediffusion boxes) to communal locations like police stations, schools and shops so that more Jamaicans would have access to radio information and programming. By 1954 over 57,000 Rediffusion sets were in use and over 285,000 Jamaicans were confirmed radio listeners (a major increase from the 75,000 in 1947). Radio programmes also began to be sponsored by companies that increasingly used the radio as a medium of advertisement - these proceeds were the station's only sources of income. These commercials were either pre-recorded or voiced live from the studio.

Between 1950 and the mid-1960s RJR became a household word and improvements in radio transmission occurred. 1951 ushered in wire radio service - meaning that transmissions were sent from a central station, better able to withstand atmospheric conditions and reach a wider listenership. But to receive them you had to be a rediffusion subscriber, paying three-pence a day. As Merrick Needham describes, this early form of radio transmission was "a bit like cable TV but with sound."

All photos courtesy of RJR Communications Group.