Colin Steer, Associate Editor - Opinion

Not many people would describe veteran broadcast journalist David Ebanks as a prophet, but he may well have been prescient.

In a commentary on RJR in the late 1980s, on the cusp of the granting of licences to new broadcasting entities, Ebanks suggested that one potential danger being overlooked was the likely lowering of standards as competition intensified for ratings, personnel and revenue.

In the nearly 20 years since then Jamaica's airwaves have been diversified with the addition of new entities providing the public with sometimes exciting, innovative and informative programming. But, the public has also often been regaled with a pandering to the lowest common denominator. In effect, there have been several examples of weak management, with the tail vigorously wagging the dog, in which the popularity of announcers, talk show hosts and journalists is allowed to trump professional standards. And, amid discussions about freedom of expression, the public is often misled into confusing the concept of a free flow of contending ideas as being synonymous with a freedom to say anything at any time about anybody in any way.

Self-indulgent discussion

Sometimes the lens through which media personnel and managers see things are coloured less by concerns about principles and more by the extent to which they will be affected financially. Much of last week's self-indulgent discussion, for example, by principal players of News Talk 93 FM, suggested that whatever wrong Dr Kingsley 'Ragashanti' Stewart may have done, paled in comparison to the recommendation by the Broadcasting Commission for the suspension of its licence for up to three months, and thereby potentially putting a significant dent in its revenues. Indeed, after quoting a survey confirming the popularity of Stewart, Anthony Abrahams, one of the main shareholders in the station was on air last Thursday morning chortling, "You wrong to trouble Ragga, you wrong"!

While one might have expected some pre-emptive measures being put in place on the acquisition of the former Radio Mona to prevent the kind of controversy that erupted, it is not exactly surprising that they were not either, given different incidents over several years.

One morning in the early days of the Breakfast Club on KLAS, there was a cordial discussion by hosts Beverley Anderson Manley, Anthony Abrahams and guest Trevor Munroe with the then minister, of finance, Hugh Small. At the end of the interview, the minister having been thanked, the studio engineer started to play the theme music as they approached the time for a commercial break. The microphone was still open, however, and Dr Munroe was heard to mutter: "I wanted to tell the minister about him (expletive deleted)". Amid a flurry of phone calls to the station, Abrahams offered an apology the following morning to the minister and listeners. This, however, was couched in a manner suggesting that the participants had been "a little relaxed" and so "something" was aired that was not intended for broadcast.

In subsequent years, listeners were often left in no doubt that the Breakfast Club hosts were in contentious negotiations with station managers as things were said on air ridiculing the persons with whom they had contractual problems. Over the years, the parameters guiding professional and appropriate on-air behaviour have been seriously stretched not just with that programme but elsewhere as well.

It is of little surprise, then, that much of the focus of the discussions on the station was about perceived professional jealousy, class and use of language prejudices. That Stewart could have ranted for 30 minutes on the air waves about "the dutty, dutty, dutty woman" was an indication that something was seriously amiss in the management of News Talk 93 FM. I am sure there are some veteran broadcasters who could say that in a previous dispensation, Stewart would not even have been allowed to complete his show that day, let alone to return, without suspension, to chide the person with whom he has a dispute - albeit in less strident tones.

In the current dispensation, it's only a matter of time before somebody is told, on air, about "dem mumma".