Guyanese should be proud of our radio legacy

Jun 22, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
Music is the universal language and has been in existence for a very long time.
I am proud to use this forum therefore to congratulate a few radio announcers of Guyana radio, Basil Persaud in particular, who I believe has a deep passion for what he keeps doing every Sunday night (and Fridays too) on 98.1 FM.
The Basil P Show has been in existence for nearly 15 years on 98.1, as I have learnt, and Guyanese should be proud of the radio legacy.
A legacy that has been kept alive with shows like those hosted by men who are passionate about radio in Guyana; men like Mr. Franklin Langhorne, Mr Ron Robinson and undoubtedly Basil Persaud.
It is a pity that these gentlemen, including Frederick Rampersaud, are not given much airtime on radio. Guys, I salute you for the music you play for Guyanese and listeners around the world.
My mother looks forward with eagerness to Sunday evenings for the oldies hour. She says the music walks her through memory lane and still wonders how this gentleman does it week after week with the passion, charisma and zeal he has for radio.
It’s a pity, really, that we in Guyana do not delve into much research about our own, for example, our Guyanese musicians.
Guyana has a rich history of men and women who have made exceptional music and they continue to be aired today by those gentlemen I named above.
Thank you, sirs, for making me fall in love with music my parents have cherished — music which helped them fall more in love with each other in the olden days. It truly is amazing how music can take one so far back. Thanks, too, to Wireless Connections which sponsors the oldies hour for listeners each Sunday evening.
You surely can’t hear music like this anywhere else in the world or on any other radio station. You don’t hear those songs anywhere else (radio station).
Mr. Mohamed Sattaur stated that the Voice of Guyana is heard on Shortwave (SW) around the world in a recent letter to the newspapers. He said, too, that NCN does not have international rights to broadcast cricket, hence they cannot broadcast VOG on the internet.
I have now seen a message, “Due to cricket this online station will be off air, sorry for any inconvenience caused”, placed on the webpage on NCN’s website where one has to listen to VOG online.
This message was placed there just a few days ago. Now, I ask, if the CEO is saying that VOG is being heard worldwide on the shortwave band, then how come VOG cannot be heard online? Cricket is not on 24 hours a day nor are there matches every day, so why can’t NCN black out the cricket broadcasts, and resume normal transmission on VOG online when the cricket is over?
I believe the CEO is contradicting himself there. Using the cricket as a scapegoat for VOG being off the air on the internet is not very good at all.
Finally, just look how Georgetown is all that matters to NCN. They have 100.1 FM which is Radio Roraima.
That channel was re-launched recently and only broadcasts to Georgetown and its immediate environs and plays music all day.
They have 102.5 FM which is VOG on the FM band and 98.1 FM as well. Surely, NCN could have foregone the establishment of 102.5 FM in Georgetown and bring FM services to Berbice, or even re-launch Radio Roraima in Berbice. All they had to do was bring the transmitters here. I am sure Berbicians would have welcomed their own FM station here. The financial constraints the CEO speak about surely have not prevented them from establishing new FM services to the city area even though other FM services were already there, while other rural areas have to settle for a very poor AM service. And then he is telling Berbicians to use their TV antennas to pick up 98.1 FM.
You have got to be kidding me. NCN says it is not capable of expanding FM services to Berbice and other areas, yet the government does not want to give other persons, who are willing, the chance to do the same. That’s the saddest part.
Leon Jameson Suseran

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