Radio Jamaica, also known asRJR 94 FM, and formerlyReal Jamaican Radio, is a broadcast company inJamaica with headquarters inKingston.
History
editOn 9 July 1950, a commercial license to operate as a subsidiary of theBritish Rediffusion Group was issued to theRadio Jamaica and Rediffusion Network. Initially only four medium-wave, signal transmission sites broadcast throughout the island. In 1951 wire radio service was established from a central broadcasting station. Transmissions were sent to rediffusion speaker boxes for which subscribers paid three-pence per day. To increase the listener base RJR distributed around 200 rediffusion speakers to police stations, retail stores and schools. In 1953, Jamaica became the first of theBritish colonies in the Caribbean to offerFM broadcasting when RJR began using the technology. By 1954, there were over 57,000 rediffusion boxes distributed throughout the country.[1]
In 1959Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation was founded as a public broadcasting corporation operated by the government. At that time, RJR's operating company was renamed Radio Jamaica Ltd. and the company began offering non-stop music service three years later. In 1962, RJR also introduced "Musipage" which presented live musical performances at its studios.[1] In 1968, rediffusion became obsolete whentransistorradio transmission was developed and the speaker service was discontinued.[2] The Jamaican government acquired the station from the British Rediffusion Group in the 1970s and divested its interest through stock sales to organizations and individuals to facilitate RJR becoming a fully Jamaican-owned company.[3] A second station playing music only was founded in 1972 and RJR expanded again in 1984, adding a third station FAME FM. In 1990, simulcast broadcasting was developed to broaden programming to include live programming on national events.[1]
Programming
editThe station broadcasts several programmes featuring Jamaican and international music, news, talk shows, listener questions and professional answers.Ralston McKenzie's Sunday Contact, a show that reaches out islandwide by radio for missing persons is another programme.
Infrastructure
editThe company maintains the RJR radio channel as their flagship, plus a number of other radio channels.
Radio personalities
edit- Ralston McKenzie (Sunday Contact show)
- Derrick Wilks (Sunnyside Up show)
- Paula-Ann Porter Jones (Sunnyside Up show)
- Emily Sheilds (Hotline Talk Show)
- Dr Orville Taylor (Hotline Talk Show)
- Clive Mullings (Hotline Talk Show)
- Christopher 'Jonny' Daley (Two Live Crew Show)
- Dahlia Harris (Two Live Crew Show)
- Dadrian Gordon (Beyond The Headlines: News Show)
- Dionne Jackson Miller (Beyond The Headlines: Talk Show)
References
edit- ^abcTortello, Rebecca (16 July 2001)."For your listening pleasure". Kingston, Jamaica:The Gleaner. p. 2. Retrieved11 February 2019 – viaNewspaperarchive.com.
- ^"RJR 94FM".rjrgleanergroup.com. Kingston, Jamaica:Gleaner Communications Group. 2019. Archived fromthe original on 11 February 2019. Retrieved11 February 2019.
- ^"Born in the Fires of World War II".RJR Pioneers Magazine. Vol. 65th Anniversary Edition, no. 1. Kingston, Jamaica: Multi-Media Jamaica Limited. July 2015. pp. 10–12.ISSN 0799-4338. Retrieved11 February 2019.