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'Poorer 102'

No more Political Commercials

By A. H. Hotep
September 14, 2000

Power 102 announced that they got a directive from their board of directors to stop all political commercials. They thought that they were selling a concept of balance to their listeners.

As I said on Dale and Tony's program this morning, this move was the reason the Prime Minister made Gillette, who is the chief financier of Power 102, a minister and at times even acting Prime Minister. The government wanted control over this media especially as they knew that Louis Lee Sing, the managing director, is a member of the PNM, and the Gillette family have been supporters of the PNM. Gillette wanted these cellular telecommunication licenses and the government dangled that carrot to get them. It was always about getting control of Power 102.

Power 102 developed with the support of mostly the African community and most of these people are hardcore supporters of the PNM. Power 102 has now taken a position against the desires of their hardcore supporters.

Dale and Tony, the two main hosts, thought that they could sell the decision to not accept commercials from all political parties as fair play, but in the face of the government's (Basdeo Panday's) general attitude to the media in general, they were sadly mistaken. The government has turned the state media, which comprises two television stations and four radio stations into full time UNC campaign tools. The four other Indian radio stations are full time campaigners of this government. Several of the Newspapers appear to be on the payroll of the government. Therefore, with most of the media under their control, all the government had to do was neutralize Power 102 and they could have closed a major door to those who spoke on the issues and especially the PNM supporters.

I must say that the public and especially the PNM supporters are responsible for making it easy for the government to control the majority of the media.

For many years, I have been calling on the public to support independent forums and to lobby for the opening up of the state media to cater for all the varied cultural views in the country. Most of the PNM supporters remained silent leaving only a few of us to make the appeal. There are no African programs on any of the media and by extension air time for open discussions on all issues.

Now that there are fewer forums for them to express their disgust about this government, they may be able to appreciate a reason for the appeal for them to have a say in the operations of the state media and not to leave their property to be controlled by politicians and fools.

Dale quite casually reminded the listeners that though they may feel that they are part of Power 102, they must remember that it is a private radio station. This is the point that I have always been making, people should have been lobbying for more transparency in the operations of the state media as that is their property. Now that there are fewer avenues for free expression, I hope they appreciate what I have always been saying. They should not place their trust in media controlled by these opportunistic businessmen.

Power 102 came about because of the highhandedness of this UNC government that was in a haste to take control of the state media immediately upon attaining governmental power. The government terminated the employment off several of the employees and several others including all the key players in Power 102 left the state media and opened up Power 102 with Gillette. These people never realized that the state media is part of their property and they should have been supporting our call for opening up the state media.

They were foolish for believing that another businessman would not sell out to the government of the day. They are revisiting the same problems they ran from.

This is what happens when people do not learn from history; they keep repeating the same mistakes. This is what happens when people leave their medium for enlightenment in the hands of fools; they are cut off when they least expect it.

All of this is because we have an ill-informed public that do not appreciate their rights.

For these and other misdeeds I christen you POORER 102 FM

Powerless 102 FM

An Open Letter to Peter Gillette

A Racist Radio Station in Trinidad

A. H. Hotep

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