In the months leading up to the 1989 general elections, I had called the ruling UDP’s bluff, so to speak, on the matter of a radio license for Partridge Street. Belize had been an independent nation since 1981, but the only “free” radio station in the country at the time was that owned by those who had been our colonial masters, the British armed forces at their Ladyville garrison. And this station was broadcasting into Belize City! So how come the Belizeans who ran the nation’s leading newspaper couldn’t do something Belizean in radio? I wrote that we would begin broadcasting from Partridge without a license. It was a bluff, because we didn’t own a single piece of radio equipment. But the UDP government, no doubt edgy and upset after the Rufus X matter in 1988, overreacted to the provocation, threatening us with jail and the like.
The PUP, desperate to return to power after their unprecedented 1984 electoral disaster, jumped on the “Radio Amandala” bandwagon, big time. They promised that if they won the 1989 general elections, Partridge would get its radio license.
Instead, soon after coming to power in early September of that year, a specific Minister of the PUP initiated a process to establish a radio station back here. Note carefully, I had been asking governments, from the time of the PUP in 1979, for a radio license, not a radio station. With a radio license, I proposed to raise investment capital for a Belize City station. My intentions were not national.
I don’t know the details of the late Rodolfo Silva’s story. He was the cable television pioneer in Corozal Town, so he was financially strong when he came to Belize City to set up KREM Radio. Rodolfo, however, was experiencing marital problems, and these were very serious marital problems, as we found out with the passage of time.
The aforementioned PUP Minister had personally recruited Silva, whom he introduced to Rufus X and myself. Silva set up shop on Partridge and began broadcasting from the first floor of the main Kremandala building on the morning of Saturday, November 17, 1989. J. C. Arzu had quickly become Rodolfo’s technical right hand, and that story would have to be told by J. C. himself.
The Minister, Rufus, and Rodolfo came to my home in Buttonwood Bay the same morning to inform me that they had begun broadcasting. They were excited and happy, as they should have been. Personally, I knew there was more to this story than was meeting my eye.
About three weeks later, the Minister mentioned to me, in a deliberately casual manner, “You know, we are privatizing Radio Belize.” This meant that the fledgling KREM, with minimal capitalization and primitive equipment, would have to compete on equal terms with the $40 million national broadcast giant, Radio Belize, also known as Friends FM and the Broadcasting Corporation of Belize (BCB). KREM would have derived no benefit from having been the trailblazer and being Belize’s first and only private, commercial radio station. In effect, we were being fed to the wolves.
The Minister, perhaps needless to say, had his personal trick up his sleeves. In a secret and illegal act, he sold his 20 percent of KREM to an American marijuana trafficker who had investments in Belize. That Minister became the only one who made money off KREM. That was why he and his Cabinet had set it up as a radio station, instead of merely granting a license, as I had requested. The Minister made $80,000 off that deal, and we fools on Partridge were left with a Rosemary’s baby. KREM, as soon as Radio Belize was privatized, was dead in the water.
I’d met that American marijuana trafficker in the late 1970’s when I used to hang out with Ray Lightburn. He was a really cool white guy, and we were friendly to each other. I suppose he may have thought he was doing a friendly thing by becoming a shareholder in KREM. But the Minister, who was the American’s lawyer, was selling him a dream. Later, after the American went to jail in the States, the Minister acquired power of attorney from him while he was incarcerated, and put the wood to the American. It’s rough out here, Jim.
My intention when I began this column was to explain why I’ve recently begun doing this Senior Moments show. I’m trying to help KREM Television. As it turned out, KREM Radio survived because of massive popular support and regular subsidies from Amandala newspaper. Today, KREM Radio helps to subsidize the television station, which is a story in itself.
The most important factor in these operations is your support as a Belizean. There are huge businesses which are collapsing in Belize, but so far on Partridge we’ve managed to keep all our people employed and salaried. This is because you, the people, make it possible with your support.
You may say, well, I’m not the people. I’m only me. Sure, but there are thousands of me’s and you’s who add up to, abracadabra, the people! In a sense, the concept of “the people” is abstract, but at Kremandala, we know it’s also real. Very real.
Power to the people. Power in the struggle.