Salute to success stories

by Kenmore BynoeIt was a Salute to Excellence put on by One Caribbean Media (OCM) Limited and Starcom Network Inc. to reward five people – but it sang the praises of many others too. At the Crane Resort on Saturday night, the five people – Victor Fernandes, David Ellis, Tony Cozier, Andy Johnson  of the Trinidad Express and CCN–TV6, and the late  Alfred Pragnell – were honoured, but tribute was paid to everyone who had maintained excellence in the creation  and nurturing of Barbados Rediffusion, The Nation Publishing Co Ltd, Starcom Network Inc. and their parent company OCM.Award recipient Fernandes, chief executive officer/managing director of Starcom, pointed out that his award was built on the contributions of many people, from the messenger up, who  had played an integral role in making Starcom the No. 1 voice media in Barbados, as well as making OCM a viable reality.Media guru Ken Gordon,  in the feature address, had earlier told the audience that the importance of celebrating Starcom’s 75th anniversary went . . . “beyond Starcom’s longevity as the most  celebrated media entity  in the OCM group”.Gordon, who has been  in the media for more than  five decades, paid tribute  to Starcom’s parent company, the Nation Publishing Company Limited, and the first directors of the Nation – Sir Fred Gollop, Harold Hoyte, Grenville Phillips, Stephen Brathwaite,  Dr St Elmo Thompson, Gordon Brooks and Carl Moore – who went heavily into debt “in those early troubled days because  of their commitment  to Barbados and their conviction that a free and independent media is an indispensable  tool of a democratic society”.Gordon stressed that while they might have risked losing money,  “what they never ever came even close to losing was the firmness of their commitment to a free  and independent Press and to the national interest of Barbados.“So, let us begin by recognising that first board of directors who dreamed about independently owned national media, and thank them for their courage and commitment when it really mattered,”  Gordon said.He said the Nation  and Starcom had been genuine success stories in fully vindicating the high expectations of various prime ministers, as well as the Barbados community.However, Gordon warned that corporate success was only one part of the equation by which a media house, and particularly the largest media group in the Caribbean, was measured. “As fundamental, is your ongoing responsibility  to preserve the environment of freedom  of thought and expression and the independence  of the media.Gordon admitted that challenges, particularly from political groups, go with the territory as it was the nature of the business of the media. “But it emphasises the need for ongoing vigilance and the strength of organisations such as  One Caribbean Media. The challenges will always be there, but I am confident that as you have done in the past, you will continue to rise to the occasion.”Earlier in the night, chairman of OCM,  Sir Fred Gollop, presented  a chronological outline  of OCM, whose genesis would have been Barbados Rediffusion, or the “box”, which transmitted radio  to the chattel and the manor in Barbados  from 1935 until 1996.  Sir Fred indicated that when the box came on unexpectedly after hours in September 1955 to  warn about the approach of Hurricane Janet, that was Rediffusion’s finest hour, and probably saved hundreds if not thousands of Barbadian lives.Many past and current directors of Nation Publishing and Starcom Inc. attended the function, among them CEO  of Nation Publishing,  Vivian-Anne Gittens,  and her predecessor,  Editor Emeritus Hoyte.