THERE WAS ONCE a fish vendor in the Oistins market who had an opinion on everybody who passed by. “Without any subtlety, any deference, she would just say whatever was on her mind,” says Vic Fernandes.
Over time he observed this woman and would say, “it would be cool if you could use an alter ego to say things that perhaps as a broadcaster and a media executive you may not be able or you may not want to say but as a market”.
He did create that alter ego – The Market Vendor, the radio character who took the veteran broadcaster into hundreds of homes and helped to establish his reputation as radio’s funny man.
“I have always looked for humour in life,” Fernandes told Easy last week. “You have two choices sometimes when you see foolishness. One is to get angry and the other is to laugh. I think laughter is critical to life and to happiness and I like to laugh.”
These are indeed the lenses through which he views a life that has taken him to the heights of broadcasting over 40 years.
Every morning while he sat with other schoolboys on the wall outside Barbados Rediffusion waiting for the bus to Presentation College, he observed broadcasters of the day walking into Rediffusion to go on air and his desire to be behind the microphone burned more intensely each day.
“Driving up to school on the bus in the morning, we would mimic the morning’s sports news, largely “Shell” Leslie Harris . . . . You sit every morning on the wall in front of Rediffusion waiting for a bus and you see all these people coming in – Olga Lopes-Seale, Frank Pardo. Radio played a big part in people’s lives and Rediffusion was it.”
Even then, Fernandes knew what he wanted to do. At the same time he was sitting O’ Level examinations he was also writing applications to media houses. He never got a reply from Barbados Rediffusion, but “I got one from CBC (Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation). So pretty much as soon as I finished school, I just morphed straight into working at CBC which was then located in Black Rock.”
Mentors such as Michael Rudder and Jeffrey Newton took him under their wings and he acknowledges their contribution saying “You could not have wanted better trainers and here I am today.”
At age 17, Fernandes read his first television newscast.
During the extensive career which followed, he anchored television news, did outside broadcasts, covered special events, hosted entertainment shows and programmes dealing with current affairs.
He rose to senior management positions in the island’s two leading radio stations, and created the first pan-Caribbean radio station.
He was awarded the Silver Crown of Merit in last year’s Independence honours
for his “invaluable contribution to the radio and television industry”.
Last week, he lamented poor standards in radio today. “Radio was a lot better then than it is now, because one thing that was pre-eminent in everybody’s mind was standards, both setting and achieving.
“Standards are standards anywhere in the world,” the veteran broadcaster said.
There is no mistaking his disillusionment with a lot of what he is hearing in broadcasting today.
“If I listen to radio in any metropolitan country, there is one thing that is consistent and that is the standards. We use the excuse too often for poor standards.
“The calibre of person attracted to electronic media then was somewhat different. I am not going to say better, but somewhat different from what obtains today.”
He compares current broadcasters with those “who stood out as outstanding exponents of the art of broadcasting” like the late Jeanette Layne-Clarke who he remembered as “an outstanding young broadcaster”; Trevor Simpson “a pre-eminent newsman and news reader” and Michael Rudder, “an outstanding teacher and an excellent broadcaster”.
Measuring them against what he hears today, he complained, “we are chasing the advertising dollar and in the competitive environment we let certain things slide.”
He admitted that “I have been guilty in helping to perpetuate some of this”, though he said he tried to “put a handle” on the trend during his last few years with the OCM conglomerate.
Not all broadcasters get a failing grade under Fernandes’ harsh scrutiny however: “There are a few exceptions and there are some really good broadcasters in the business today who seek to raise the standard and maintain very high standards for themselves.”
Still it disturbs him that “we have too much of what is not good, masquerading itself as radio”.
His accents have confused listeners trying to determine his origin and he is amused by the debate.
With a mischievous laugh he declares “I am a Caribbean man” and goes on to clarify this, explaining, “Though I was born in Barbados, my family lineage takes me through Scotland, Portugal, Ireland, St Lucia, Guyana too.”
But how convincing is this to the Guyanese man who was adamant they were school mates in Guyana, though the Barbadian had only gone to the South American country as an adult “married man with children”; or to the Trinidadians who still claim him as a ‘Trini’ because of the strong Trinidadian accent they used to hear while he worked as a broadcaster at 610 radio; or the St Lucians who tell him “You are home, Vic” whenever he is in that island?
Home for Fernandes though is ultimately the well-appointed spacious house he shares with his wife Ferida and daughter Rebecca in Pine Gardens, St Michael.
There he unwinds in lush gardens with outdoor comforts such as swimming pool, whirlpool and pool deck, watching his collection of colourful fish swimming about in the small pond winding through the garden.
In this setting, he may fall upon an idea for another episode of his popular radio programme that has been running for over 20 years and subsequently became a newspaper column as well.
All the humour disappears when Fernandes becomes introspective and looks down the road, envisaging the future of the profession he has enjoyed.
“The industry has changed dramatically and we have to understand how the dynamic is playing out because the consumer is now driving the bus”, he says.
“Once we begin to understand that, we understand the dynamic. We have to respond to all those opportunities that are being presented and manage them because that young audience is very tech savvy and they are not going to consume content in the way in which it was consumed in the past.”
He argues that of the mass media, radio is in a very strong position to defend its territory while other sections have challenges and must adapt.
In addition, he sees the need for an independent regulatory body for broadcasting. “Anybody cannot be a broadcaster and this is where a strong regulatory body has to play its part. We need an independent broadcast authority, independent of the political system, which can regulate the industry and insist and also have the tools to ensure compliance.”
Still in fine shape, working out at his home gym most mornings, Fernandes rejects the notion of retirement.
“I left the group (OCM) in March 2013, but I stress that I did not retire. Retire and do what? You don’t stop doing things that you enjoy, or things you are passionate about.”
He aims to continue to be a positive force in the media industry.