Once upon a time in TTT

THE EDITOR: TTT began broadcasting in 1962 as a commercial television station, with a minority government ownership. At that time, and for many decades following, it was the only game in town in TT.

The then sales manager, Lloyd Rochard, once told me that having a television station is like having a licence to print money. And TTT did just that; it racked up huge profits. The nation, enthralled with the programmes, from the 7 pm news hour, Panorama, to Holly Betaudier’s Scouting for Talent, and the coverage of Carnival shows at the Savannah to cricket at the Oval. There were even foreign shows like Dark Shadows that kept people up at night with its beloved blood-sucking vampire, Barnabas.

However, things went decidedly downhill when the Government acquired a controlling interest in the station. With political interference being the norm, as with all government corporations, profitability took a nosedive, which eventually led to bankruptcy.

Fast-forward to 2019. TTT advertised for a chief executive officer for the station that heavily relied on the treasury for funding. Fully knowing that this was a government-run business, I applied for the position anyway. To my surprise, I received a call saying that I was on the shortlist of three candidates.

I met with the board of directors for a very intensive interview. I thought that things went very well, and I was satisfied that there was no one else with the depth and breadth of my knowledge of the television broadcasting industry. Having worked on the introduction of high-definition television abroad, I was ideally suited to lead TTT into uncharted waters.

Suddenly, a new Minister of Communications, Donna Cox, replaced Stuart Young, and the entire board was gone (with one exception). Several months have gone by and I have not heard from TTT again.

Now, with the station once again in limbo, several questions remain unanswered:

Can Cox and the newly appointed board save TTT in the few months left in this Government's tenure, or will it continue to bleed red ink to the end?

Will the treasury continue to subsidise the station to the detriment of the many other essential national issues that need attention?

When will the people of TT be transfixed with local vampire shows similar to Dark Shadows, or will the local Barnabas keep on sucking the life-blood out of our treasury?

REX CHOOKOLINGO

via e-mail