ZIZ

Last updated

ZIZ
TypeNational broadcaster
Country
Saint Kitts and Nevis
First air date
  • 1935 (shortwave) [1]
  • 5 March 1961 (relaunch; radio) [2]
  • 3 December 1972 (television) [3]
TV stationsChannel 5 [4]
Radio stations95.9, 96.1, 96.3, and 96.9 FM [4]
Headquarters Basseterre
Owner Government of Saint Kitts and Nevis
Dissolvedca. 1940 (shortwave) [5]
Former callsigns
VP2LO (shortwave, 1935–1939) [1]
Official website
 zizonline.com

ZIZ Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), commonly referred to as ZIZ, [6] is the national broadcasting service of Saint Kitts and Nevis in the West Indies. Originating in 1935 as the shortwave station VP2LO, it adopted its present-day callsign in 1939 but went off the air shortly after; it relaunched on the AM format in 1961, and expanded to television in 1972. A government-owned service and a member of the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), ZIZ carries its programming across four FM frequencies and one TV channel; the AM outlet remained in operation as late as the 2010s.

Contents

History

ZIZ is a government-owned national commercial broadcaster, [6] [7] and is also a member of the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC). [8] Broadcasting in Saint Kitts was introduced with VP2KM, an amateur radio outlet owned by Kenneth Mallalieu, in 1934. VP2KM was succeeded in 1935 by VP2LO, a shortwave station and the territory's first commercial radio service. [1] Airing on 6380 kc. [9] [a] from the town of Basseterre, [1] VP2LO began with 150 watts of transmission power, [1] which was later increased to 500. [9] It was headed by Administrator D.R. Stewart and launched by two sons of his, [1] and was "operated by the ICA Radio Sales & Service Laboratories in conjunction with the Caribbean Broadcasting Service". [9] It adopted the new call sign of ZIZ on 21 January 1939, [10] [b] [c] but sometime after Stewart's death the following month, the original station went off the air. [1] [d]

The service returned to the airwaves as an AM outlet [12] on 5 March 1961, [2] serving what was then Saint Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla. [2] Headquartered in the Springfield neighbourhood of Basseterre, [1] it was relaunched with £23,000 in Colonial Development and Welfare funds from 1959, [2] plus an EC$1.25 million loan from Cable & Wireless, [13] under the presence of West Indies Federation Governor-General Lord Hailes. [14] Initially carrying a three-hour evening schedule, [15] the revived ZIZ transitioned to airing across two separate sessions (6:45–10:00 ECT in the morning, and 6:00–10:00 ECT at night) [2] some three years later. [15] The lineup consisted of local shows and imported BBC material; with special programming, a broadcast day could run up to 15 hours. [2] An eponymous 1962 song by The Mighty Saint, a local calypsonian, commemorated the relaunch. [12] Its overnight success was noted by the West India Committee over the next two years, who wrote in 1963 that it had "so rapidly become part of the life of the community that it is hard to imagine public life without it" [16] and in 1964 that the "universally praised" service's programme selection was "imaginative and varied". [15]

Although the revived ZIZ started out as a public service, it would soon switch to a revenue-based commercial format to keep it on air, a move that "was received with very great regret by many people" in early 1963 according to the Committee. [16] By 1979, its power and daily schedule had respectively expanded to 20 kilowatts (up from 660 watts in earlier years) and 17 hours of programming. [17] In 1984, 60% of ZIZ's schedule was music-oriented; 35% of that amount came from the Caribbean, and the remainder from the U.S. and Europe. [18] : 49 

ZIZ launched a television division on 3 December 1972; during that decade, it operated one transmitter and four translators across the territory. [3] Throughout the mid-1980s, the station aired 5½ hours of programming every weeknight, [19] and ran a separate telex-based information channel on the island country's newly established cable system. [18] : 47  In 2001, its lineup aired from 4:00 till 11:00 p.m., switching to Fox Family programming during off hours; in Nevis, the 7:00–11:00 portion carried material from that island's Information Service. [20] As of 2006, ZIZ was Saint Kitts and Nevis' sole national television channel. [21] Foreign programming accounted for 90% of ZIZ Television's offerings in 1975; [13] with regards to U.S. content, this figure became 60–65% in the 1980s. [22] Around the turn of the 21st century, the local political opposition saw the station as a government mouthpiece and accused it of denying them airtime. [23]

Availability

ZIZ's radio programming is broadcast across the FM frequencies 95.9, 96.1, 96.3, and 96.9. [4] The AM feed began transmission on 570 kHz in the 1960s, [24] and was also heard during that period across the British Leeward Islands as well as the neighbouring French and Dutch territories. [2] It later moved to 555 kHz, and remained there as late as the 2010s. [25] The television service, which airs on channel 5, [4] served the entire Leeward archipelago in the 1970s [3] and was included in the mid-1984 launch of the national cable system. [18] : 46  In 1989, it was received on channel 9 in northern St. Kitts Island and channel 13 in Nevis. [26]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Kc." stands for kilocycle, whose modern-day equivalent is the kilohertz (kHz).
  2. ↑ Sources differ as to the programming allotment; Clarke 1939 gives a 35-minute runtime starting at 5:00 p.m. AST, while Berg 2013 states its 30-minute schedule ran on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 EST.
  3. ↑ The original VP2LO callsign was reused by a Saint Lucia outfit in the late 1950s. [11]
  4. ↑ ZIZ was still cited in foreign publications as late as May 1940. [5]

Related Research Articles

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References


  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Inniss 1979, p. 63.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain :Great Britain Foreign and Commonwealth Office (1966). "Broadcasting". St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla: Report for the Years 1959–1962. His Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO). p. 63. Retrieved 4 October 2024– via Google Books.
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  8. ↑ Daniel 2001, p. 134.
  9. 1 2 3 Berg, Jerome S. (4 October 2013). "Chapter 3: 1938" . The Early Shortwave Stations: A Broadcasting History Through 1945. McFarland. p. 176. ISBN   978-0-7864-7411-0 . Retrieved 4 October 2024– via Google Books.
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  11. ↑ Thomas, L. H. (September 1958). "DX Commentary: Calls Heard, Worked and QSL'd: DX Gossip" (PDF). The Short Wave Magazine. XVI: 365. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 October 2024. Retrieved 4 October 2024– via World Radio History.
  12. 1 2 Daniel 2001, pp. 71–72.
  13. 1 2 Daniel 2001, p. 99.
  14. ↑ Inniss 1979, pp. 63–64.
  15. 1 2 3 "From Our Mailbag: St Kitts: Government broadcasting station". Chronicle of the West India Committee. West India Committee: 153. March 1964. ISSN   0043-3152.
  16. 1 2 "From Our Mailbag: Radio St Kitts". Chronicle of the West India Committee. West India Committee: 92. February 1963. ISSN   0043-3152.
  17. ↑ Inniss 1979, p. 64.
  18. 1 2 3 Lent, John A. (1990). "U.S. Broadcast Programming Use in the Small Islands" . Mass Communications in the Caribbean. Iowa State University Press. ISBN   0-8138-1182-1 . Retrieved 6 October 2024– via Archive.org.
  19. ↑ "International TV Directory: St. Kitts". TV & Cable Factbook (PDF). Television Digest, Inc. 1984. p. 1386. ISSN   0732-8648 . Retrieved 1 May 2024– via World Radio History.
  20. ↑ Daniel 2001, p. 96.
  21. ↑ Bailey, Chauncey (12 July 2006). "St. Kitts Music Festival Brings Talent to Thousands" . Oakland Post (California) . p. 2, 7. Retrieved 5 October 2024– via ProQuest.
  22. ↑ Daniel 2001, pp. 99–100.
  23. ↑ Veenendaal, Wouter (2015) [17 October 2014]. "The Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis: politics or politricks?" . Politics and Democracy in Microstates. Routledge. p. pos. 148. ISBN   978-1-317-64657-0. Archived from the original on 5 October 2024. Retrieved 5 October 2024– via Google Books.
  24. ↑ Daniel 2001, p. 72.
  25. ↑ Jordan, Brandon (23 October 2010). "DX Worldwide — East: Pan-American DX" (PDF). DX Monitor. 48 (7) (1514 ed.). Ocala, Florida: International Radio Club of America (IRCA): 9. ISSN   0899-9732. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 October 2024. Retrieved 5 October 2024– via World Radio History.
  26. ↑ Meditz, Sandra W.; Hanratty, Dennis M., eds. (1989). "St. Christopher and Nevis: Economy: Role of Government". Islands of the Commonwealth Caribbean: A Regional Study. Area Handbook Series. Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. p. 472. LCCN   88-600483 . Retrieved 6 October 2024– via Archive.org.

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