Last Friday August 30th 2019 at 7PM a death occurred. It was, without any doubt, murder. The murder was watched by over a thousand people. The culprit(s) should be brought to justice but won’t.

Twenty seven years ago a baby was born.

Twenty seven years later its life was snuffed out. At the television studios of Hurley’s Media in Camana Bay. There will be no wooden cross and no black ribbon to mark where the murder occurred. The culprit who did it hides behind another body.

The baby had been in its mother’s womb for six months before it came to life on September 10th, 1992.

The mother was Joan Evangeline Watler Wilson. The father, her husband, originally from England, Colin George Wilson.

The baby’s name was CITN, later to be known as Cayman27.

Joan was born and bred here on Grand Cayman. On September 10th this year she will be 85.

Joan’s family were the two first settlers here – the Boddens (her mother’s side) and the Watler’s (her father’s side). Major Rodrigues (Roddy) Watler was the Cayman Islands Chief of Police. He served his country for 33 years and was Cayman’s most decorated person. However, there is no mention of him in the official History Book of the Cayman Islands.

When a new official history book is written CITN/Cayman27 will be gone. Forgotten. Just like her father.

You see, governments have the final say on what and who shall be included and what and who shall be left out.

I hope our premier, Alden McLaughlin was watching the final television broadcast of CITN/Cayman27 that fateful Friday night two days ago. He probably wasn’t. He probably didn’t give it a thought. He knew it was going to happen. The body that ordered the murder, operated under his portfolio. His orders. Perhaps his government colleagues watched it… One actually worked there. Another, his wife, was one of its shining lights.

There was one back-bencher actually present watching the death, MLA Kenneth Bryan. He also once worked for CITN/Cayman27. He was the only MLA to be there in person.

I hope the management of the government body, the regulator, named OffReg, were watching. They carried out the final orders. Orders from the very top.

OffReg, who failed, under orders I expect, not to uphold the condition, that was once written in place when CITN/Cayman27 first came to life. The condition that every cable station operator had to provide a free over the air broadcast station with so many hours of local content. Now, they only have to provide some hours of local content.

OfReg have failed to say exactly what local content is.

When I started CITN, the government then, and the government that followed, spelt out by percentages, exactly what the local content was and the local news carried the top percentage. Pretty children singing and dancing on the stage, and persons acting out a stage play didn’t strike such a high percentage. Sticking a little camera at passing motor cars going through puddles in the rain scored a zero. Showing fish and turtles swimming up and down continuously only got percentage points the very first time of showing.

Taking a live television truck down to a prison that was partly set on fire and the inmates were out of their cells running around, protesting at the inhumane crowded conditions. That should have been awarded a star. Cayman27 did that. People living near Northward were scared. They were telling us prisoners had escaped and were on the streets.

Government Information Services were telling us and the rest of the media all the prisoners were locked down in their cells. There was no fire,and everything was under control. I argued, of course, that that wasn’t so but was told I had to give out that information as this was the truth.

I myself personally went on air and gave out that ‘truthful’ message at the same time showing live coverage of the prisoners not locked down but running around in the compound. They had not, thankfully, escaped. When I received eventually a stern warning by the head of government to stop the broadcasting of it I told him, “But minister people were telling us the prisoners were on the streets and they were terrified as they lived close by. We were able to show that that wasn’t true. GIS were telling us lies.” There was a long pause and he said, “I take your point.” And the phone went dead.

Has anything changed? Do governments all over the world always tell us the truth? Are we all told the truth here? I have already demonstrated that isn’t so. Do you want, tomorrow, the only free over the air broadcast channel to be government owned, government controlled, and government having the final say on the content and the news and who appears?

After reading the premier’s press release, very sadly, that is what you are going to get. Alden McLaughlin’s closing paragraph said, “The government believes that a television station that produces and broadcasts local programmes and news is a critical piece of Cayman’s information infrastructure and will immediately begin exploration as to how the void created by the closure of Cayman27 can quickly be filled.” The only quick way is the government channel.

The premier also said “The decision to close the station was one made by its owner on the basis that it was not commercially viable”.

What the premier didn’t say was why it wasn’t commercially viable and he, I am ashamed to say it as both Joan and I have had the highest respect and supported him for years) is the reason. Him, along with the worst government entity ever conjured up named offReg. OffReg has been the target of even the Auditor General’s criticism. An entity that is under the portfolio of the premier himself.

No broadcast television in this small market can survive on advertising revenue alone. It couldn’t in my day when we were the only game in town. Google advertising wasn’t around and neither was social media and Internet downloads of entertainment, etc. etc.

Both governments we worked under, the one led by Norman Bodden and then Truman Bodden all knew this. Their main concern was to have put in place an Independent, and I stress, an Independent Broadcast television of the highest quality to equal or better anything in the Caribbean. To do this, we were handed a license to operate TEN channels of paid cable networks. We, along with two other companies, Bobby Bodden, of Cayman Television Service – marketed as Island 24 and Desmond Seales (who was already on the air) with CiTV. Because CiTV were already on the air he was given a head start. We couldn’t do anything for six months, not even the cable side.

I could see immediately that the cost of operating three broadcast stations in three separate buildings was crazy so I first spoke to Bobby. He saw it immediately and let me market his ten cable channels and broadcast channel out of one building. I went to Desmond and he showed me the door saying he had too much of a head start. He was wrong. He couldn’t find anyone to give him the money to operate his broadcast station, ran out of money, as Randy now has, and went out of business. Unknown to me, at the time, that is exactly what Government wanted. They wanted me and Bobby to get together and in their own words “get rid of him for us.” No comment on that. I was one of the beneficiaries.

When Joan and I went in search of the funding, that had immediately fallen through once Government gave THREE licenses, we had many offers but only the cable side. No one wanted the broadcast station. We could have that and they would let us have some of their cable revenue we needed to run it. What a deal?

But there was another condition from government. The broadcast station had to be in place first. It had to be up and running. Where would we find the money now to start that?

Joan principally. A little from me. It wasn’t enough. We mortgaged Joan’s home. For $400,000. To be paid back in seven years. Adding together her savings we had one million dollars. Everything we had in the world and now her home mortgaged. How many people would have done that? For a dream?

A dream that soon became a nightmare. We were almost out of money. However, the staff stayed loyal. We managed to pay their rental fees, and their food and I had to go in search of money. No one was interested here. Joan and I entertained so many investors who all knew someone who would help. Finally, at almost the last hour, someone did come through. Rod Hansen, of WestStar, called us from a ship at 3am in the morning. He was very interested in the Broadcast station, although he was a cable man. He met with us and a deal was struck. An experienced broadcast television manger, Mike Martin, had left CiTV. I could see what a great job he had been doing for Mr. Seales. I urged Rod to meet with him before he returned to the USA. He did and they liked each other. Mike brought the late great Rick Alpert and a lady, Anita Smith with him. The rest is history.

Joan believed in a broadcast television channel of quality, one that we could all be proud of. She believed in me. She wanted something she would be remembered for. Something when she died that would still be here. CITN/Cayman27. The finest broadcast television station in the Caribbean. It was once. We won many awards from The CBU – The Caribbean Broadcasting Union we joined the very first day we put out our very first signal September the 10^th, 27 years ago. It was only colour bars but we sat there for hours watching them. On Joan’s birthday.

This year she will be 85 on that day. But now government have taken the second love of her life away. They have killed her baby.

CITN/Cayman 27. Rest In peace.

END

EDITOR’S NOTE

Just over two years ago OffReg sent out a question and answer paper to the public asking their opinion if there was any need for a broadcast free over the air television station. They also provided an answer to every question beginning with words such as – “You might believe”; “You might conclude”; “Some people have said”….. That is not exactly the words they used but very similar and all the ‘might’s and conclusions all were heavily in favour of a broadcast television station not being required now.

The premier okayed it.

The premier and Randy Merren, the present owner of CITN/Cayman27, do not take tea together anymore. In fact you might say their relationship is poisonous. No government member even will appear on their Rooster Radio Morning Talk Show that was also shown live on Cayman27.