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The Ottawa Citizen The real stuff (continued)While the program is on the air, the phone in the studio rings constantly. Smith recognizes many callers, greeting them with a hearty, "Hey, haven't seen you for awhile." Smith says the show is "tailored to West Indian listeners," but the audience has diversified to include "a lot of other Canadians, Africans, people from Arabic countries --a really broad spectrum. The audience ranges from four-year-olds to people in their 60s and 70s." Smith says the show began including public affairs issues about six or seven years ago, in response to requests from listeners. The catalyst for regular coverage of current events was the 1991 shooting of Vincent Gardener by Ottawa police. "We had the police on, the neighbours on, city politicians, phone-in segments with listeners from the community," Smith recalls, adding: "Chief Ford did a whole show taking calls. He's been pretty good at doing at that kind of thing." Ewart Walters, editor and publisher of the black community newspaper, The Spectrum, says Reggae in the Fields is "just about indispensable" for the local English-speaking black community. Walters feels Smith's "absolute dedication" to the program over two decades should be recognized not only by the Canadian and Ontario governments ("for promoting good citizenship") but also by the Jamaican government ("for his promotion of Jamaican culture"). "A few years ago," Walters says, "Junior had a whole series of programs which discussed the education system for new Canadians from the West Indies. That threw a great deal of light on the relationship between parents and their kids and their schools." A segment of the show called "Caribbean News" began around 1990, again in response to listeners. Its original compiler and presenter was Claudette Russell. Karen Scantelbury and Denise Moore have produced it since 1995. The show also offers serial radio dramas, long a staple on Jamaican radio. Diadra Senior's The Law According to Pops has been running for several months now, featuring a group of local actors. Thursday's Wife, which concludes next week, was adapted by Denise Moore from a short story by Jamaican writer Hazel D. Campbell and performed by the African Canadian Dramatic Arts Society. Both serials are produced in the CKCU studios. Reggae in the Fields also keeps in touch with Jamaican radio programs, through occasional hookups. In March, it took Smith only two days to organize a link with Radio Jamaica to broadcast its live coverage of the funeral of former prime minister Michael Manley. In less than 24 hours, he raised $600 in sponsorships, arranged with other volunteer programmers at CKCU to preempt their airtime for the broadcast, and began promoting the special broadcast. That kind of devotion wins praise from CKCU station manager Barry Rueger. "From my perspective, this is the sort of team work, this is the sort of project that makes the whole station look good." Reggae in the Fields has consistently been one of the station's top money-raising programs and is in the enviable position of having a waiting list of businesses who want to sponsor it. Despite its metamorphosis into the most important public-affairs radio program for the black community, Junior Smith says reggae music is still one of the main draws on Reggae in the Fields. After 20 years, he has no plans to give it up anytime soon. "I'll keep doing it until it becomes boring," he says with a smile. "I bring my kids in with me now, so maybe they'll take over." Meanwhile, when Smith occasionally takes a break from the program for a few weeks, long-time reggae fan Steve Neale fills in. The program's title, incidentally, comes from a Jackie Mittoo reggae song. For Smith, it is indicative that there are "many fields of reggae," many variations on basic Jamaican roots music. And increasingly, many variations in the ways the national capital's favourite black radio show serves its listeners. (Reggae in the Fields airs on CKCU FM 93.1 Saturdays from 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.) Reprinted from the Ottawa Citizen. Copyright © 1997 The Southam News. |
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