“T&T Television (TTT) cannot be recreated.”
This was the view of one of TTT’s pioneers, Jai Parasram, in response to government’s intended plan to revamp the country’s first ever television station. Parasram started his television career at TTT in 1972 and held various positions at the station, his last being news director when he left in August 1986 to do his masters degree in Canada. He described TTT as an institution built by a team of dedicated professionals.
“It takes more than a name to make a great national television service. We were pioneers who believed in TTT as the eyes and ears of the nation. And we really worked hard to tell great stories about our people,” Parasram told the Sunday Guardian as he spoke on the impending return of the station.
Over the decades during its existence, Parasram said TTT “brought us closer together, taught us about ourselves, created an understanding of our diversity, unearthed some of our greatest talent, presented some of our best stories and kept us in touch with our world.”
He said on January 14, 2005, when TTT ceased to exist, it “was a poor shadow of the vibrant (and profitable) TTT I knew. But it was, after all, the only national broadcaster, the people’s station, a reflection of our society, our people, the conscience of a nation.”
Parasram told the Sunday Guardian TTT gave him wings and dreams. He noted that under the guidance and direction of programme director Farouk Muhammad, TTT produced its own shows, including Issues and Ideas, Time to Talk, Its in the News, Teen Dance Party, Youth Talks Out, Heritage, Scouting for Talent, Mastana Bahar, Indian Variety, Twelve and Under, Mainly For Women, Play of the Month, Community Dateline and Know Your Country to name a few.
Producers like Hazel Ward, Horace James, Oswald Maingot, Errol Harrylal, Shaffique Mohammed, Victor Daniel, Tony Lutchman and others worked with the talented pool of engineers and technicians to produce high quality national shows that reflected the country, the people and the culture, he said.
“And they did it with minimal television facilities and equipment, but with commitment and a passion for excellence,” Parasram said. He said what TTT lacked in finesse, it produced in relevant, national broadcasting, “and that’s what T&T has lost. The TTT that became a part of the National Broadcasting Network seemed to lack the will and the enthusiasm to do the same in spite of modern, more efficient tools and additional staff.”
“The marketplace in T&T, with a proliferation of media, makes it imperative for any government to chart a new course for public broadcasting. In a nation such as ours, there will always be the need for a national broadcasting network, no matter what you call it,” he added.
Asked if he would work along with the current administration to bring back TTT if asked, Parasram replied: “I would work with anyone to help develop a truly national TV service that is focused on bringing people together through media. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where I worked for 25 years, was and continues to be a great model of what a national TV service should be.
“I am happy to hear the minister said the focus would be on local content. That is vital in national building. TV is the ideal medium for building bridges and celebrating our diversity,” he added.
Another TTT pioneer, former head of news and current affairs Neil Giuseppi, said from an emotional point of view he would love to see the TTT logo again. However, he wondered whether an attempt to return to those glory days would make any difference to the media scenario in T&T.
“Deep down inside me, I feel it is too late for that. Will this move end up by forever sullying that great name that means so much to so many of us? I suppose that time alone will tell,” Giuseppi said.
The intention to go fully local with the station’s content, according to Giuseppi, seems to be a noble ideal, but he admitted he was a bit sceptical.
“I am afraid that the only way to make that concept a success is for the Government to fully subsidise the programme content and I am not sure how possible that is in these times of economic hardship. On top of that, a fully subsidised station will clearly be subject to political control and there is nothing that could be worse than that, particularly in the area of news.”
With the expectation that it will operate as a commercial entity, he added that “it is doomed to failure before it even gets off the ground. Over the years it has been shown that advertisers are not prepared to fund local content.
“That is not because the advertisers are against local content. Well-produced programmes, whether local or foreign, will always be attractive,” he said. “However it is a matter of cost. It is much cheaper to buy a foreign programme produced by one of the major networks in the United States or the United Kingdom whose international markets make it easy for them to amortise their costs over wider areas, thus making it possible for them to sell their programmes at much cheaper rates than local producers ever could.”
“My heart has always bled for the local producers who have done so much great work over the years only to find their programmes condemned to the dustbins while trashy foreign stuff is peddled on our local screens merely because they are cheaper to purchase. That, therefore, is the dilemma that faces the Government today. To subsidise or not to subsidise? I wait with bated breath to see what happens from here.”
Former TTT news producer Sunil Ramjitsingh advised the board to hire people with the right competencies to run the new entity.
He also advised the Government not do as previous administrations would have done and impose itself on the organisation in ways that would damage the prospects of the organisation.
“They are entitled to a portion of air time for public information and that is fine, but some administrations crossed the line. What those previous administrations failed to comprehend is that when they damaged the station’s reputation and content, they chased away viewers and therefore it was all in vain because no one really saw the propaganda they were trying so desperately to push, and at the end of the day the company ended up with a huge debt.
“It profits everyone, including the Government, when the station’s integrity and competitiveness remains intact. The present and future government administrations should try to avoid making the mistakes of their predecessors,” Ramjitsingh said.