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| Cayman Islands |
Cayman Islands
Thank you to Ry Robinson and Jeff White for sharing this week's Wavescan script.
Jeff: This week in Wavescan, Ray Robinson in Los Angeles takes a look at the broadcasting scene in the small Caribbean nation of the Cayman Islands.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. The Cayman Islands are located in the central Caribbean, due south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica. There are three major islands in the Cayman group: Grand Cayman, with an area of 76 square miles, and about 75 miles to the east, the two sister islands of Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman.
The total population in the Cayman Islands is a little over 80,000, and the capital is Georgetown, on Grand Cayman. These islands are a popular tourist destination, particularly for Americans who wish to escape the cold northern winter.
The first European explorer to discover the Cayman Islands was the famous navigator Christopher Columbus, who visited the Caymans on his last Caribbean journey in May 1503. No evidence has ever been found that the islands were occupied before their discovery by Europeans, and the Cayman Islands have been a dependency of Great Britain since 1670. They were granted autonomous self-government in 1972. The name “Cayman” is derived from an old Spanish word meaning “alligator”.
The territory’s economy relies mainly on tourism and financial services, which are boosted by the attraction of offshore banking. The territory has never levied any income tax, capital gains tax or wealth tax, making it a popular tax haven. There are over 100,000 companies registered in the Cayman Islands – more than the population itself. The government’s main source of income is from indirect taxation – primarily import duties on all goods imported into the islands.
Radio broadcasting came very late to the Cayman Islands, and up until the early 1970's, local residents had to tune their radio receivers to stations in other nearby countries, such as Jamaica and Miami for programming in English, or Cuba and Central America for programming in Spanish.
The first radio station in the Cayman Islands was an educational FM station with 100 watts on 101.1 MHz which was opened somewhere around 1973. This station identified on air as ICCI-FM, and was owned and operated by the International College on Grand Cayman. A private commercial FM station, ZFZZ, with 15 kW on 99.9 MHz, made its first appearance in 1997.
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| Georgetown, Cayman Islands |
The government-operated Radio Cayman in Georgetown is first listed in the 1976 edition of the World Radio TV Handbook, with three transmitters: 10 kW on 1555 kHz, 1 kW on 1205 kHz, and 250 watts on 105.3 FM. According to a 1981 letter from Loxley Banks, the Director of Broadcasting, the station actually began broadcasting in December 1976. Additional test broadcasts were conducted in April 1977, and the station was officially inaugurated three months later on July 13, 1977.
The medium wave transmitters were all closed in the 1990’s. The 10 kW medium wave transmitter at Gun Bluff on 1555 kHz was closed in 1994 due to the cost of operating the facility, and the fact that the transmitter area had become built up with residential housing. The old and ailing 1 kW unit on 1205 kHz was closed in 1999.
During the nearly quarter century that the medium wave units were on the air, this station was heard widely throughout the Caribbean, and at times in the United States, and occasionally even in Europe and the South Pacific. The station always verified reception reports with a courteous letter in English, duly signed by Loxley Banks, Director of Broadcasting.
Radio Cayman is on the air these days from four FM transmitters in two different locations: Georgetown on Grand Cayman, and Cayman Brac. The main channel, Radio Cayman 1, operates on 89.9 & 91.9 MHz FM, while a second channel, Breeze FM, operates on 93.9 & 105.3. Here is an 8am ID from Radio Cayman 1 just a few weeks ago in February.
Interestingly, as the population has quadrupled over the last quarter century, so the number of private commercial and religious FM stations has mushroomed too. Besides the government-run Radio Cayman, listeners today can hear more than a dozen other stations on the FM band:
Praise FM 87.9
Magic FM 91.5
Star FM 92.7
CayCountry 93.5
Gold 94.9
Big Fish 95.5
CayRock 96.5
Island FM 98.9
Z99 99.9
Rooster 101 101.9
Hot 104 104.1
Kiss FM 106.1
X107 107.1
Cayman Weather Radio 107.9
Perhaps it’s time for a trip to the Caribbean, Jeff. What do you think?
YouTube has many videos of interest on the Cayman Islands at:
