March 15, 2009 – Mandeville, Jamaica…[Nigel Coke/IAD]
Northern Caribbean University (NCU) was granted an all-island radio license by Jamaica's Broadcasting Commission. This was disclosed by the President of NCU, Dr. Herbert Thompson during the installation service for the newly appointed president and secretary of the West Jamaica Conference held in Montego Bay, Jamaica on Saturday, March 14, 2009.
“We are very delighted to receive this license,” said Dr. Thompson. “What this means is that we will have to pull ourselves together and set the pace for the highest caliber of programming in radio. What I can say knowing the executives and members of our church is that the Public Broadcasting Commission will not have to sanction anything that we broadcast. We will seek to lift Christ higher, and what the public will hear is clean religious lyrics.”
The announcement which was met with a loud applause from the congregation came after eight years of wait by NCU who applied for the license in 2001. Then, the student population was approximately 2,000 compared to its present enrollment of over 5,600 students.
“This is good news and a bright day in the life of our church and in particular NCU” said Pastor Derek Bignall, President of West Indies Union Conference and Chairman of the Board of Governors of NCU. “This is a glorious opportunity for us to provide the nation with good wholesome programming that will advance our message about the upliftment of people, giving people hope through the spoken word, songs and discussion programs. This is a wonderful answer to prayer and we say to God be the Glory!”
The University presently operates a campus station from its main campus in Mandeville which is aired on the frequency 88.3 FM.
Dr. Thompson went on to say that “The University will use this as a primary vehicle in the training of its mass communication students because our communication studies department is vibrant and heavily subscribed and some of the best people in media in this country are graduates of our program.”
Complete with news, advertisement and programming, the radio station will be “a viable alternative, but a Seventh-day Adventist station,” adds Thompson.
NCU is the flagship institution of the West Indies Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventist and is the Adventist university with the largest enrollment worldwide.
