Contributed by

Claudette DeLeon-Attride

Aircraftman No 1 Class, (AC1)

Ninety -two-year old Rupert S Linton passed away at his home in Palm Bay, Florida, recently. He was a foundation employee and radio technician with Jamaica’s first national radio and television entity. Rupert, or as his colleagues called him “Bloops”, will be remembered for service.

He served as a scouts leader and travelled to faraway countries like Norway, and Sweden. He was a part of the Jamaicans who served as “Soldiers of the King” during World War II, rising to the rank of Aircraftman No 1 Class, (AC1). Rupert Linton began that service on July 28, 1944 when, after exhaustive testing and interviewing, he was sworn into the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a recruit. The RAF later sent Rupert and some of his mates to radio school in Essex, England, where they learned how to do troubleshooting and how to install equipment on aircraft. These skills were an invaluable asset to him in later years. During the war, radio broadcasts in Jamaica were managed by amateur radio operators. They called themselves “ham operators” to honour the Harvard club members Hertz, Armstrong & Marconi by using their first initials H-A-M. This was simply an extension of the information transmitting service systems they had worked on during the war.After the war, the Jamaican government issued a licence to regulate broadcasting for the British Rediffusion Group, airing as Radio Jamaica using a relay service system, called Re-diffusion. However, they were managed under a local company – the Jamaica Broadcasting Company. By the time it had its first commercial radio broadcast in July 1950, listenership had grown widely and more and more homes were tuning in. This growing popularity moved Premier Norman Manley to create a more Jamaican station and so the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation was formed with a mandate to emphasise Jamaican culture. In June 1959 the fully Jamaican radio station – JBC was formally launched, even as the studios were still being built near Half Way Tree in St Andrew. Former RAF audio mechanic Rupert was among the first staff selected – the herculean task ahead: installing studio equipment, testing, wiring and tuning, working with writers, musicians, concert pianists to showcase Jamaican culture and preparing for a grand launch which included mento band music and Miss Lou & Mass Ran’s comedy to agricultural information for farmers with Pro Rata Powell.

For 36 years Rupert Linton’s service spread throughout the JBC, now housed at 5 South Odeon Avenue. His quiet humour was always with him at work and in domino games in the JBC Sports Club. His patience was the comforting energy which gave me the confidence to do technical work and cross over barriers to operate in areas at JBC which in the early 1970s heavily favoured males, and his assurance helped me with the cumbersome Uher tape recorders, so I could incorporate audio clips with my news stories and produce the radio show World News Round-up. Recently in Palm Bay, Florida, we said goodbye to Rupert. He left us to join the other crew members from those early days of the corporation, people like first Chairman Douglas Fletcher and General Manager Peter Aylen, Ken Maxwell, John Maxwell, MG Robinson, Gordon Stewart, Cecil Watt, Corina Meeks so many, many, many others who laid the foundation for what we enjoy today.

Jamaica’s broadcasting road from the Abeng to the cellphone has many forgotten builders. Those and the many others not mentioned here who coloured the blueprint to lay the foundation for Jamaica’s broadcasting were never given any awards. They remain largely unacknowledged for their contribution and for the part they played in the dissemination of information through broadcasting, Today, I want to pay tribute to Rupert Linton and all the others, and I say, Thank You.