I cannot understand the mentality of Bahamian decision-makers at the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas, who in the face of insurmountable archival evidence continue to perpetuate the myth that ZNS was started in May 1936 and thus they are celebrating 70 years on May 26, 2006. ZNS radio began broadcasting on May 11, 1937.

Having completed my doctoral dissertation on the broadcasting history of The Bahamas in 1999, I informed management of the BCB that they continue to use an erroneous date to celebrate the anniversaries of broadcasting in The Bahamas. What makes this kind of mentality perplexing is that I am not the only scholar who has informed them of the erroneous date; Howard S. Factor (a white American scholar) completed his doctoral thesis on Mass Media in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas in 1985 and advised ZNS management at that time of their erroneous date of celebration. Historically, it is impossible to date ZNS radio as starting on May 26, 1936 because as the original purchasing documents for radio equipment noted, the radio equipment did not arrive in the country until April 1937. The equipment was ordered in December 1936. It took the first four months of 1937 to acquire the necessary parts and install the equipment before the station went on the air. Anyone who was doing accurate research for the celebration of the 70th anniversary at the National Archives would have seen the original receipts for equipment and the original debate in the House of Assembly from 1936 (actually the debates to operate a local radio station began in 1927) to 1937 on the acquisition of equipment and personnel. Further, the recording rights were not obtained until April 1937 and so this also delayed the start of the station. When I brought this information to the attention of the person who was given the responsibility for researching and preparing for the 70th anniversary, she informed me that the person who assigned her to this project was informed of the information on the erroneous date but told her to rely on a 1948 report (one document) from Kenneth Ingraham who along with Lionel Hughes and R. Cartwright were selected as the first technical staff who worked along with the superintendent of telegraph, David Salter. Salter was also the first announcer until the station hired a professional, Kenneth Patrick Brown (a British citizen).

As superintendent of telegraph/telecommunication department, Mr Salter was responsible for documenting and corresponding with the House of Assembly and the Colonial Secretary about the logistical decisions that involved getting the station on the air. This included finding the appropriate location (the Snappy Hat Shop), acquiring equipment, and negotiating with Performing Rights Society, Reuters and BBC for copyrights. His signature is found on original documents noting how the aforementioned was accomplished. These documents are dated 1937 (see Bahamas National Archives (BNA) colonial document file CO 9647/20) and are located at the National Archives. In these reports, receipts and memoranda, Salter noted the progress of implementing the radio station and the difficulties that were being encountered prior to the start of ZNS (which began as station VP7NF on the 618 frequency, ZNS received its name in June 1937). Ingraham became director of telecommunication (which had responsibility for ZNS) in 1948 and was not involved with the initial correspondence and decision-making. He was a technical staff member (working for the Department of Telegraph, which later became the Department of Telecommunication). As director of telecommunication, Ingraham, like his predecessors, wrote annual reports and memoranda on the operations and progress of ZNS. In the 1948 annual report, which is also at the National Archives, he makes an error about the start of ZNS. This is the document ZNS/BCB continues to rely on to perpetuate the myth of ZNS's birth.

When is ZNS/BCB going to do the right thing and correct the erroneous date they continue to use and celebrate? It makes one wonder how far we have come and what ethics we want to pass on to our youth when we continue to live a lie.

Yours sincerely,

JULIETTE STORR, PhD