THREE stalwarts of local media were honoured on Friday night for their contribution made over the years, in some cases over 40 years, during the Trinidad and Tobago Publishers and Broadcasters Association annual dinner and awards.
The gala event was held at the Queen’s Park Oval’s ballroom.
Television personalities, Allyson Hennessy and Hans Hanoomansingh along with one-time Trinidad Guardian cartoonist, Dunstan E Williams (now deceased) were described as three people who not only celebrated local culture during their time but also helped to shape it.
Both Hanoomansingh and Hennessy spoke upon receiving their tokens which included a Blackberry from TSTT, while Guardian technology columnist, Mark Lyndersay spoke on behalf of Williams describing him as a shy man but who with a tremendous amount of wit, encapsulated the very essence, ’of who we are,’ everyday in his cartoons under his pen name, DEW.
Speaking afterwards was Hanoomansingh.
’There is no greater satisfaction than receiving accolades from the industry itself,’ he said as he also spoke of entering the media at a time when there was no East Indian musical content on the radio.
He spoke of those who blazed the trail before him adding that the reality now was that the Indo-Trinidadian content on the radio, ’was common now.’
Hennessy spoke of the media as an industry she felt comfortable in and was good at.
Saying she started off as a cooking show host, a sometimes emotional Hennessy recalled a time when she had to interview the island’s first Prime Minister, Dr Eric Williams. There were quite a few chuckles when she recalled telling her producer that she was ’terrified,’ of carrying out the interview, being told she had to do it anyway, then finally driving over to Prime Minister’s house where she met Dr Williams, ’dressed to the hilt, complete with a cravat,’ as he opened her car door.
’I heard you were afraid of me,’ said the nation’s first PM to a surprised Hennessy that day.
The television presenter had just one lament though.
’What is happening to our producers?’ she asked as she wondered aloud if the only local content available now was morning talk shows and the news.
’Have we become lazy?’ she asked.
