New time slot for Tony Gallimore

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

After more than three years of jamming the graveyard shift with the Saturday Night Takeover show, disc jockey Tony Gallimore recently got a different time slot and format with Community Buzz on the News Talk 93 FM radio station.

Gallimore co-hosts Community Buzz with Samantha Waugh from 3 to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday. It replaced The Corner which was co-hosted by Stephen Golding and Empress.

"In a way we're doing the same thing but it's less political, it's more of a people thing," Gallimore said.

"You hear negative things about people in these areas, but since I've been doing the show, it has opened my eyes to a lot of things," he added.

Each week, Gallimore and Waugh put the spotlight on some of the toughest areas in Jamaica. To date, they have visited the Spoilers area of central Kingston, Central Village in Spanish Town and Montego Bay where they focused on the Flankers community.

Gallimore says their discussions with residents are usually the same.

"They talk a lot about unemployment and lack of representation by politicians, and that's really frustrating for them," Gallimore explained.

He added that, contrary to popular belief, many of the residents are up to scratch on current national issues, but are determined to lift their communities without the assistance of politicians.

"They are actually working to improve their situation. There are homework centres and people are looking to build better relations with the police and the church," Gallimore said.

Spoilers, Central Village and Flankers have been scarred for many years by gang and political violence. The latter has been the scene of some of the most hideous homicides in Jamaica during the last five years.

The Community Buzz has also done shows in less hostile environments such as looking at development in the Ferry section along Mandela Highway, and the seaside town of Treasure Beach in St Elizabeth.

While Gallimore's new show is punctuated by music, it has a distinctly different flavour than Saturday Night Takeover, the late-night show he hosted on News Talk 93 FM (then known as Radio Mona), starting in 2007.

Saturday Night Takeover was built around the cutting-edge reggae and hip-hop sounds Gallimore played while he was a disc jockey with the London-based Greenwich Community Radio network. He also worked with several private stations while living in Britain.