Debby Bissoon produces, presents in prime time

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

In a free-to-air television landscape heavily populated with music-centred programming, Deborah 'Debby' Bissoon has one of the more unusual slots. She is literally in prime time - in E-Prime after the news package on TVJ. She has been doing it for two years, producing and presenting, which is not especially stressful. Actually, having a hand in producing what she is presenting, Bissoon says "I am confident in the material".

Coming from a Valentine's Day programme over the Internet at Clarendon College, through hosting numerous events on AZ Preston Hall and all over the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, and a Digicel campaign that was a pivotal point in her development, Bissoon has consistently built the skills to justify that confidence.

The encouragement she has got over the years has not hurt, either, from Bissoon co-hosting a FAME FM Radiocation show with Paula-Ann Porter as a sixth-former at Clarendon College. "I was very vocal in class," Bissoon, the daughter of a preacher father and guidance counsellor mother, said, explaining why her literature teacher tipped her for the spot. The response was very good, leading to the Valentine's Day intercom broadcast. "I asked persons to drop off requests and people loved it (the programme)," Bissoon said.

She co-hosted with other visiting radio professionals, such as Richie B and DJ Flames. But there was another intercom show in Bissoon's future.

She intended to move on to CARIMAC at UWI after completing high school, but did not get in. Bissoon went into language communication (changing from linguistics), going to live on Preston at a time when Shark Radio was being run over the intercom. In the second semester of her first year, Bissoon tried out and started the E-Splash entertainment programme.

Although friends at CARIMAC encouraged her to apply again, Bissoon opted for Entertainment and Cultural Enterprise Management, in which she eventually did a minor, starting in second year. "The courses took me further into entertainment," Bissoon said. And the lecturers, among them Dr Donna Hope-Marquis, Dr Sonjah Stanley-Niaah and Dr Dennis Howard, encouraged her. "I knew I would not stop until somebody saw this talent," Bissoon said.

The event hosting started in her second year. "I started hosting from the Vice-Chancellor's programme to things on hall," Bissoon said. In December of her second year, Howard asked Bissoon to do apprenticeship at Big Yard (then involving Robert Livingston and Shaggy) and ended up working on Shaggy and Friends. In January, Bissoon hosted a fashion show, where some of her lecturers saw her in action for the first time. They were pleased and "told me they would help".

'I was nervous'

She ended up on television for the first time on Hype TV, working with Howard on the promotion of a party called Shadows. "I was a nervous wreck," Bissoon said. Then came a return to Big Yard in the summer, followed by a stint at the Vere Technical High School switchboard for a few weeks.

Bissoon did an audition with Carlington Silbourne for E-Mix and thought it went well. The persons assessing the presentation thought she was too laid-back, but it was not all for naught. She got in on the Digicel Strike it Rich campaign and headed back to UWI in better financial shape than before.

But TV was a tough nut to crack, Bissoon doing three unsuccessful auditions at TVJ. "The thing that threw me off most was the teleprompter," she said, as it was unlike radio. "I did not have any sit-down training." In the summer after third year (Bissoon having an extra year to do extra courses because of the changes she had made), her grandmother, who had had cancer for 15 years, took a turn for the worse. But when Howard called and told her about an audition at RETV Bissoon went, preparing in front of the mirror.

The audition, which went well, was conducted by Sharon Schroeter. But when Bissoon went back to Clarendon her grandmother was not speaking and "the following day we walked in as she was dying". Bissoon, whom was very close to her grandmother, left for Kingston the next day. Donald 'Iceman' Anderson, whom she met at Big Yard, gave her 'the talk' that snapped the depression - and Bissoon became head of the counselling committee at AZ Preston where she met girls who had been through incest, rape and family neglect.

The RETV audition was behind Bissoon, but one night in October she got a call from Trevor Johnson, that she would be hosting E-Prime. "It was like the light at the end of the tunnel slap me in the face," Bissoon said.

She has been on E-Prime since October 2010, adding television to her radio credits from doing Fusion on News Talk from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays. A high point has been having Beres Hammond look around in a tent at Sumfest, see her ("Is my girl in the corner?"), imitate her opening stance and tell her how much he enjoys her programme. Bissoon enjoys the wide age range of persons who give positive feedback on E-Prime and says,"I am all about preserving our culture".

Eventually, Bissoon said, she wants to get back into radio and is actually in discussions with a media house. She has an eye on a master's programme in the USA and short courses at the Cultural Production Training Centre, having done short courses at CARIMAC.

"No matter where you are, the financial circumstances, the social status, you can rise above. As long as you have a dream, follow it and everything will fall in place," Bissoon advised.