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RJR chairman inducted into CBU Hall of Fame

Published:Monday | August 22, 2011 | 12:00 AM
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President of the CBU Vic Fernandes (centre) is flanked by J.A. Lester Spaulding (right) and Stewart Krohn, the two newest inductees into the Caribbean Broadcasting Union Hall of Fame.
Spaulding - Contributed
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Chairman of the RJR Communications Group, J.A. Lester Spaulding, is one of two inductees to the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) Hall of Fame for this year.

Spaulding, a former president of the CBU, was joined by another former president Stewart Krohn of Belize.

The two have been hailed for the outstanding leadership they have given in various areas of broadcasting in the region.

In a ceremony presided over by CBU President Victor Fernandes last Wednesday, the prime minister of Belize, Dean Barrow, handed the new members their instruments of induction into the region's highest body of recognition for media excellence.

Spaulding was applauded for his leadership at the highest level of the CBU, the Caribbean News Agency (CANA) and the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

He was remembered for leading the CBU through one of its most difficult periods in the 1990s and also for leading the negotiations which led to the CBU's major development project for almost 10 years, which received funding support through the German Foundation, the Fredrich Ebert Stuftung.

Spaulding, who lead the transition of Radio Jamaica from a single station into a media group with three radio stations, a free-to-air television station, cable entities, and a multimedia company remains a member of the boards of CANA and the CMC.

Krohn, who established a television production company, Great Belize Productions, more than 20 years ago, led the company into securing a television broadcast licence and became the leading free-to-air broadcaster in Belize.

The company subsequently became one of the leading contributors of programming content through the CBU to the rest of the region. He was vice-president, television, for the CBU for several years and was president of the CBU for two years.

The Caribbean Broadcasters' Hall of Fame was inaugurated almost 15 years ago and its members include: Rafiq Khan, Hugh Cholmondley, Dwight Whylie, Tony Cozier, Olga Lopes Seale, Vic Fernandes, Sir Trevor McDonald, Ken Gordon and Jones Madeira.