The Jamaica Observer’s Entertainment Desk continues with the 59th of its biweekly feature looking at seminal moments that have helped shape Jamaica over the past 60 years.

ON August 13, 1990, Jamaican media experienced one of its most transformative moments with the birth of Irie FM. The Ocho Rios radio station became the first in Jamaica to present an all-reggae format.

Owned by businessman Karl Young, Irie FM began test transmissions two months earlier. It emerged as a challenger to established rivals Radio Jamaica (RJR) and the Government-owned Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC).

Dr Dennis Howard was one of the original disc jockeys at Irie FM. He previously worked at the JBC where he learned the ropes of broadcasting from heavyweights like Barry “Barry G” Gordon, Errol “ET” Thompson, and Michael “Mikey Dread” Campbell.

He was recruited by Young to host a show and also act as programmes manager.

In a 2020 interview with the Jamaica Observer, Howard recalls not many people giving a reggae radio station much chance of succeeding in Jamaica.

“It was funny…a lot of the music fraternity never believed in it. When we went to a lot of people and said, ‘There’s going to be a reggae station and we need your records and need you to give us your catalogues’, some said it wouldn’t work,” said Howard.

Young’s fledgling enterprise proved the naysayers wrong. By late 1990, Irie FM was embraced by artistes, producers and music administrators who benefited from steady rotation.

Howard, who spent 10 years at JBC, was the most experienced of the disc jockeys. He hosted Riddim Magic, an afternoon prime-time show, from Mondays to Fridays.

His colleagues included Clyde McKenzie, another JBC ‘graduate’, who was the station’s manager; Bob Clarke, a former singer who hosted the weekly oldies programme; Ainsworth “Big A” Higgins, Michael “Mighty Mike” Jones and GT Taylor, all of whom quickly developed steady audiences by playing across-the-board reggae.

Although Irie FM started playing traditional reggae with a sprinkling of dancehall music, Howard noted that management was quick to pick up on the latter’s emergence from hardcore inner-city dances to mainstream clubs like Cactus and Mirage.

The DJs at Irie FM were the first to give songs by Shabba Ranks, Papa San, Garnet Silk, Tony Rebel, and Cutty Ranks power play. Producers such as Donovan Germain, Bobby Digital, Danny Browne, Patrick Roberts, Philip “Fatis” Burrell, Courtney Cole, Barry O’Hare, and Richard Bell also benefited from extensive airplay.

Dennis Howard left Irie FM after two years and has since worked in senior positions at the JBC and RJR Group of Companies. Clyde McKenzie assumed a management role at the successful Shocking Vibes Records, Karl Young died in 2010 while Jones passed away two years later.

Irie FM and its sister station ZIP FM remains a force in local media.