Nigel Coke, who continues to be a role model for church communicators, has assumed a new role as chairman of the Adventist-run Northern Caribbean University (NCU) Media Advisory Board.

Coke, an elder, retains his substantive role as communication, public affairs and religious liberty director of the Mandeville-based Jamaica Union of Seventh-day Adventists (JAMU) and recently received the blessing of the JAMU President Pastor Everett Brown.

With more than 12 years of media experience serving on the board of NCU media group and chairman of the National Religious Media Commission (Love 101 Radio and TV), Coke is a familiar face and voice to media professionals who know him for his dogged and stick-to-it-ive approach to church communication.

At a recent service to mark the NCU media entities 12th anniversary, Coke indicated his vision to have the group address the violence and crime that polls suggested 71 per cent of Jamaicans thought were influenced by music.

“This is saying to me that NCU media group and, in particular, the radio station has a glorious opportunity of influencing the lives of Jamaican and the world as it is [via Internet] with positive Christ-centred music,” the chairman said.

“Our aim must be to transform lives positively through education and wellness. The tagline for the radio station is ‘Your station for education wellness’. Based on the influence that music has on individuals, we need less crime and abuse-based music.

“I hereby implore other radio stations to do your part in providing uplifting music that can change the social, spiritual and economic landscape of Jamaica.”

Coke succeeds Pastor Meric Walker, now president of the East Jamaica Conference. The media board is made up of the presidents, treasurers, communication directors and a lay member from each of the five Adventist conferences in Jamaica, along with the president and treasurer of NCU and Andrews Memorial Hospital.