SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — After 57 years as a professional in electronic media, Keith Campbell, chief executive officer of the Public Broadcasting Corporation (PBC), still marvels at how he started in the business.

The way Campbell tells it, back in 1968 he, Neville Harvey, Kenneth Campbell, and Eric James from St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) landed jobs as studio technicians at the State-run radio and television station, Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC), “even before we graduated…”

The reason for their ease of entry to the world of work was their active membership of a radio and television broadcasting club at STETHS, based in Santa Cruz.

That experience effectively provided the foundation for careers in radio and television, not just for them but others who followed.

During the 1960s to early 70s, interested STETHS students were guided by Mr Symonds, an innovative, intrepidly activist teacher from Britain, in creating what was said to be the first licensed, live broadcast radio station outside of JBC and Radio Jamaica (RJR) islandwide.

“We broadcast from the STETHS campus to the Santa Cruz area on radio,” Campbell said.

STETHS Radio and TV Club also operated closed-circuit television confined to the STETHS campus.

Invaluable technical help came from JBC staffers. Campbell remembers JBC studio engineers, including MG Robinson and Rupert Linton (not to be confused with a legendary English language teacher of the same name) visiting the school regularly to present “retired” equipment to the club and provide training.

The STETHS Radio and TV Club eventually folded, as competing interests at the growing school — first established in 1961 with a mixed curriculum of vocational and academic subjects — took centre stage.

But the memories lived on.

Hence, the current excitement at a project, now well into its construction phase, to create a modern multimedia, digital, audio-visual laboratory at STETHS — expected to cost in the region of $60 million when completed and properly equipped. Completion time is being targeted for 2026.

It’s expected that the multimedia lab will not only prepare students for specialist communication careers in today’s rapidly evolving digital age, but earn for school and students from what’s described as an expanding market.

Promoted as a ‘legacy project’ to mark the school’s 60th anniversary, which came at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown in 2021, the mission is being led and funded in diverse ways by STETHS past students at home and abroad, not least STETHS Alumni USA and STETHS Alumni Kingston Chapter.

The Church of Latter-day Saints of Jesus Christ is on board as the leading donor, and the business community and Jamaican Government are being actively wooed.

At a formal ground-breaking ceremony late last month, Zonia Watkins, vice-president of the USA chapter and head girl of the STETHS graduating class of 1982, heaped praise on the Church of Latter-day Saints for their “generous” contribution to the project. This is in the region of $30 million, STETHS Principal Keith Wellington told the Jamaica Observer.

Representatives of the Church of Latter-day Saints, including Leroy Blake, who is a STETHS past student, said the organisation’s donation reflected “concern” not just for people’s spiritual needs but their material welfare — not least education.

Dr Cecil Wright, head of STETHS Alumni USA Chapter, said the state-of-the-art facility will be a “centre for education, training and development, recording studio [with] live broadcasting capability, alumni hospitality room, and additional classroom space…”

Wright said partnerships had started with “universities overseas to bring advanced curriculum development” and technology to “ensure that STETHS remains at the forefront of technical education in Jamaica”.

Donald Foster, who heads the alumni Kingston chapter, argued that the “scope of this project is big enough” for all past students to share in raising what’s being projected as another $15 million to complete and equip the multimedia centre.

Foster told the Sunday Observer that he considered the project especially timely since it was in sync with the Government’s promotion of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in a world increasingly reliant on those areas of study.

Delroy Slowley, Member of Parliament (MP) for St Elizabeth North Eastern and a leading businessman in Santa Cruz, pledged to support the project “both as MP and businessman”, though he declined to publicly commit to a figure.

Regarding the vision for training and earning, Slowley told the launch audience that he had established a “creative centre” that was likely to have beneficial partnerships with the multimedia facility.

Wellington identified past student Bob Raynor from the graduating class of ’71 as a pivotal person in the conceptualisation stage.

As told by Wellington, “maybe as long as 10 years ago” he first met Raynor when he visited the latter’s store in Kingston to buy recording equipment .

“He [Raynor] said to me, ‘I can give you some equipment, just give me a room and I will set up a recording facility…’,” Wellington recalled.

Contacted by telephone last week, Raynor, who operates Quality Equipment Distributors Limited on Courtney Walsh Drive in Kingston, confirmed that he remained committed to honouring his pledge despite the time lag.

He envisions a day when any artiste can visit the multimedia centre on the STETHS campus “to do a recording…”

That fits into Wellington’s dream of students not only learning on the school campus but also earning. He revealed that in the context of STETHS, those studying technical/vocational subjects such as “welding and other construction skills…have been [earning] for decades”.

For Campbell, who is part of the project’s implementing committee, the commercial aspect of the facility now under construction is what, as much as anything else, will keep it alive.

He paints a picture of a wide range of digitised “products”, including low-budget commercials serving community business interests, while providing training and earnings not just for students and the school, but for interested youth in the wider community.