IWD 2021: Rise to the challenge with Tricia ‘ZJ Sparks’ Spence

TRICIA Spence’s parents encouraged her to become a lawyer. In fact, they thought she would have been well on her way to law school when she left the law firm where she worked during her gap year after high school. But the ‘wild child’ had other intentions. Today Tricia Spence, who is more popularly known as ZJ Sparks, is an internationally acclaimed broadcaster, disc jockey, producer, actress, and writer. Her distinctive voice is one of her greatest assets, and she has been using it to spark positive energy in numerous spaces for over two decades.

“I always had an interest in radio, because while I was growing up, there were certain broadcasters who really made radio listening very pleasant and intriguing,” Spence told All Woman as she walked up Mountain Spring Drive — one of her favourite ways to stay active, reflect and commune with nature. “There were some broadcasters who, once they spoke, even if you didn’t know how to speak English, you could get a grasp of what they were saying. I think that fascinated me, because I was always hyperactive and dramatic.”

Spence, who grew up as an only child, is innately an explorer. She remembered feeling, when she listened to broadcasters such as Leonie Forbes, that she could close her eyes and see exactly what they were talking about.

“And my parents allowed me to question things,” she said gratefully. “They facilitated discussion.”

So when Spence expressed to them, after graduating from Holy Childhood High School, that she was not quite ready to begin university, they allowed her to take a gap year, comforted by the fact that she was spending it in a law firm. They had confidence in her because they saw from early on that she was industrious, after she worked as a waitress to help pay for her ‘A’ Levels.

“I was always working because my parents instilled in me the value of education, and also to work hard for what I want and to do it honestly,” Spence affirmed.

It wasn’t until years later, after she had completed her first degree in management at The University of the West Indies, and decided to take another gap year, that Spence began to let her voice be heard.

“I decided to use that year to do the arts, because I always had an interest in that area,” she explained. “I did radio, writing for radio, acting on Royal Palm Estate, and I did stage performance.”

Spence found herself on the airwaves after she tried out to become a production assistant. “That didn’t work out, but the people at the station, particularly Dr Dennis Howard, thought I had a nice voice. He said I need to be on the radio,” she recalled.

And so it was that she made her entry. She started out at KLAS, and eventually went on to become the first female to occupy a coveted, popular afternoon time slot on Jamaica’s oldest radio station, RJR 94 FM.

“Richie B, who held the post before I did, gave me some very big shoes to fill,” she admitted. “But I had my own identity and my own ideas, and I liked the challenge, so I took it up.”

After a hiatus to finish up her studies overseas, Spence returned home and took up an invitation to be one of the founding personalities on a new radio station — Zip 103 FM.

“I figured that if this station failed, I’d resort to using my degree,” she said, chuckling. Nearly 20 years later, ZJ Sparks is still a part of what grew to become a trendsetting station on the airwaves.

“It’s been fun growing up in a space for radio where nobody thought it would be possible, or that there was space for even another player,” she said in reflection. “It has shown other people that there was this voice, and now you even have other stations replicating the same format.”

While inclusive radio stations such as Zip 103 FM provided safe spaces for women to thrive, Spence was exposed to the negative stereotypes and attitudes towards women when she went out to play music live.

“You would go to events and when it was the female DJ’s time to play, hell would break loose behind the desk, because the men didn’t want to give you the time to go on,” she remembered. “Then when you’d go on, they’d hurry you to come off, because they didn’t want to see you get any ‘forward’. They did not believe that women could do this, even the patrons themselves. What they would do is crowd the console when a woman started playing, because they wanted to ensure that it’s not a mixtape that you’re playing.”

Nevertheless, she persisted, like other women such as Paula-Ann Porter, Simone Clarke-Cooper and Dj Sunshine had been persisting.

“I had to come in and put in my work too, as a soldier,” she added. “So now when you hear that a female is playing at a party, it’s not an alien concept to you, but there was a lot of fight… A lot of fighting to cut down the canefields and pave the way, so that women can now walk in the clear.”

And she is still putting in the work to ‘Spark it up’ — most recently through her foundation of that name.

“I know that education, formal or informal, is important, and I know that you have many people out there who really want to finish their education, but they can’t because they just don’t have the financial resources. They need some help,” she said. “So I decided to use most of the proceeds from the ‘Steam Fish’ and ‘Okra Body’ T-shirts towards starting the foundation, and so far we have helped quite a few people through scholarships.”

Spence never for a second thinks she knows or has done enough, so she is constantly trying to raise the bar for herself, learning, and trying as much as she can.

“A lot of people don’t like to take instruction or guidance, but I am very open to that because I believe that you can never know everything,” the trained sports massage therapist said matter-of-factly. “I like to learn.”