Morning radio’s pleasurable staple signs off
HIS NAME has become synonymous with morning radio in Jamaica, and after a few minutes with the ebullient Alan Magnus, you will see why. He has a way of making you feel like his favourite brother, uncle, dad or friend, as he engages you completely once he opens his mouth.
RJR’s Magnus has come a long way to hit the 46-year milestone in radio broadcasting. Looking back on his early education at Franklyn Town Elementary School, followed by Kingston College (KC), he described those experiences as “getting the finest education ever. I have very fond memories of those days. KC was like a university where we got prepared for our entrance into the world.”
He said back then, the boys were treated like adults being prepared for the future, by their predominantly male teachers who were like fathers to them. “Douglas Forrest (then principal) was like our dad who knew all of us by name; the classroom was like our home and each boy was our brother,” Magnus added.
So if the KC experience was so great, why did he and many other alumni not send their sons to the school? Magnus told The Gleaner that the choice was not his alone to make.
Factors considered included proximity to home and whether the convenience of pickup and drop-off times meshed with his and his wife’s schedules. So they chose a school that was close enough for their children to walk home, if the need arose.
But long before he became a father, Magnus did a ninemonth stint in the trust department of the then Barclays Bank. That was followed by the then Jamaica Telephone Company, where he worked in four different departments before going to Loughborough College of Technology for four years prior to pursuing his passion in radio.
And it is a passion born of a strict work ethic (not without its bumps), revealed in a delightful interview during which Magnus chronicled the early days. Part of his work ethic stems from his experience in England, when he realised very quickly that bad weather did not stop people from going to work or about their business.
THE RJR DECADES
“My first decade at RJR could be described as the trouble years,” Magnus said
with his characteristic laugh and eyes glinting as his recollections were made.
“I was fired twice in the first 10 years for falling asleep on the job; I had had a long week of drinking, and, on top of that, I missed the 10 o’clock meeting to discuss falling asleep on air with my boss ... by falling asleep again!” Needless to say, they worked things out and he remains grateful to his considerate bosses to this day.
Marriage came in 1977, making Magnus settled down somewhat – but he describes the period between 1981 and 1991 as the decade that started the good relationship between himself and RJR.
“We understood each other better by then and decided to coexist with our differences of opinion,“he
said. In the decades spanning 1991 to 2010, Magnus said he began to wonder how much longer he would be able to continue at RJR. “By then, they had stopped putting announcers on staff, so I discussed the situation with my wife and, knowing that I loved my job, we decided
that I should put my own pension plan in place and go on,” Magnus told The Gleaner.
SINGING CAREER?
Alan Magnus briefly flirted with a singing career but quickly realised that the producers made most of the
money. His love for singing started with the KC school choir.
He also played the guitar and even had his debut at the popular Vere Johns Opportunity Hour, but did not take his career further than his hit songs, Flying Machine and Beautiful Day.
Regular listeners to RJR’s ‘Jamaican Morning’ with Alan Magnus would have heard many references to his late mother. She has left a lasting impression on his life, especially the value of money.
“At an early age I learnt from my mother to be fiscally responsible,” Magnus said with candour. In addition to her full-time teaching job, she also gave private lessons to supplement her income.
He continued, “When she got her paycheque, she gave it to me with a list of all her bills to be paid after I cashed it. I paid all the bills downtown Kingston then carefully took the change home where we both counted what was left against all the receipts I got,” he said.
“I also learnt the importance of saving from her. My school fee for Kingston College was seven pounds five shillings but she saved enough from her pay for that, as well as to pay down on our house in Pembroke Hall,” Magnus said.
The witty radio announcer also recalled some pleasant memories of his father, especially when they were residents of the Rockfort area of the city.
“My father drove a tanker for Shell, and one of my fondest memories of him was when he took me to work with him at the airport. I enjoyed being in the tanker and going under the plane with him.” He noted that his father was not as good with money as his mom, but he had his very good qualities. As a child, he also took them for rides in
the country with him. Magnus said his father had both good and bad qualities but he has tried not to emulate the negative ones.
NOT IMPRESSED
Professionally, Magnus is not very impressed with many of today’s crop of on-air announcers and presenters. He told The Gleaner that many of them should be paying the stations where they work for their time on air rather than the other way around. “We had strict rules when I started out; chief among them is that you should never abandon the studio.
“When I started, we had to first learn to pronounce words properly, and know which songs were appropriate for different times of the day, and a lot more. Today, you are hired and put on the air right away,” said Magnus, noting how times have changed.
Over Magnus’ years in the business, there has been one constant. The low salaries paid to
media practitioners, so he, like other announcers, had to have a second job. His was a photo identification card business that was among the first in the island. During those years, his hours were brutal. He would leave work at 9 a.m. and go directly to his business, but the sacrifice was necessary and he learnt to manage his time. This gruelling schedule forced Magnus to survive on four hours’ sleep.
There have been scores of outside broadcasts but Magnus says his most memorable assignment in the 40-plus years was the trip to Germany where he did the morning show for three days with limited facilities – successfully.
His biggest surprise was learning that the job was not a scripted one. “I asked the then programmes manager, Winston Ridgard, if you had to plan what you said on air, and he told me it was all off the top of your head. The skill is in your ability to ‘bite your tongue at the right time’.”
Another Magnus fact is that his favourite radio disc jock is the infamous American Don Imus, who fell from grace for his unkind remarks about some female sports personalities. Magnus grew to like his morning show after his aunt, who lives in the United States, encouraged him to listen to Imus.
Interestingly, Magnus, when asked, admitted that he would find it difficult to listen to his successor when he eventually signs off permanently. “It would be difficult for me to listen; I would be too critical to be fair to who took over, so I would just not turn on my radio,” he said.
Would he change anything in the over 40 years if he got the chance to do it over? “I would not change a thing; everything has contributed to what I am now. My relationship with the company is good, thanks to Ridgard who risked it all for me. Looking back, he must have put his job on the line for me and I appreciate him,” said the reflective Magnus.
His word of advice to upcoming radio announcers is to stay relevant and have an opinion on everything.