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Kaieteur News
DTV-8 celebrating 20 years of broadcasting
Monday December 09, 2013
GPSU advises members to spend wisely this season - warns against unsupportive private sector
DTV-8 which recently attained company status, is managed by its Directors, the Rambarrans Dave’s Television Channel 8 in New Amsterdam is marking its 20th Anniversary with a monthlong of observances and activities. The TV station, founded by the late David ‘Dave’ Rambarran, emerged out of the now 65- year- old Dave’s Portrait Studio. He was considered to be the pioneer of still photography in the Ancient County, having started business since 1947. Today, the station is being managed by his children and grandchildren. The Video Productions section was started in 1985 and the most recent addition, Dave’s Television Channel 8 (DTV-8), was started on 22nd December 1993. DTV-8 is a community oriented TV committed to informing, educating and entertaining the Berbice community. DTV-8 also promotes sports, cultural, religious and social activities of the people in the community. As part of its celebrations for the special anniversary, the station will be airing programmes and excerpts of footage through the past twenty years. DTV-
8 also pioneered locallyproduced features in Berbice including ‘Know your County’, ‘Teen Rap’, the satirical year- end series Berbice Lampoon’, ‘Here in Berbice’, among others. This was in the early 90’s, a time when television broadcasting in Guyana was a ‘new’ thing. Additionally, it was the first TV station in Berbice and one of the first few in Guyana to have aired a TV Newscast ‘DTV- News Digest’ hosted by a husband and wife team. The first live newscast, ‘Prime News’ was also aired in the 1990’s. The TV station further broke new ground by airing the first birthday greetings and popularized the ‘Death Announcement’ segment on local TV, something which has been adopted by many other TV stations in Guyana. DTV-8 was also the first TV station in Berbice and indeed among the first in Guyana, too, to air a live outdoor broadcast. This took place a few years ago from the N/A Town Hall. Other regular live outdoor broadcasts through the years included the Courts Christmas Lightup on Main Street, New
Amsterdam; N/A Town Day Opening at State House Lawns, Good Friday Service at the Roman Catholic Church of the Ascension; A. Ally & Sons Christmas Bonanza Drawing on Main Street, etc. The TV station is also familiar for its quality familyoriented programmes with the TV station popular slogan ‘Television for the Entire Family and Berbice Super station’. It is a widelyreached media house which embraces religious faiths of all denominations and caters for all ages and viewers of different tastes. There will be an exhibition on December 20 and 21 in front of the TV station. On display will be photographs of DTV- 8 through the past 20 years as well as equipment such as camera and such like that were used over the years during production. The Rambarran family also plans to visit the Children of Promise Orphanage. There will also be a Live TV call- in programme where viewers can win twenty prizes and a cake- cutting ceremony on December 21, the day prior to the 20TH Anniversary date.
Livan and other GPSU executives, members protesting the 5 percent increase Public workers are being advised to be mindful of their spending this season in light of the “arbitrary five percentage wage imposition” by the government. The head of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) Patrick Yarde has noted that it would be very unwise for public servants to engage in lavish spending; enriching the private sector that has so far been silent to their cause. Yarde said that he would be disappointed in the workers if they should engage in excess spending and forget the meager five percent increase that the government has imposed on them. He warned against the unsupportive private sector as they have not expressed concerns over the actions
against the public workers - a significant percentage of the sector’s supporters. GPSU’s Senior Industrial Officer Dennis English urged union members in a press interview that they should not get carried away with the fanfare of Christmas given the struggle that is before them. He said, “We have not seen anyone from the private sector coming out in support, but they are waiting to grab the public servants with advertisements and other offers for Christmas.” “But they (workers) should not get caught up in the season; next the season ends and its back to punishment and it is even worst, because come January, February, they (workers) have a whole year ahead of them to make do with that meager and inadequate five percent increase.” “We are saying to them that it is in their best interest, we are standing on the proverbial shoulders of many, some fought for order and previously for us and died. The point is that they have passed on a legacy to us therefore we have a duty to endure that we don’t lose what we already have.” “Many persons are
enjoying great benefits and I hope they don’t think it was as a result of this decent government that woke up one morning and decided that they love public servants; it was the struggle of the union, nurses and other persons shot with pellets and so on and therefore we are viewing it very closely. We have good reason to stand up because the only time that workers get something significant is when they fight up. The government only understands a crisis situation; they lack the decency to sit down and negotiate” First Vice President Mortimer Livan has questioned the whereabouts of the remaining $3B designated for public workers. He said that when the wages were passed at $35,000 for public workers, the private sector was upset and spoke out against it, “here we have an illegality where over $4B was budgeted for wage increase; the president signed off the appropriation bill for the purposes that the money was designated for. But only some $1B was used, they need to tell us where the rest of the money is.”