Held at the headquarters of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the launch took place on Wednesday, (10th November) and was attended by Chairman of the ZIZ 50th Anniversary Committee and the ZIZ Broadcasting Corporation, Peter Jenkins; Master of Ceremonies, Val Henry; members of the ZIZ Public Relations Committee, managers and other staff members of the media house and students and teachers of various schools across the island.
ZIZ Radio will celebrate its golden anniversary on 5th March, 2011, with the set of competitions being one of the pre-activities.
The public, according to information released at the launch, has an opportunity to participate in one or more of the five competitions, including the Slogan Competition, the Song Competition, the Calypso Competition, the Poster Competition and an Essay Competition.
Jenkins, in providing brief remarks, said the events were selected and crafted with a view to emphasizing the media houses’ role and responsibility to the public. He also indicated that an impressive $30,000 in cash prizes is up for grabs.
“The 50th anniversary of ZIZ Radio is not a ZIZ event. It is a national event and as such we have attempted to organize this event in that regard. We have selected the finest and best of our nationals and residents of St. Kitts and Nevis with the hope that we would create events that our nation would be truly proud of. The persons that have selected are the best in their fields, for example, those that are going to be judging our poster competition, those that are going to be organizing and judging our essay competition are the finest in St. Kitts and Nevis”, said Jenkins.
“ZIZ originally and over the years has continued to be an educator, has been a medium to inform the nationals of St. Kitts and Nevis and the world. And so ZIZ Radio would have shaped the intellect and the capacity and the mental agility of a number of leaders of St. Kitts and Nevis and so we want to continue that tradition”, continued the Chairman.
The Slogan Competition is open to all residents of the federation and nationals living abroad and participants are advised that their entries must reflect ZIZ’s contribution to the federation and must NOT be more than eight syllables in length.
The Poster Competition, however, is only opened to children between the ages of 9 and 12 years, inclusive, and the acceptable media are water colours, crayon, poster paints, collage and electronic. All entries must be submitted on 8.5 x 11 paper.
Open only to high school students in St. Kitts and Nevis, participants of the Essay Competition must construct their entries to fall within 750 and 1000 words.
The Song Competition is open to songwriters, lyricists and music composers while the Calypso Competition is open to “all persons who are not of primary school age and who are nationals or residents of St. Kitts and Nevis”.
The competitions’ organizers have indicated that members of the ZIZ staff, their children and dependants are not eligible to compete in the golden anniversary celebrations.
Persons wishing to get further information can contact ZIZ at 465-2621.