‘Jamaica House Live’ scores big for PM Golding

There has been overwhelming response to the first installation of ‘Jamaica House Live’, the interactive radio talk programme hosted by Prime Minister Bruce Golding on Wednesday, January 31.
Callers to Jamaica House and the Ministry of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports have congratulated the Prime Minister for the excellent initiative and his handling of the issues raised by listeners.
The first of its kind by a Jamaican leader, the programme was syndicated live across all radio stations and broadcast live on the JIS website and IRIE TV globally.
‘Jamaica House Live’ was presented in a very organic format which gave the audience a chance to speak to the Prime Minister on any subject of their choice.
Discussions ranged from solutions to the crime problem to alternate energy sources. The Prime Minister was quite at ease, skillfully negotiating the calls.
Jamaica National Building Society indicated that over 700 calls came through their toll free numbers from the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. However, these callers were unable to get on the programme because the local lines were constantly busy.
Two dedicated lines will be assigned to receive international calls on the next programme. Minister Grange said changes will be made to the call routing system, to offer more flexibility in moving calls through the queue and across the system.
More than 300 emails were received within the hour. Queries that were not dealt with by the Prime Minister on the night will be answered.
“We are working very hard at this and the response has been tremendous. I would rate the effort at about 90 per cent. There are some things we will change as this is a work in progress. We have an excellent team at every stage of the process.
“I think it is important to focus on the fact that for the first time, a Jamaican Prime Minister has opened up himself and Jamaica House to the public in this manner. This is in keeping with his mandate to make Government and governance more transparent and accessible. We thank the participating stations and we eagerly anticipate the next show on Wednesday, February 27 when we will have more lines and the public will have even greater access.”
The next programme will again be broadcast live on all stations, the JIS website and IRIE TV globally. For internet listeners, a link will be provided through Windows Media Player.