Part 1 of a 2 part story

“Sexuality is considered one of the most powerful tools of marketing and particularly advertising

Dr. Kingsley "Ragashanti" Stewart

Unconfirmed reports suggest that Jamaica’s most popular radio talk-show Ragashanti Live, hosted by Dr. Kingsley “Ragashanti” Stewart, attracts advertising support in the range of JA$40-50 million annually (it is estimated that Ragashanti earns an additional JA$10 -15M annually from his other activities including MC, product endorsements and appearances).

This figure if true would make Ragashanti Live one of if not the most profitable programme on Jamaican radio today. Importantly this one programme would be earning more money for the few hours it’s on air each day than most Jamaican radio stations are earning on an annual basis.

It’s no wonder Newstalk93fm found it so hard to let go and why when they finally did all the other Jamaican radio stations went after it.

Professor Gordon Shirley

Professor Gordon Shirley, principal of the Mona Campus and chairman of Universal Media Company Ltd, operators of NewsTalk 93 FM, in response to an email from Stewart in which Stewart stated that effective that day, the programme would no longer air, promptly issued the following statement.  “The board of management of the station after careful review of the matter determined that in the best interest of the University of the West Indies, Mona, and the station, that the programme should be discontinued with immediate effect and appropriate music played until further notice.”

It is reported that when the word got out that Newstalk had accepted Ragashanti’s resignation with immediate effect‚ a feeding frenzy broke out among the major Jamaican radio stations. They all wanted a piece of the Ragashanti business. But it was the Cliff Hughes led Nationwide News Network – NNN, the place that gave him his first break that won the bidding war. Commenting on the move Ragashanti said “I am excited to recommence Ragashanti Live with the team that first gave me the opportunity to be a presenter on radio. I look forward to growing and developing and being able to provide entertainment radio at its best.”

“Although one of the more dangerous for the advertiser. Weighted down with taboos and volatile attitudes, sex is a Code Red advertising technique … handle with care … seller beware; all of which makes it even more intriguing.”

But who is “Dr. Kingsley “Ragashanti” Stewart, “Mr. Mix Up an Blenda”.

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According to his official website he is the host of Jamaica’s most popular radio talk-show Ragashanti Live! He is also a renowned entertainer, a comedian and a highly sought-after master of ceremonies (MC). But more importantly he continued his studies at UConn and successfully completed his doctorate (Ph.D.) in Anthropology. He is (was, as it is reported that he has resigned from the university) a lecturer and researcher at the University of the West Indies in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work and was a guest lecturer in Anthropology at his alma mater, the University of Connecticut.

Ragashanti’s website also describes his popular talk-show this way, “Ragashanti unapologetically explores the Jamaican concept of mix up and blenda: the entertaining presentation of humorous events from the lives of people. His mix up an blenda style – along with his signature shaking and beating the tambourine – engages his callers on a range of “outa road” topics that amusingly reveal a great deal of insight about the thoughts and behavior of Jamaicans. Ragashanti Live! is known for non-stop laughter.”

A cursory review of the comments and criticism of the Ragashanti Live! programme reveals a wide array of perspectives and viewpoints.

Leon Pryce (pryce.leon@hotmail.com) writing in the Jamaica Gleaner offered this perspective. “As a consumer of the vast media products which currently exist in Jamaica, let me inform the media managers who do not yet know that the most successful programmes are those which appeal to the man on the street, or let me say ‘those below the intellectual level’, which are often classified as the uneducated. Ragashanti is only next in line to the handful of people such as Louise Bennett Coverley and Oliver Samuels who were also criticised for ‘chatting Patois’ our beloved language. But yet, they were never intimidated and they prove to the upper-class intellectuals that nothing is wrong with talking in the local dialect. Ragashanti Live’ is one of the most listened to radio programmes, especially by the local populace and those in upper society who continue listening in order to criticise. I am appealing to News talk 93 FM to keep the programme running, or else risk being narrowed to an audience limited to the walls of the university.”

Carolyn Cooper, PhD, a public intellectual specialising in cultural enterprise management

Carolyn Cooper, PhD, a public intellectual specialising in cultural enterprise management remarked in a column in the Jamaica Gleaner, “Even though I do appreciate the value of Dr Stewart’s Ragashanti identity, I still had problems with his radio programme. It had nothing to do with his use of the Jamaican language. As an uncompromising cultural activist, advocating acceptance of our mother tongue in public discourse, I certainly had no issue with that. It was the brawling register. I just couldn’t take it for very long”

Buddy Roundtree (essumuma@myspace.com), also writing in the Gleaner newspaper said

“I am disappointed by the removal of Ragashanti Live from NewsTalk 93FM, a programme I was looking forward to being a guest on! I’m sure you’ll agree that 999 out of a 1000 Jamaicans would regard our colloquial brand name an offensive, arrogant tongue lash, vile and vulgar from the ghetto, hardly worthy of further thought from superior small-minded, provincial, bigoted snobs. All too willing to sanitise anything vibrant below their high seats of comfort. Hardly surprising!”

Carolyn Cooper in her same Gleaner article gave us the real reason the programme attracts listeners and has advertisers drooling. “Quite frankly, I just didn’t like the tone of ‘Ragashanti Live.’ Endless tracing matches at the standpipe. And the host’s moral recklessness was disturbing. The programme would have been better scheduled late at night for an adult audience. But I have to concede that one of the reasons the programme was so popular is precisely because of Ragashanti’s flirtation with the forbidden. And his fans love him for it. They want his voice and theirs to be heard in prime time.”

Post-advertising sales response studies have shown that sexuality can be very effective for attracting immediate interest, holding that interest, and, in the context of that interest, introducing a product that somehow correlates with that interest.

It is a universally well established fact that sex and sexuality in advertising builds on the premise that people are curious about sexuality and that experience in marketing has been that sexuality sells products. Sex has been employed in advertising since the beginning of advertising and so Ragashanti’s flirtation with the forbidden should not be viewed as new or ground breaking.

PART 2

So what will Ragashanti Live do for Nationwide 90fm you might say?