The radio station once owed by former Minister of Natural Resources Robert Persaud has been rebranded to focus on music and celebrity gossip.
Mix 90.1 FM, which was sold to Trinidad and Tobago’s ANSA McAL Group of Companies, has advertised its new programming, saying that consumers will be able to access non-stop hits 24/7.
The former iRadio was sold to the Trinidadian conglomerate less than three years after Persaud acquired the frequency for the station.
Before leaving office in 2011, former President Bharrat Jagdeo controversially distributed a number of radio licences as well as frequencies to friends and supporters of the PPP/C.
iRadio belonged to Telecor & Cultural Broadcasting Inc, one of the companies that was allocated radio frequencies.
The five frequencies allocated to this broadcasting company, including 90.1 FM and 91.5 FM, were assigned in the name of the Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment Omar Lochan, who was said to be the company’s secretary. At the time, Persaud was heading that ministry and it was later revealed that his wife and another close female relative were listed as directors of Telecor.
The granting of the licences was widely denounced over the absence of any clear objective criteria in assigning them as well as the disregard for applications from established media entities.
