A new 'Line and Length' hits the airwaves

interview by MICHELLE McDONALD

Those who followed the First Test between England and the West Indies by radio would have noticed that there's a new kid in town.  For several years, the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) brought radio commentary to listeners.  Making their 'international debut' in radio cricket commentary was the Line & Length Network, who was recently awarded a one-year contract by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

CaribbeanCricket.com spoke with Managing Director, Barbadian Barry Wilkinson, at Sabina Park about his company's foray into cricket commentary.

MM: We know that Line & Length is a television show in Barbados. We've heard you here on the radio during the broadcast. Normally we have the CMC team here, so it was strange to see you not in front of the television, but behind the microphone.  Tell us about that development.

BW: We had done some work for the West Indies Cricket Board during the 2008 regional One Day series in Guyana and we worked alongside the Caribbean Media Corporation when they had the rights, but they didn't field a team [of commentators] and we had put a proposal to the Board who had asked us to put together a team to do regional coverage of the One Day tournament in Guyana.  For the first time ever, we put together three separate teams and we had live ball-by-ball commentary of all of the three matches in the regional One Day tournament.  CMC's contract came to an end at the end of December 2008 and the Board had the contract up for tender.  We submitted a bid and proposal and we were successful.

Did CMC put in a bid?

I'm not quite sure.  That question you'd have to ask the WICB.

We have heard of the financial woes of CMC. Do you know if the WICB anticipated that they might not have been able to put together a team and that's how Line & Length came into play?

I can't anticipate for the Board. I'm not quite sure why they made their decision.  All I can say is we sent forward a proposal and we were successful. I won't want to anticipate why that happened.

Let's go back to the regional tournament where you said you worked alongside CMC.  What exactly was your role?

CMC left the production up to us and they facilitated the broadcast. They of course have satellite services so they gave us their satellite services to send the broadcast out, while we did the production.

And what does production entail?

Production entailed compiling all of the teams which is the commentators, comments men, technical team and also the scorers and making sure each ground had five commentators or more that could facilitate airing of the broadcast. Due to the fact that there were three matches, NCN in Guyana also helped us out with one match.  So technically, while we did the overall production – we had a producer at every ground – NCN were able to also lend some help to us.  We are very thankful to Mr Sattar and his team who also helped us.

Does CMC have any involvement at all in this match here, in terms of radio?

No, CMC have no involvement whatsoever.  Line & Length Network, which is owned and operated out of Barbados out of the company Line & Length Incorporated, has all 100% involvement.  All of our equipment has been purchased by our company and all of our commentators are paid through us.  All the production, the whole production is a Line & Length Network production.

Who are the directors of Line & Length Incorporated?

I am the Managing Director, my wife and my father Sam Wilkinson, who has been a respected journalist in sports for the last 40-plus years. We are the three directors, as well as David Sealy, who is a respected businessman back in Barbados.

And Andrew Mason?

Andrew is not a director of the company but he's the lead commentator on the project. He is responsible for making sure that every match has the teams, in terms of the commentators, so he's dealing with the human resource aspects of the commentary.

When I am fortunate enough to be in Barbados, I normally see you reading sports on television. Do you still do that?

No, I resigned from my position at the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in June 2008.

What prompted you to do that?

It's been a decision I had been pondering for a long time. I started Line & Length Inc in April 2006.  When I started Line & Length, I was doing a lot of freelance work, as well as working at CBC, for other entities and I had been prompted several times to try and go on my own.  Line & Length is a barber shop which was a God-given vision.  It was in April 2006 that we started a barber shop called Line & Length Barber Shop.  We sell cricket DVD's, we watch a lot of cricket, we watch a lot of sports and the barber shop has expanded now to two big barber shops – two of the biggest in Barbados – and perhaps the Caribbean, and I think everything became a spin-off from there.

I remember at the beginning of last year, my wife Tilia, who is a devout Christian, she said she had a vision from God that I would only spend six more months at CBC and after that, I should resign and when I resign and make step out, He will lead me throughout the way.  It was really a divine revelation because I have done that and I haven't regretted the move at all since.  It has really been very fruitful and I must thank her intervention and her prophecy that came to fruition.

Normally I would see CMC with all of their boards to be able to do the broadcast so did you have to put in a huge amount of capital to be able to deliver this broadcast?

Yes, it has been quite an investment. The purchasing of equipment has been expensive because we only wanted the best and so far the quality has been very clean. We've been getting hundreds of emails from as far as South Africa, Tunisia, and Minnesota.  People listen to the commentary via the internet and it has been fantastic.  Even on CaribbeanCricket.com, some of your contributors have been complimentary of the quality.  We went to Miami and did some purchasing, also locally, of some things we needed.  It has been perfect so far.  Like I said, it's an investment but it's a seed that we're sowing for the future.  So we see it as an investment that will pay off not this year, not even next year, but in time to come.

You mentioned that in the regional tournament, you had to use the satellite feed from CMC.  For this match, what feed are you using?

We've abandoned using satellite feed.  Lots of stations for example in Cayman Islands and St Maarten, they don't take satellite feeds.  We've decided to use Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) and that has made the broadcast much clearer and has also made it more accessible.  Satellite has been expensive but I think it's outdated.  The BBC for example, they don't use satellite anymore.  They use ISDN which is just as good as the VOIP but they are going from one location to one broadcaster.  We're going from one location to 16 broadcasters, so to use an ISDN line would be very costly.  The system we are using is the best system to service all of those stations in not only a timely manner, but a very clean and effective way of them listening and getting the broadcast.

Let's break it down for the readers.  You put in a tender to provide commentary via radio which you would have had to buy from the WICB and then you sell it on to the 16 stations?

No.  We don't sell the cricket at all.  We are like the TWI of radio.  TWI put in a tender to do the production of cricket for television; Line & Length Network has put in a tender to do the radio production of cricket.  WICB are the rights holders therefore the Board controls who the cricket goes to and there is no charge.  Stations, for the first time ever, are getting the commentary free and that's why so many of them have decided to take it this year.

So how do you make money?

We put in a bid as to how much it would cost for the cricket to be carried on the Line & Length Network and to service the stations.

I understand that there was some sort of controversy when you were awarded the contract.

Initially when we were awarded the contract, some of the CMC or Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) member stations did not want to take the feed. I guess they were supporting the stance that CMC is their negotiation arm or their head of member stations or whatever they want to call it. But yes, you're correct.  That to me was short lived because in the end, the majority of them, with the exception of one or two stations, still took the feed.

Wasn't it that CMC wasn't in a position to provide the resources to put this broadcast out?

I can't speak to that. I'm not sure why that was so.  The stations would have to tell you why they took that stance and why CMC wasn't able to win the bid, if they did put in one.

So you didn't have to do any public relations with that because it's WICB who gives them the feed.

Yes, that's correct.  The Board holds the rights; CMC no longer have rights.  The WICB are the rights holders for cricket in the Caribbean, regional and international.  They decide who gets to hear their cricket and they decide where their cricket goes.  So there's no cost attached to hear their cricket any longer.

So you have this now.  You had the Line & Length television show, a once a week show in Barbados...

Yes, unfortunately that show is cancelled/postponed at the moment. I'm going to be out of the island as you would imagine for quite a number of months so that show is not on at the moment. Hopefully we will have a resumption mid-year.

What other projects are there in the pipe line?

I would say we want to solidify ourselves in the market in terms of the quality of our cricket coverage so I want to spend the first 6 – 7 months of the year doing that.  We're also going to be working quite closely with the Caribbean Games which is in July in Trinidad & Tobago and there are other local projects in Barbados.  For example, when the local cricket season starts back, we'll be working with the Barbados Cricket Association again in producing their weekly television show called 'Cricket Extra' and also in doing their cricket broadcast which is weekly.

You're not restricting yourself to cricket then, and you can find Line & Length in other sports.

Definitely.  We are a production company and we employ a lot of people from the region.  You can go to our website www.lineandlength.net and read about those persons who are part of the Line & Length vision and also part of the commentary team.  We have persons employed from every Caribbean country so it's an opportunity for people in the Caribbean to get exposure and to get income in some very harsh economic times.

But CMC really laid everything out for you.  You really just had to walk in, buy some equipment and everything was sort of on a platter for you, wouldn't you say?

Not at all.  When you look at it, prior to CMC you could say that whoever worked before them laid it out for them. I think radio production is something that's standard and you always look to improve upon whichever company is employed to do cricket commentary.  Cricket commentary is nothing new. It's nothing novel; it's being going on since the early 1900's. So us broadcasting cricket is now our opportunity.  CMC would have done it for 10 years but people did it before CMC, we're now doing it post-CMC, so I wouldn't say that anything is laid on a platter for us. I think if anything it was more difficult because to force an entity that has been doing it for 10 years and to come on board, it hasn't been easy.

How would Line & Length like to differentiate themselves from other production houses?

By adding newer voices to the airwaves. This year, we've introduced Curtly Ambrose, and Courtney Walsh who has gone down very well. The amount of emails that have come in for Courtney have been excellent.  We'll have Neil Barry from Guyana. Here's a gentleman who has played some First Class cricket and might not have received an opportunity like this to commentate on an international stage like this before.  We want to try exposing more people to the airwaves, but still keep the quality to a certain extent by having those voices that have been around for ions.  Andrew Mason, Simon Crosskill and Fazeer Mohammed have been doing cricket commentary since the late 80's so these have been around before CMC and they will be around I'm sure if we ever get out of the business.  So we've mixed youth with experience and also some new faces in between.

So, so far, so good?

I'd say so far so good.  Three days into it, we've got nothing but compliments from all of the people who have been emailing us.  We literally have over 650 emails, we've passed on those emails to the WICB and Digicel, and we've tried to reply to most of them.  We're pushing for the emails because we want feedback from people.  We've had no complaints from any of the stations so far which I think is a good record for starting.  When you start these projects, there tend to be lots of hitches and hiccups. 

The stations haven't complained and even those who had threatened to not take the feed last minute came on board and said they wanted the feed and we've given them...no complaints, and they've made money from the projects so far listening to their broadcast.  Local stations like RJR, they were one that weren't going to take the feed; CNMG in Trinidad wasn't going to take the feed and when I listen to them online, they're making a lot of money from lots of commercials.  So I'm sure they're happy now knowing that the company would end up in some kind of profit from the arrangement.  They didn't have to invest a cent.

This contract that you have with the WICB lasts for how long?

It's a single year contract.  Obviously the Board wouldn't want to tie us into a long term contract as yet.  They would obviously want to wait to see how well we perform.  We wait to see how the first year goes and if we will be able to extend it after that.

Are you doing anything for the First Class matches?

Yes.  We did the first four rounds and we're now doing every half an hour updates from all around the grounds.  We have correspondents. We have Brij Parasnath in Trinidad doing the game there; we have Ralph Wharton in Barbados and we have Cladius Emmanuel in St Lucia, so there again, more opportunities for regional people to get work and also to be involved in cricket coverage.

Yes.  Sounds as if you are embodying the CSME! [Caricom Single Market and Economy ]

Definitely!  In every territory we are going, we'll be employing local talent.  We're going to Antigua next; we'll be replacing Simon Crosskill with Jack Matthew.  As I said we are employing Curtly Ambrose and also Cardigan Connor who is from Anguilla.  When we go to Barbados, we have Wayne Daniel, Hendy Wallace and Sir Garry Sobers, and Andrew Mason will come back in for that. 

When we go to Trinidad, Fazeer Mohammed will be there and Deryck Murray will be making his debut, Colin Croft, who is Trini-Guyanese will also be a part.  When we go to Guyana, Neil Barry, Sean Devers, Naime Chan and also Roger and Mark Harper will be involved.  So we are embodying this idea of giving every regional station and country a chance to show us their local talent. 

Cladius Emmanuel , I'm very happy for him.  He's from St Lucia, he's going to be coming aboard for the One Day International, making his debut.  He might have never had the opportunity before to do something like that, so we see ourselves as giving opportunities to stations and to people involved in cricket.