He Got It Write – The Ken Gordon Story

Gordon’s autobiographical novel, Getting it Write: Winning Caribbean Press Freedom, details his multifaceted pursuits and achievements while giving an endearing story of perseverance and hard work. The novel notes that his first significant introduction in Media came when he was fortunate enough to snag the position of Radio Announcer at Radio Trinidad, 1948. Young Kenneth was a paragon of enthusiastic drive; he set out to learn all he could about the business of Radio Merchandising and used this vigour to propel him to become the first local to achieve directorial status at the station, this being only the first of a long line of accolades.

He went on to become the General Manager of Trinidad’s Chamber of Commerce. During his seven years as Manager he did his part to influence and encourage a slew of local businesses which eventually brought him to his position as Managing Director of the Trinidad Express.

Gordon’s role with the newspaper was a positively transformative one. His role in the Express facilitated an increase in provocative journalism, always in favour of a distinctly local voice. The paper’s new journalistic angle turned a few heads and gained it a few enemies as he sought to stir public opinion in favour of greater Media liberties and flexibility.

In the same breath his decisive actions led to the paper’s steady growth into the Caribbean Communications Network (CCN). The Network went on to endorse the establishment of several newspapers all over the region; giving birth to the Jamaica’s Observer, Guyana’s Starbroek News and Barbados’ Nation Newspaper to name a few.

This regional effort cemented Gordon as a spokesperson for entrepreneurs. He went on to serve as Chairperson and Director for a host of private and public businesses to which he leant his unique understanding of industry to their respective benefits.

1986 saw to the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) appointing Gordon the Minister of Tourism which saw to his service as a Senator of the Trinidad and Tobago government. As a government official he was granted the opportunity to further support a Media and its expression of local voice, devoid of political influence and pressure when he was asked to head a team that would serve to examine Media standards.

CCN, still under Gordon’s leadership, in 1991 introduced the English-speaking Caribbean’s first privately owned television station, CCN TV6 – a move that marked Gordon’s evolutionary business involvements. Involvements that stretched from Cricket to the Commission of Integrity, the latter a body that boasts it’s ‘undertakes initiatives aimed at empowering citizens to engage in the dynamic evolution’.

Changing an industry is no easy task, nor is it quick work. Trinidadian Kenneth ‘Ken’ Gordon spent most of his life and career shifting dynamics in not only his country’s Media and Communications fields but in those of its regional counterparts. His efforts went against the prevalent prejudicial boundaries of his time and went on to blaze a path towards the development of a new standard in freedoms of the press. It is important to celebrate his triumphs as part of a Caribbean Legacy, as part strategic effort to encourage up and coming intellectuals to do the same. Gordon’s lengthy career lends itself to spurring a distinctly motivational viewpoint of what one can achieve with hard work and a goal in mind.