Veteran journalist and talk show host, Sanka Price, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer at the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). His appointment takes effect on Monday, June 15, 2020.
He was selected after two interviews with a committee comprising members of the corporation’s Board of Directors. Their recommendation of Mr. Price for the position was later approved by the Cabinet.
Mr. Price will be CBC’s first CEO since the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was passed last year with the intention of modernizing the management structure and placing the agency on a more competitive and revenue generating path.
He holds a Masters in Journalism Studies from the University of Wales, Cardiff, in the United Kingdom; is a Thomson Foundation fellow, and has successfully completed courses with the Caribbean Press Union and the American Newspaper and Publishers’ Association.
Mr. Price has won 20 journalism awards in his career including Journalist of the Year – Award of Achievement in 1995 from the Barbados Association of Journalists, and a three-time Regional Award winner in the Pan American Health Organization Media Awards for Excellence in Health Journalism.
At the Nation Publishing Co Limited where he worked for 25 years, Mr. Price was a Publication Editor, Business Manager and News Editor. He was adjudged the Employee of the Year and awarded The Spirit of St Mary’s Row in 2009, and in 2014 when he amicably parted with that organisation, won The Key Employee Award – Production/Editorial, the number two employee award.
Since 2014, Mr. Price, who is also a Justice of the Peace, has worked as a Communications Consultant specialising in advising organisations, including media houses, on policy guidelines and measurements needed for improving efficiency, content quality of in-house communications, magazines, newspapers and on digital platforms, as well as on strategies to bolster their image and brand. He was also a moderator on the radio call-in programme, Down To BrassTacks.
Mr. Price has also worked regionally as a media consultant with the Special Programme on Sexually Transmitted Infections unit of the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (now subsumed into the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) – an arm of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization.
That unit designed and implemented information, education and communication projects in support of the Caribbean response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, through workshops for journalists and government information specialists from Belize in Central America down the island chain to Suriname in South America.
On his appointment, Mr. Price said he relishes the opportunity to work with the Board and staff to chart a new era for CBC.
He said the agency needs to utilise digital technology more to offer services to advertisers and the public, and in so doing become self-financing.
“The objective is to make CBC the most significant media house in Barbados. The one the public turns to for credible information on our free-to-view channel and social media; the one advertisers support because they get the best value for their investment; and the one Barbadians seek out because it bests promotes our uniqueness as a people. Working with the talented professionals at CBC, this can be achieved,” said Mr. Price.