For 50 years, the name Forsythe had been almost synonymous with electronics. Up to the time of his passing seven years ago, Ezra Forsythe was the man to see for electronics sales and service. Forsythe was the distributor for the prestigious Motorola line of electronic equipment.
All of Ezra Forsythe's seven sons worked in the family business as salesmen or repairmen. The sons inherited the business, with the oldest, Joseph, assuming the general manager position. But Joseph moved to Carolina several years ago. Brian, one of the sons, managed the business for a while before he migrated to Long Island, where he operates a small electronics store.
Chris moved to Spanish Wells in 1995 and opened a Forsythe Electronics store but he was not fully satisfied with just that; he wanted something more challenging and six years ago, SPLASH radio came along.
The birth of SPLASH has been quite haphazard. What Chris had in mind by way of expanding his electronics business, was not a radio station but wireless cable television for Spanish Wells and North Eleuthera. But he did not do all of his homework. It was not until after he had successfully completed testing for wireless cable TV, that he would find out that he could not get a licence for the business, as Cable Bahamas has the exclusive right to provide cable TV throughout The Bahamas. This was the roadblock that spurned on SPLASH Radio, which currently operates on 89.9FM frequency in Spanish Wells and North Eleuthera, on the 92.5FM frequency in New Providence and in two weeks time, a repeater will be commissioned in Abaco on 95.5FM.
The station is on the air 24-hour hours a day, with a heavy music format. "The music," says Chris, who is the chief on-air person at the SPLASH, is what separates us from the rest of radio stations."
"We have the facility for talk and all that but we just would like to keep [centred upon] as much music as possible and Bahamian music."
Chris boasts of playing more Bahamian music than any other stations and he backs it up with this strong statement: "If you're tuned in to SPLASH and you don't hear a ton of Bahamian music, you're not listening to our station."
According to Chris, SLAPSH is the radio station of choice among visitors. Yet again, it's because of the music it plays. Says he: "I want to keep the visitors' morale up. I don't want to bore them with some funny music." He adds: ""Let the others take care of that."
SPLASH is a fully automated station. It carries little news, but would "shoot out right away" any community news sent to it. "We do community announcements, like if the government send us something…we shoot it out immediately. We oblige the administrator's offices in Harbour Island, Spanish Wells, or for that matter, we would carry community announcements from Nassau," Chris discloses.
Timmy Brown, Chris's step son, is the third member of the station's staff. Janme Forsythe is the business manager, she pursues the advertising clients. Timmy fills in for his father when he is away and also does a comprehensive daily sports report.
The Sunday programming at SPLASH consists of all day gospel music interspersed with live church broadcasts.
In less than seven years, SPLASH has increased its reach to the majority of the Bahamian population, inclusive of New Providence. The Forsythes would more than likely rest after the commissioning of the repeater in Abaco in two weeks. What will never happen, they confirm, is a sell out. "SPLASH will never stop making waves as a family-operatred radio station."
By: NORMAN ROLLE, Weekender Editor, The Nassau Guardian
