Compass Media’s radio operations manager and host of Z99’s Morning Show Mark Lee is to receive a prestigious award in recognition of the ground-breaking work bringing the company’s network of radio stations to the Sister Islands.
Lee has been awarded the Facility Innovation of the Year award by the Society of Broadcast Engineers and will officially be given the accolade at the society’s annual awards dinner to be held in Ohio in September.
In its award citation, the society wrote, “In a groundbreaking effort, Compass Media extended its WheatNet-IP audio network across 85 miles of underwater fiber to link its four radio stations with the two smaller Cayman Islands.”
Speaking about the award, Lee said that he was “completely surprised and kind of taken aback to be nominated for an award by the Society of Broadcast Engineers. It was a very special award, recognising the innovation and the technology that we’ve used to be able to do this.”
Jackie Doak, director of Dart Media and Entertainment Ltd. – the parent company of Compass Media Ltd. – said of the recognition, “The award from the Society of Broadcast Engineers is a testament of the ingenuity and dedication of the Compass Media team.
“One of Ken Dart’s priorities for Compass Media is ensuring that Cayman Brac and Little Cayman receive the full benefit of the news, entertainment and community content that Compass reports and creates every day.”
‘Amazing achievement’
Lee added, “I’m immensely proud, not just for me, but for the whole team. It’s been an amazing achievement. We’re so happy to have our Cayman Brac family and our Little Cayman family as part of the overall family, not just here at Z99 but at our other stations as well.”
In addition to Z99, Compass Media also owns the Rooster, Island FM and Gold radio stations.
Richard O’Carroll, a member of the Compass Media leadership team, said, “Compass Media is delighted to bring back our four radio stations to the Sister Islands and would like to congratulate Mark Lee on his recent radio engineering award for this complex project.
“There were many involved in getting this multifaceted project across the line, but I’d also like to give a special thanks to Benedict Taylor of Compass Media, Bob Smith of RM Smith Associates, Lee Madison from the Department of Public Safety Communications and the continued support from Dart for investing in important capital projects like this.”
Compass Media Publisher Tripp Donnelly spoke about the importance of the project.
“This transformative achievement highlights Compass Media’s mission to deliver timely news, critical information – such as during a hurricane or any other emergency situation – and entertainment across all of our platforms to every resident of our three islands. This initiative is another step toward achieving that goal,” he said.
What was involved
The project involved purchasing, shipping and installing new cabling, antennae and transmitters onto the government’s radio tower in Cayman Brac, which allowed the signal to be broadcast across the two Sister Islands.
“The radio signal travels from the radio studio at Compass, goes along the fibre optic cable under the ocean for 85 miles, comes up the other side, up on the bluff in Cayman Brac and then it’s connected to our equipment there,” said Lee. “The signal then goes from there into the transmitters, and it’s broadcast from the government tower on Cayman Brac across the Brac and Little Cayman as well. It’s been a wonderful project to work on and it’s been a long time in the making.”
He also cited the uniqueness of the project. “It’s never been done anywhere else in the world before. It’s the first time it’s been done, where a signal is sent over that distance under the ocean. Considering that we’re this small island in the middle of the ocean, the fact that we’re leading the world in doing this kind of project is absolutely fantastic and an incredible achievement for the whole team.”
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