Dwight Whylie, 66; First Black Radio Announcer to Be Hired by BBC
Dwight Whylie, 66, the first black radio announcer hired by the British Broadcasting Corp., died Monday, apparently of a heart attack, while visiting the Caribbean island of Barbados.
A native of Jamaica, Whylie was in Barbados to be the chief judge in the Caribbean Broadcasting Union’s Media Awards last weekend.
He became the first black BBC announcer when he joined the corporation’s domestic services in London in 1961.
He returned to Jamaica in the early 1970s and headed the Jamaica Broadcasting Corp. He later became the first black announcer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., where he worked for 20 years.
At the time of his death, Whylie was chairman of Jamaica’s Broadcasting Commission.
He wrote a newspaper column for the Jamaica Observer and in March 2001 served as an observer at highly charged general elections in Guyana.
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