By Oswald T. Brown
NASSAU, Bahamas — Picewell Forbes, Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas Chairman, met with ZNS staff at the Rusty Bethel Drive headquarters on Monday, November 15, and with the ZNS Freeport office via zoom.
This was in essence a “homecoming” for Mr. Forbes. Prior to becoming a politician, Mr. Forbes had a distinguished career in radio and broadcasting at ZNS, and at one time was a Deputy General Manager at the Broadcasting Corporation of the Bahamas (BCB).
Mr. Forbes hosted a number of talk shows on the Bahamas Radio Network and ZNS Radio, as well as “Da Down Home Show” on television.
For a long time ZNS had an ironclad monopoly on broadcasting in The Bahamas, and given BCB’s history of being strongly supportive politically of the government in power, employees in senior positions who were not supporters of the government routinely were transferred to other government departments or forced to leave.
As one of the most popular radio personalities in the country, Mr. Forbes was elected to represent South Andros in the 2007 general election, which was won by the PLP.
The then PLP Prime Minister of The Bahamas, Perry Christie, appointed Forbes as The Bahamas’ High Commissioner to the CARICOM secretariat in Georgetown, Guyana, in 2012, and he “worked remotely from Nassau,” according to Wikipedia.
Mr. Forbes was one of only four PLP candidates to win or retain their seats in the 2017 general election, which was won by the Free National Movement (FNM), led by Dr. Hubert Minnis, who was installed as Prime Minister.
Faced with internal opposition within the PLP, Forbes announced in the House of Assembly on March 1, 2021, that he would not seek reelection in the 2021 general election and would resign from politics.
Following the PLP’s landslide victory in the September 16 general election, speculation was rife that Mr. Forbes would be appointed to a top diplomatic position abroad, but the appointment of the former South and Central Andros MP to head the BCB as the new Executive Chairman of the Board is considered by many to be an excellent choice.
