Wanita Huburn is a name that is well known since the voice behind the name has been heard on some of the more popular radio programmes for almost eight years.
And in recent times, people have also been able to put a face to the voice and name as the woman now hosts more than one television programme and has been the MC at several entertainment functions.
Wanita Huburn is a woman of many words — no surprise there — who is not afraid to speak her mind. Asked to describe herself, she tells The Scene that she is a fighter, not in terms of survival, but rather a fighter who is very strong and unafraid of any circumstances. “It does not mean I am arrogant. I am just unafraid,” she said in a recent interview.
On the fun side, she still sees herself as a child, at intervals, and attempts to enjoy life to the fullest. One gets that impression sometimes when one listens to or looks at her programmes.
In her wide-ranging interview with The Scene, she talks about the politics involved in radio, her life as a teacher and on a lighter note, how she was pulled off a radio programme because she joked on air, about the “policing of chicken” at a Christmas party. She tells us too that she is yet to decide what she wants to be in life.
However, she describes herself as a radio and television producer and announcer.
“I am going to be 40 in another couple of years, and even now I can’t tell you I want to be a lawyer or a doctor…that is not one of my strong points. Some people are born knowing what they want to become. I am not one of those.”
She says she is still evolving and getting to know her strengths and weaknesses and “maybe where I am going to go eventually but right now I don’t know.”
‘Mere existence’
Once a trained Literature and English teacher of fifth and fourth form secondary school students, Wanita says while that experience was great, she knew from the inception that she would not be in it forever. It was her mother who pushed her in that direction as she felt it was a “safe job” and Wanita says she did it just to please her. And the fact that she did not want to remain a teacher was not because of the pittance paid to teachers but rather, “Because I wanted to do something that would let me be me, something that wouldn’t have me in this controlled space where you have to adhere [to rules and regulations.]”
If she had remained in the teaching profession, she would have been existing and not living and being someone who loves life and all that it has to offer, it was not something she was prepared to do.
Wanita spent over six years teaching, not including the years she would have spent in college. It was when teaching became a chore that she knew it was time to exit the profession. “If you don’t love what you do, for any job… there is no point to it and I didn’t enjoy teaching anymore, I really didn’t enjoy it.
“No child wants a teacher who doesn’t want to be there. …who is thinking it is such a lovely day, the birds are twittering, the sun is out, the grass is green out there, I can feel the wind in my hair and I have to be here in a classroom with noisy children and sometimes nosy ungrateful children,” she rationalizes.
Fluke
Wanita says her entrance to the radio arena was not “romantic” like her longing to be on air after listening to persons on the radio. Rather, she describes it as a “fluke” as she just happened to answer an advertisement one day while cleaning the house. She recalls borrowing her neighbour’s phone and dialling the number that was announced.
“I acted on a whim. I just thought let me do it and see what happens. It was never in my head that I am going to get the job; I am going to be good at it or not good at it, none of that.”
It was about three weeks after exiting her career as a teacher that she became a radio announcer in the year 2000 and began a whole new way of life.
With parents who were very staunch Christians, Wanita followed suit, not exposing herself to secular music. She has certainly come a far way from that point in her life, as she is now the one telling us about all the new and hottest releases on the music scene.
‘Best and worst of times’
Wanita reveals that she discovered during her time as an announcer that radio was a reflection of the wider society.
“The same things that you would find in the wider society; the bitching, the complaining, the politics, the social issues… So there was never a dull day in radio. There was always something happening.
“It was the worst of times but it was also the best of times,” she says adding that it was the best of times because of the calibre of persons who were in radio to train her when she entered.
But she soon found that the politics was becoming nasty and while she found her rhythm in radio there were times when it was just difficult.
“I like being there [in radio]. I like the train and so I ride it as often as I can. But it has changed a little bit… There are some people outside radio who think they have an idea as to what radio should be. And you know this is not about what it should be, but about what it is…
“Society tends to put you in little brackets. This is where you have to operate and this is where you can hawk your wares. In radio, it is something like that. Because once it is state owned, and controlled by people who represent the state… they want you to do a certain thing and to control what you say and how you say it.”
Not one to mince her words, Wanita insists that being on radio should not be about praising the present administration and condemning the previous one. “It is about praising the government but it is also about cussing the government out. It gets complicated because the radio as we know is controlled by the state and there are people who have appointed themselves guardian of this medium… and they ensure that nothing is said untoward about the person who owns it.”
Her biggest “lament” about radio is that it does not allow the announcers to be who they are but rather attempts are made to control their every word. She feels that there must come a point in radio where they can talk about what is happening in society without fearing that what they say could be interpreted as them “talking against the government… Those are the things I feel very strongly about.” These strong feelings have gotten her into a lot of ‘hot water’ during her days as an announcer.
‘Policing the chicken’
She jokingly recalls the time she was pulled off the ‘Breakfast Show’ because she joked around with another announcer on air how the chicken at their Christmas staff party was policed by someone.
“I found it hilarious that they policed the chicken at the party. Can you imagine? [We were all] big people and somebody is policing the chicken so that you don’t take more than you are supposed to get. I found it funny and I was removed from the show because I talked about it…
“The thought that went into it, somebody actually thought that I should not have talked about them policing the chicken at the Christmas party, I still think it is funny. If I live to be 110, I am going to still find it absolutely hilarious.”
Her exit from radio though was not funny. Neither was it just about one issue.
“It was the constant pricking… and that is a disastrous and very awful thing to experience.”
Wanita started radio as an announcer/producer and left in the same position because, according to her, she could not be trusted to “tow the line”.
“I wouldn’t do what was required,” she says. “I don’t think I could have been that person who said to people, ‘you are doing the right thing’ when I think you are on the train to hell.”
She says she thoroughly enjoyed the six years she spent as a staff member at the radio station, but she sadly had to call it a day two days after the 2006 general elections. While she was in love with the job, she feels that she would have become a “bitter, bitter person” if she had remained at the radio station.
‘Some amount of talent’
But her exit from radio as a staff member did not mean that her voice was off the air, as many companies have been hiring her to host their programmes. And more recently, she has become a regular television person. “Some people think I have some amount of talent and they demonstrate this by hiring me from time to time…”
And she admits that she does not do it right all of the time.
Wanita knows she has critics out there and she is open to constructive criticism, but feels there are people who just look and listen to her on television and radio and judge her.
“People look at me on television and they want to feel that I am arrogant, that I am not a very nice person, that I think I am all that. But I tell you every time I go on television, I go there with fear and trembling. Because I am a human being. I am aware that I would make mistakes, that I am not going to do it as right as someone sitting out there watching me thinks I should do it…”
She says even though she has spent years in radio she is still not perfect, but the best of broadcasters, hosts and producers make mistakes.
And she is not going to spend her life running around trying to please people and do things the way they want her to.
“I am going to also say that if I have ten critics, I have 1,000 people who love what I do and I can’t beat myself up over what people say.”
At present, Wanita is pursuing studies in marketing may soon be studying communication at the University of Guyana. Wanita has a passion for arts and she hopes that one day Guyana would return to the glory days of being the leader in the Caribbean when it comes to arts.
And just in case you have been missing her on television just tune into her newest programme, ‘Our Life, Our Culture’, sponsored by GT&T on NCN at 8:05 pm every Sunday.
(samantha_alleyne2000@yahoo.com)
