Ian Boyne, journalist, talk show host and communications executive.
IAN BOYNE, one of the most prolific interviewers himself, is camera-shy when the subject is himself. He relaxes however, to reveal a perfect smile, especially when daughter Kelly walks in.
Around his only child, and around his friends, Boyne exudes charisma and magnetism. We caught up with daughter and dad on a weekend in New Kingston, one week before his daughter leaves for law studies in Barbados.
Kelly Boyne tells us that she is proud of her father's achievements. The winner of the Miss Cave Hill inter-faculty competition who Outlook profiled earlier this year, clearly adores her Dad.
The father-daughter interaction we observe is a far cry from the tough arrogance with which Ian Boyne is often associated. Today we see his softer side and Outlook discovers the man of contradictions.
What lies behind the media image which is Ian Boyne, who comfortably straddles the world of public relations, radio, television and print?
Arranging this interview was not an easy thing. Boyne's time is divided into several sacred moments, some more sacred than the others.
The JIS executive (director of production for radio, print and TV islandwide), is also the pastor of a church to which he dedicates great energy. The midnight hour frequently passes as he sits at home composing messages for Sabbath service.
"I am seriously into time management. I can't stand to waste time," he says. His ability to get so much done in one day is no doubt a major contributor to his achievements.
Boyne is the most enduring television personality locally, perhaps best known for his sixteen-year-old TV programme 'Profile' which is aired Sundays on TVJ.
He is also presenter of the radio programme "Religious Hard Talk", and the JIS-TV programme "Issues and Answers". His full-time job is that of senior executive director of production for print radio and TV.
We are eager to ask about his interviewing skills and he answers that he has studied the interviewing approaches of the best on US TV. He also has the ability, he explains, to speak to people of all backgrounds dancehall to development studies. If there is a secret, that is it.
Some of the best moments of his career, however, were due not to mere skill but to a "reputation for fairness." The interview with Lee Malvo's Mother Una James which propelled him to the front page of the Washington Post, to an interview with FOX network and which lead to deals with several other international media houses, including NBC, was one such.
The devil is in the details, and Boyne who aims at getting his facts straight says he tries to treat all interviewees with respect and fairness. In his work for government, he states, his role has been very much the same. He has been press secretary for 12 ministers of government, on both sides of the political divide - a fact he attributes to an ability to stick to the facts.
His worst moment, he says, was during the national elections of 2002 when, as moderator of the National Debate, he made two mistakes. It is a moment he wishes to forget.
Every year brings new challenges and he does not plan to lessen the pace.
Normally, Boyne's day begins in office 9:30 and frequently ends at 11:30. His evenings are dedicated to research and writing. Writing, he says, is the high-paying end of his profession and has brought him most of his income.
Sunday is the only downtime, but it is time when he spends the day doing what has helped him to be the person he has become. On Sundays he reads. His reading list comprises over 70 magazines and academic journals including all the major US news weeklies (Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report), Fortune, Businessweek, as well as the British Economist; the New York Times and the Washington Post and Foreign Affairs.
On the list also is Foreign Policy, Policy Review, the World Policy Journal the New Left Review, plus the Cato Journal. He absorbs a host of journals in development studies, economics, international relations, political science, philosophy, theology and psychology.
Boyne says, "I spend enormously on books, buying mainly through Amazon. When I read of a new book by a scholar on a Monday I go online and order it through express service within 24 hours. I get excited about ideas and can't wait to indulge my addiction. I am addicted to reading the way people are addicted to drugs and sex."
Reading is something that he recommends that other aspiring journalists should do if they want to achieve what he has done.
Easily observable is the fact that Boyne does not waffle about or hide his accomplishments. The manic pace that he sets himself his matched by great impatience either for time-wasting or false modesty.
He comments:: "People say I am arrogant but I say I put honesty over modesty. I love excellence."
In 1981, he was awarded for distinguished religious writing. He has won a total of four national journalism awards, both in Print and in Television, the first won at age 18 for in-depth profiles done on writer John Maxwell, intellectual Rex Nettleford and South African author Peter Abrahams.
Boyne started out in journalism as a feature writer for the Daily News. "I loved experimenting with style. I read a lot of profiles in Vanity Fair Esquire," he says.
The graduate of the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communications at the University of the West Indies does not believe that education takes place in the classroom only.
That's why he reads. His level of scholarship, he believes certainly exceeds that of many a Ph.D. Reading, he says, is essential for his continued success.
Rewards
Boyne has reaped the rewards of diligence. He now has the biggest audience of all discussion programmes for "Religious Hard Talk", exceeding 100,000 mid-day on Sunday. And, according to the Don Anderson all-media survey conducted between April and October last year the 16-year-old Profile, has an audience of 253,000 on Sunday evenings.
The 'Issues and Answers' JIS show carried on TVJ on a Thursday night has an audience of 93,000. Boyne also appears in the Gleaner on Sundays which has a total readership of 580,000 persons.
There are other journalists who have excelled and who he admires, he points out. Among his earliest influences was John Maxwell. The intellectual work of Rex Nettleford was also a motivational factor in his reading.
Boyne has high praise for fellow journalist Cliff Hughes, who he insists is "a First World and a first class journalist who could work in the best newsrooms anywhere in the world".
He expresses deep respect for fellow columnists Robert Buddhan and Earl Bartley who "have brought back scholarship to newspaper writing in the tradition of Carl Stone."
Columnist
Carl Stone, who was an intellectual and columnist of note himself has been also iconised by Boyne. "Stone in my view is the epitome of what a serious columnist should be in terms of bringing the latest scholarship ideas and in intellectual rigor to bear on newspaper work," he says. He desires to follow him.
He explains, "I see my role as a columnist as a heuristic one; My role is to educate, inform and challenge intellectually. I must bring the best ideas from all over the world, the most avant-garde concepts in scholarship and intellectual thought to newspaper readers. What I want to give readers of is the same quality and intellectual depth that they would get from scholarly journals and leading opinion magazines in the world."
For all the work that he has put in, his career, he says has been very satisfying.
And, in the private sphere, his conclusion is similar. Although divorced, Boyne says that there are few things in life which he regrets, pointing out to Outlook that he is even better friends now with his former wife, Sharon, than during their marriage.
The proof of the pudding, he points out, is in daughter Kelly herself, who is a well rounded product of her upbringing.
The single dad speaks feelingly of the poetry of his daughter, the budding lawyer. Clearly they share the same love of things literary.
