Lead Editor-Newsgathering
ryan.bachoo@cnc3.co.tt
Sterling Henderson, whose rich voice became synonymous with network news on I95.5FM and cultural events, passed away yesterday at his home. It sent the media fraternity in this country into mourning, but more so, shock.
Henderson was scheduled to work the early morning shift at I95.5FM but did not show up to work. Several calls and messages to his phone went unanswered. As head of news, Dale Enoch decided to pick up the shift in his absence. A phone call from Henderson’s brother came through in the afternoon, saying that he had been found unresponsive in his Arouca home.
Enoch, who also serves as interim president of the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT), remembered Henderson’s service to I95.5FM for over two decades.
He told Guardian Media, “He has been a major part of our network, a major part of our news product, and even if we spread it beyond OCM (One Caribbean Media) or we spread it beyond I95.5FM, Sterling’s voice, that rich voice, and his command of the language, his use of words, his sense of humour even … excellent. So, I see all those as contributors to who he was as a professional and indeed to our landscape.”
Henderson’s powerful voice was a magnet that attracted listeners. Enoch added, “He had this tone and this way of speaking and this way of putting his sentences together on paper as well as verbally. So, if I am to look at any part of his legacy at all, it would be his richness of tone and his command of the language.”
Meanwhile, fellow media practitioner Marlan Hopkinson, who worked with Henderson, said the media fraternity was poorer as a result of his passing. Hopkinson added, “I think that when you hear Sterling do commentary, whether it is Panorama or whether it is politics or any type of event, I think that’s where he would shine. People would take notice because he was just so good and so professional at it. I think that I, like my colleagues at I95FM, share the pain and the loss at his passing.”
Hopkinson said that in recent years, Henderson started passing on his knowledge through training the younger generation. He said it was critical that someone of Henderson’s talent and knowledge of media would pass that on to others.
