Lucky number seven—and that could only mean one thing. Tempo, the pan-Caribbean media and entertainment company is set for quite a fantastic year! There’s a lot of hype and excitement behind Tempo’s celebrations to mark their seventh year of existence and the network has loads more in store as they approach their anniversary month in November.
It’s hard to forget the buzz around any of the celebratory events the network has hosted in the past, and without a doubt their event to be held at Six Flags Great Adventure park on Saturday, July 14 is sure to be a top-notch event! Frederick Morton, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Tempo networks stopped of at the STAR this week to give us the 411.
“We have a lot of activities from now until November around our seventh year anniversary,” Morton commented. “We’re really thankful for it. We’re going to have a lot of the big Soca acts coming in to celebrate with us, particularly for our launch in the United States. We launched in the Tri-State area back in October and Caribbean Americans are very happy about that. We’re giving them a few concerts over the summer; we have four or five concerts in the New Jersey area and we’re having some of the biggest entertainers from Luciano to Richie Spice, to Kevin Little and more.
“We’re looking forward to those events which will be in conjunction with the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, which is a huge performing acts center in the United States and we’re doing that at an event called ‘Sounds of the City.’ We’re launching in South America, we launched in Costa Rica recently and we’re going down into Panama and into places like Surinam, Guyana and Belize in the next quarter or so.
Morton said Tempo’s geographic expansion was getting along smoothly, and said their birthday celebrations had already begun. During our exclusive interview the Tempo representative made quite a welcome announcement. He said the network had been doing work locally, and their presence in St Lucia had to do with the fact that they were building Tempo St Lucia with country representatives on the ground, Bashana Dayes and Ashelle Hippolyte.
“We’re happy and very encouraged by what we’re about to do in St Lucia, including working with the ministry of tourism and culture, straight from the prime ministers office to expose St Lucian artistes in particular,” Morton said. “We’ve got a lot of stuff going on. Tempo’s main headquarters is in New Jersey and St Lucia will be our first Caribbean-based office.
“We operate throughout the region through our partners. St Lucia is the first island we’re actually going to build out a presence on the ground in the form of Tempo St Lucia, with offices, country representatives and the like.”
What’s more exciting than having a network that promotes all things Caribbean selecting St Lucia for a home base? We’re quite sure nothing comes close and when asked Morton told the STAR why St Lucia had been seen as the ideal location.
“St Lucia is a great representative of all things Caribbean,” he said. “It’s just a great place, great Caribbean people, great Caribbean vibe, just a really good place to start. It’s got a lot of Tempo, how about that? Every time I come I feel the tempo. There’s a lot of love for the brand in St Lucia and some of the most amazing artistes are here, just waiting for exposure. I have two of the best representatives you could possibly have who represent the brand here. We have great partners locally, so it has all the ingredients to be the place of choice.”
How soon could St Lucians expect to see and feel Tempo’s presence on the island?
According to Morton: “It’s happening as we speak. In the next couple weeks, listen out for a lot of information.”
“I feel like the network is blessed,” he added. “All praises due to the good Lord who makes everything happen. Without His input in what’s happening it wouldn’t be happening. It’s God’s property and I’m pretty much a vessel bringing forth something that belongs to him, and if I do it correctly it can only be good for all of us.”
