Wilmot Perkins is dead

VETERAN journalist Wilmot ‘Motty’ Perkins died peacefully at his home shortly after 1 o’clock this morning, Power 106 radio reported a short while ago.

Perkins, who had been ailing for a short while, hosted his own talk show — Perkins On Line — on the station since April 2002.

Regarded as one of Jamaica’s most incisive journalists, Perkins started his career in journalism as a reporter at The Gleaner.

He started his radio career hosting What’s your Grouse on RJR in 1960. A few years later he took a short break from the airwaves and went into farming.

He returned to radio in the 1970s, hosting the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation’s (JBC’s) popular call-in programme Public Eye. He later hosted Hot Line on RJR and then Straight Talk on KLAS FM 89, before hosting Perkins On Line on Hot 102 FM.