Francesca Hawkins

Francesca Hawkins is a television news presenter and public relations specialist in Trinidad and Tobago.

Media career

At 17 years old, Francesca Hawkins was one of the youngest voices put on the air at Radio Trinidad. She instantly attracted audiences, particularly the younger age groups and set about including local artists in her formats, a practice that is now a norm, but at that time local artistes were given little airtime. She controversially replaced the well known and popular DJ, Rennie Bishop, who was infamously known for saying "find me a good local record and then I'll play it". Lancelot Layne then wrote a song deriding his attitude to local culture and his American style accent. Amid this background, Francesca made her debut.

Francesca's television career began at, the age of 21 when she was asked to serve as a frontline news presenter at Trinidad and Tobago Television under the guidance of veteran broadcaster Jones P. Madeira. In the mid 1980s she continued to work for the Trinidad Broadcasting Company as a radio announcer. She later moved to the Caribbean Communications Network where she worked as an announcer for Prime 106 FM.

The Caribbean Communications Network launched its own television station in 1991 and Francesca served as the main presenter of "The TV6 News" on CCN TV6 from its inception until 1997. At TV6, she not only anchored the news but presented a wide range of special broadcasts such as the station's yearly carnival coverage.

In 1997, Francesca returned to the state-run Trinidad and Tobago Television, where she co-anchored the nightly news programme, "Panorama".

Political career

Francesca served as a Communications Specialist at the Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, during the term of office of Prime Minister Basdeo Panday. She was also a member of the organizing committee for the 1999 Miss Universe pageant, which was held in Trinidad and Tobago, where she was the co-ordinating producer for all the local elements of the stage production, including the set design with Peter Minshall and Wayne Berkley.

Return To Broadcasting

In 2001, Francesca returned to the broadcasting arena as the morning voice of Hott 93FM.

In 2006 she co-hosted and co-presented "Total Football", the only local TV show to follow the historic journey of the National Football Team, Soca Warriors to the Germany 2006 World Cup. Jamaal Shabaaz, Angus Eve ad Michael McCommie, all football professionals were part of the Total Football team.

In mid-2006 she joined Cable News Channel 3 where she currently presents miscellaneous news programmes. She is the station's primary weekend anchor.

Other Projects

Francesca is also part of the first group of students in the Anglophone Caribbean studying Film at the University of the West Indies. She is also the Director of New Business Development at the public relations consultancy firm Mango Media Caribbean.

References

* [http://www.mangomediacaribbean.com/work.html Mango Media Caribbean Team]
* [http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/2007-10-03/Womanwise/wwise13.html Trinidad Guardian - WomanWise - June 29, 2007]