The name ZIZ is not new to St. Kitts. In the mid 1930s the sons of Administrator Douglas Roy Stuart and their friend, Kittitian radio enthusiast Kenneth Mallalieu, applied for permission to conduct experimental commercial broadcasting on the island and were issued with the call-sign ZIZ. The transmissions were heard mostly by residents in the Basseterre area. When Stuart died, his family left the Caribbean and the radio station went silent.

World War II showed the importance of radio in reaching the minds of the person in the street. For the first time military tactics were accompanied by propaganda maneuvers on the airwaves. Psychological warfare took on unprecedented proportions as there were no guns that could shoot down the announcers who minimised enemy successes and bolstered support at home. With the days of Empire numbered by a growing demand for democracy, Britain realised that in order to retain its status as a significant world power it had to re-think its relations with the colonies. Maintaining a measure of intellectual control over a medium that reached thousands was a means to that end and the BBC fulfilled that role with distinction. It became the authority, the model and the symbol of educational and intellectual achievement to which every colony aspired. With the standards set, the Colonial Office could then move into the role of facilitator.