NEW motivational radio show hit the island's airwaves earlier this week, featuring a host of well-known entertainment and business personalities from the United States and Bermuda.

The show's purpose is twofold: To have guests inspire listeners by sharing their personal paths to success, and to showcase Bermuda and Bermudian talent over the airwaves and on the stages of Las Vegas.

Behind the venture is community advocate Keetha Lowe. Also a public relations and special events co-ordinator, she has joined with Las Vegas radio personality Amie Jo Greer for the production.

Launched on Wednesday, will run between 11 a.m. and noon on 1450 VSB AM Gold.

"It's such an opportunity to share Bermuda with the US on a whole different level," explained Ms Lowe. "It's an opportunity to share information on our country, our people and what's going on here on a daily basis."

The Bermuda segment will broadcast live on the island and later rebroadcast in Las Vegas and other parts of the United States through an arrangement with UPN and The Urban Network. The promotional opportunities for Bermuda are phenomenal, according to Ms Lowe.

"It offers a wonderful opportunity ? a greater dissemination of information about Bermuda's highlights and attractions than ever before on a consistent basis," she said.

"It's also a chance for Bermuda to work with someone who I feel has a high level of integrity and experience and growing exposure. It's the chance of a lifetime. The calibre of the show is quite sophisticated and the networks open ties to the entertainment, corporate and the general community.

"It's an opportunity to act as a vehicle to highlight and profile Bermuda on a world wide stage. Everybody goes to Las Vegas. Very few people go through there without checking out what's on the entertainment scene. They don't just investigate the venues they can attend there but they also listen on the airwaves because radio is such a huge medium.

"Aside from print, radio and television are the major vehicles used to promote what's happening in Las Vegas and Bermuda's right alongside that now. When Amie Jo's interviewing Celine Dion, the Whispers and (other celebrities) we're right next to that.

"When we record here in Bermuda, that recording is played in the US. If we have businesses, hotels, restaurants and entertainment on show here, Las Vegas will find out about it."

The local programme was conceived after Ms Lowe appeared on Ms Greer's Las Vegas show. The Bermudian so impressed the host and her executive producer they suggested the possibility of working with her in the future.

During the radio interview, Ms Lowe had highlighted "the status of small business initiatives, Bermuda within the world of tourism and economic development, her current Bermuda/US ventures and the never-ending yet most important tasks of raising her children and running a business".

"I was so intrigued with her and how dynamic she was and her business savvy and her integrity," said Ms Greer. "A lot of people in Las Vegas are all fluff. On paper they're grand, in person it's another story. She was nothing like that."

The pair met later to discuss the "possibility of introducing the programme to Bermuda, not only as an info-tainment vehicle, but a tool to assist in building a bridge between Bermuda and Vegas, whereby Bermuda and Bermudians will gain exposure through local content being promoted and highlighted on the airwaves and stages of Las Vegas".

Added Ms Greer: "She helped us appreciate how Bermuda is so close. I live in the United States. I'd never thought of Bermuda. When we think of the islands we think of the Caribbean. In talking with Keetha, I found that Bermuda has a thriving economy and standard of living close to our own. I was very intrigued."

Between them, the pair determined they could produce a Bermudianised version of the Ms Greer's popular show.

"We go to Hollywood, the midwest, Chicago and Atlanta. We're in New York City. We decided to include an international flavour and embrace Bermuda, an international gateway not available to a lot of people. Keetha is very tenacious, very well connected. It was her hope to give (Bermudians) exposure, to give them an opportunity to see what others are doing to make their lives successful.

"It's not a show about business or medicine ? we touch so many areas. When they listen, people find we're really talking about perseverance and that can translate into anything, not just one area of a person's life. We're working on the whole individual and helping them toward success."

Although Bermuda remains unexplored territory for the LA-based group, Ms Greer said her team intends to pay a visit soon and produce live shows here.

"I think all this puts Bermuda in a unique perspective," she said. "Bermuda has a lot to offer and I think people can appreciate it. It's a place for fun, a place where people can be enriched in terms of its culture, its history. I hope to create a synergy so that people start considering the island as a destination, in addition to the other places they visit."

two share common interests which Ms Greer has long reflected in the content of her radio show ? the wellness of community, the relevance of personal and professional contribution, triumphing over life's challenges and sharing one's success for the good of others.

"Because it's a success-based radio show we have the opportunity to affect the lives of people as they listen to me and the guests speak," Ms Greer said. "The basis of the show is talking to people who have achieved success ? learning about the tools they've used and sharing that information with the audience so they can look and see how they can do the same."

The radio host started her show three years ago. She admits the success she has achieved is far from what she imagined possible as a young child.

"I grew up in the midwest where African-Americans totalled less than one per cent of the population," she said. "I didn't have any mentors, the people there were largely Caucasian and so, it didn't seem to me that black people could be successful."

Ms Greer was the youngest of six children. Their father died when she was very young.

"My mother struggled raising us. Once I grew up and got married and had children, I thought that I'd achieved the ultimate dream."

After her perceived "utopia" turned into an abusive relationship ? an unhealthy situation for both her and her children ? she left the marriage.

"I learned a lot in a very short period of time. I was a single parent raising children who I wanted to be respectful citizens. It was really tough but somewhere along the line I found a wonderful person and started life over. I became a corporate wife and travelled all over the world, where I was exposed to different cultures.

"I found a common thread in my travels. People wanted to be happy, to be successful whether in their careers, in their relationships or in their finances and health. I went to several corporate dinners and heard the same thing said over and over."

She and her husband were living in Maine when Ms Greer was invited to write for a web site by a friend who was a motivational speaker.

"She wanted me to interview celebrities and write about them. I'd never done it before but she said she thought I'd be great. I found that celebrities were just like me. Many were very vulnerable. Sometimes we look at them as strange beings, a species different from the rest of us. But just like the rest of us, they are trying to survive every day."

Eventually however, Ms Greer relinquished that post, finding its subject matter to be far too limiting in its scope. "I decided I wanted to interview average persons that I thought had interesting lives."

The idea translated into a success, however Ms Greer and her husband soon relocated to Las Vegas where they'd earlier purchased a home.

"My husband retired from his job and we moved," she explained. "He was on the golf course one day and happened to be golfing with the general manager of a (National Public Radio) station. He said he was always having trouble finding content and my husband suggested he talk to me."

she "didn't know anything about radio" Ms Greer was a bit reticent however her husband persuaded her to at least attend the meeting and enjoy "a free lunch". She was invited to visit the station the following week, delivered into the capable hands of the company's leading engineers, a well-known DJ named Galaxy Glenn.

"He literally showed me everything and advised me that whatever I do, to be who I am ? laugh how I normally laugh, talk in my natural voice. My first solo show was the longest thirty minutes of my life. But over the course of time, thirty minutes barely was enough to get started. I needed longer."

Because of its on-going community programme commitments, the radio station was unable to give her the extra time needed. Coincidentally, a Californian businessman bought another radio station, KLAV, and expressed his interest in having her join it.

"One of his representatives called me and asked if I would be interested in doing an hour-long show, five days a week," she said. "It was a huge transition. To say it was overwhelming would be putting it lightly. It was very demanding but I jumped in with both feet and made it happen. The rest, as they say, is history."