Premier Ewart Brown saluted the role of Hott 107.5's Thaao Dill in helping the Progressive Labour Party sweep to glory at Tuesday's General Election.

Dr. Brown told celebrating PLP fans that the radio station — owned by MP Glenn Blakeney, who retained his Devonshire North Central seat — was a friend of the party.

The station came under attack during the election campaign for violating political broadcast directions by allowing radio personalities Mr. Dill, Kristy Burgess (Miss Thang) and Jamel Hardtman to voice PLP adverts.

Clearly unembarrassed about Hott's partisanship despite his own repeated accusations that the rest of the media is biased against himself, Dr. Brown told Tuesday night's Court Street crowd: "The PLP does not own a newspaper, we don't own a TV station. We don't own the other radio stations, except we have a friend at Hott.

"And I want you to give it up for Thaao for what he has done for us."

Mr. Dill, who has declared his PLP support throughout the election campaign, sang a pro-PLP rap and told the crowd: "Everything we do at Hott 107 is for you. We shut the station down today for you. We will continue to shut everything down for you.

"We are your station and thank you for believing in you."

Asked whether he believed Hott had influenced voters, Mr. Dill told The Royal Gazette: "I can't honestly say yes, but I would like to think that we have encouraged and influenced the electorate to think.

"That's the only goal of our show — to try to get people to think. Not to do what we tell them, but just to think. And this is what they thought: the PLP Government should retain power."