About US
Music that brings a smile to the lips and movement to the hips.
The Caribbean Connection Radio Show, produced and hosted by Mike Andrews on various AM radio stations in south Florida since December 1987 and now streaming live on www.caribbeanconnectionusa.com.
Listeners tune in from around the Caribbean diaspora, including Florida, New York, Toronto, Arizona, England, Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica among other places. We call it the “Most Versatile Show on the Radio”. We inform, we enlighten and we entertain. A musical mix of Caribbean music: Soca and Calypso, Reggae, Chutney, Caribbean Jazz, Latin and French-Caribbean, keeping you in touch with your Caribbean heritage.
The program is filled with up-to-date information and trivia on Caribbean news, entertainment and other cultural titbits. (Our weekly synopsis of news from around the Caribbean is one of the popular features on the show.) It is upbeat, lively, entertaining and thought-provoking. The program was once voted “Best Caribbean Program” and Mike was also voted “Best AM Radio Personality” by the New Times newspaper in Miami.
Michael (Mike) Andrews was born in Trinidad and Tobago. He attended high school at Queen’s Royal College, where he excelled in track and field and rugby and was also a member of the Drama Club, Cadet Force, Hikers’ Club among others. Mike was the T&T National Junior Athletic Champion and also represented T&T on the senior team in athletics and rugby.
Mike left Trinidad and Tobago for the United States in 1973 on a Track scholarship. He graduated from New York University in 1978 with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. In 1981 he left New York for Miami and graduated from the University of Miami in 1983 with an MBA in Finance.
In addition to his love for sports and academics, Mike also has a strong love for his culture and his community with involvement in many activities while living in New York and in Miami. In December of 1987, Mike started the “Caribbean Connection Radio Show” on WVCG AM 1080, which is still a very important part of the Caribbean community all over south Florida and beyond.
Mike has also been involved in many local cultural and civic groups and causes. He is the founder and President of the Caribbean Connection Cultural Foundation, a non-profit organization, dedicated to preserving and highlighting Caribbean heritage. Many firsts include: first to do a US Citizenship Drive for Caribbean nationals in south Florida (1992), first to do Toy Drives for children in Trinidad, first to do a Family Day and Sports Day, first to do a Caribbean Comedy festival, first to feature cultural shows with icons such as the Mighty Sparrow, Roaring Lion, Pannaz Players, Liam Teague, Clive Zanda, Mungal Patasar, Machel Montano, Paul Keens-Douglas and Malik Folk group.
One of Mike’s most memorable achievements was (together with Ms. Kathleen Tuitt) to organize a banquet for Caribbean leaders during the first ever “Summit of the Americas” conference which was held in Miami in 1994 and presided over by US President Bill Clinton. This was the only function at the event that was open to the public and that catered to the Caribbean diaspora. Keynote speaker was Haiti’s President Jean Bertrand-Aristide…his first public appearance back to the US after regaining power in Haiti. Many of the other Caribbean’s Prime Ministers, Government officials and business leaders were also in attendance.
Michael (Mike) Andrews is a true citizen of the Caribbean and the USA and has given many years of invaluable service to the local South Florida Caribbean community and to the land of his birth, Trinidad and Tobago and the entire Caribbean as a whole.
