Channel One Studios

Channel One Studios on Maxfield Avenue in West Kingston is one of the most historically significant recording facilities in Jamaican music — the place where, in the 1970s, the Mighty Diamonds, Leroy Smart, Johnnie Clarke, and dozens of other artists recorded the work that defined mid-period reggae. The Hoo Kim brothers built their studio in 1973 and ran it as an operation that gave artists unusual creative freedom by the standards of the time.

The studio is not a museum and is not organised for visitors, but it remains operational and the building is identifiable on Maxfield Avenue. For serious reggae history enthusiasts, the Maxfield Avenue area — which was the centre of Kingston's music industry before it shifted uptown — rewards a guided tour that takes in Channel One, Joe Gibbs Recording Studios, and the sound system yards that still operate nearby. Organised music history tours of Kingston are available from several local guides.

things to do sight historic
A story
Channel One was the studio where Joseph Hoo Kim and his brothers pioneered the "rockers" drum style in the mid-1970s — a heavier, more prominent drum and bass sound that redefined reggae and directly influenced everything from British post-punk to the emergence of dancehall. Sly Dunbar, who developed much of this style behind the drum kit at Channel One, became the most recorded drummer in reggae history.