Shortwave may be dying a slow death in some parts of the world, but in Africa it’s still an integral part of the distribution mix for many state or public broadcasters, especially in the larger countries.
Opening a new FM station at Radio Nigeria Kaduna, which will carry programmes in Hausa, Niger’s Minister of State for Information and Communication, Malam Ibrahim Dasuki Nakande, said:
“The need for Hausa FM station is long overdue because of the increasing number of Hausa speakers across the world. We have over 16 million Hausa speakers in West Africa. This has been exploited by international radio stations that have news and other programmes in Hausa even in North African and Asian countries like Egypt, Libya, Iran.
“The Federal Government is doing everything possible to resuscitate the radio station and transmitters that have gone down, especially the shortwave station. We have received a 200 kW transmitter from Japan Development Corporation which we intend to install in Jaji. Government has set up a five-man committee to look into the operation of the FRCN to see how it can discharge its functions effectively,” he said.
(Source: Daily Trust, Abuja/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)
Related story:
Nigerian government plans to reinvigorate FRCN stations
February 2nd, 2008
The Nigerian Federal Government is considering a masterplan to revive the services of Radio Nigeria, Kaduna, toward the effective pursuit of the country’s foreign policy. The masterplan, which is to cover other sister FRCN stations, would transform the archaic infrastructure of the stations into a state of the art status.
A memo made available to journalists shows Nigeria as not having utilized public broadcasting as a platform for foreign policy advocacy. “In June 2007, the American Senate voted 1.8 billion dollars to fund public and private broadcast services in the Third World mainly to propagate US interests,” it said.
The document complained about the neglect of the Hausa language as a tool for mass enlightenment, particularly the Hausa Service of FRCN Kaduna. “Nigeria, which is the home of the Hausa language and with the highest number of Hausa listeners in the world is yet to accord it the importance that it rightly deserves. Foreign stations are now setting the pace in the utilization of the Hause language to reach the target audience for influence,” it said.
The memorandum suggested that national radio stations be revived to match the international reach. (Source: The Tide/R Netherlands)