Text of report by Radio Australia text website on 21 August
Radio Kiribati is facing an acute shortage of daily earnings, and had to cut its staffing to remain on air. Pacific Magazine reports the national radio station’s acting manager, Tibwere Bobo, says the problem began two weeks ago, when Radio Kiribati’s AM transmission was off-air due to a break down in the transmitter.
“Our engineers after installing the spare parts would have to monitor it before they can declare that our problem had been solved,” he said. “This could take a few days.”
The station is maintaining its FM transmission which only covers South Tarawa and the remote Line and Phoenix Groups. But money generated from this service on a daily basis is minimal and not enough to cover the daily expense of Radio Kiribati transmissions.
The radio station is trying to cut costs, and has applied for an overdraft from the bank. Mr Bobo says more measures will have to be taken if the AM transmission is not restored soon.
(Source: Radio Australia text website, Melbourne, in English 21 Aug 08 via BBC Monitoring/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)