[cr-india] FEATURE: Radio revolution as FM stations multiply (Africa)

[Frederick Noronha]

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RADIO REVOLUTION AS FM STATIONS MULTIPLY

Competing FM radio stations are now very much part of the life of the 
majority of urban centres in Africa. You can’t get into a taxi, walk 
through a market, visit a bar without hearing a local disc jockey playing 
either local or foreign music on the radio. But it was not always like 
this. This report focuses on the situation in West Africa.*

Third World Network Features


 From single radio stations before 1990, a number of individual African 
countries now have over 20 FM stations.

It was only in the last decade that the explosion of radio stations in 
Africa began. Before then there had only been tentative non-governmental 
efforts to establish independent radio stations. Among some of the most 
notable was Radio Apam, a rural radio station established by the School of 
Communications of the University of Ghana; the Kayes Rural Radio 
established in 1987 by an Italian NGO in Mali on the border with Senegal. 
By the end of the 90s, an individual created a radio Horizon Fm; one 
Moustapha Thiombianao had created the first ever commercial private radio 
in West African sub-region in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. This was closely 
followed by Radio One, owned by G. Christensen in Banjul, Gambia, the first 
competitor to Radio Syd, which has been in operation since 1959.

Then in March 1991, in Bamako, Radio Bamakan started to broadcast. Without 
legal authorisation.

Other stations, Radio Liberty, Radio Kayira and Radio Tahlae rapidly 
followed. Mali now has over 30 private radio stations owned by individuals 
and groups.

As in Mali, so in neighbouring Burkina Faso, the radio stations just kept 
multiplying and progressively in several other states in West Africa, new 
stations came into being.
In Ghana, radio stations were being established almost once a month in 1995.

The advent of radio plurality on the continent has seen religious, 
community, commercial and state-owned radio stations all competing to 
attract the listening public.

The trend was closely linked with the so called winds of democracy that 
blew through the continent in the early 90s.

A number of the radio stations have undoubtedly expanded the frontiers of 
democracy on the continent encouraging debate, the voicing of complaints 
and generally allowing alternative voices to be heard.

All the new stations are FMs, broadcasting to a limited geographical area, 
even though some use especially powerful transmitters that enable to reach 
far beyond their stated transmission areas.

Most of these stations are established in the capital and in other urban 
centers. Rural stations are often supported by organisations but there have 
been attempts in Senegal by private commercial radio to access the rural areas.

The majority of the local FMs were established as a result of local 
entrepreneurial effort, but some of the major broadcasting houses of the 
world have also found their way to the local market.  Radio France, Voice 
of America and BBC have either managed to secure FM frequencies or 
established relationships with some of the local FM stations.

The major western stations are often allocated specific times by the local 
FMs to retransmit their broadcast; these tend to be mainly information and 
news.

A survey by the development agency Panos in 1995 found out that the vast 
majority of these radio stations devote the large part of their programming 
to music and entertainment. The stations also devote some time to news and 
information but the amount of time to this segment varies widely from 
station to station.

The majority of the new FM stations use very basic equipment for broadcast: 
often modest infrastructure, three or four rooms, technical cabin, 
recording room and sometimes a reception and administration.

Most of those in the capital depend on advertisements and announcements for 
revenue while the hours of broadcast are typically 18 hours.

The number of staff in an FM station varies from 6 to 42. The average is 
around twenty, including part timers and permanent staff.

The use of language is also not uniform. Most FMs in Mali speak Bambara, 
the most popular local language in Mali. In Accra, Ghana quite a number of 
the stations in the capital use English and some tend to divide their 
broadcast times between English and local language broadcast.

In countries which allow them, religious radio stations are equally to be 
found in both rural and urban areas but overall, the siting of radio 
stations tend to be very biased in favour of capitals and other major towns 
and against rural areas.

Here again the situation in both Mali and Burkina Faso are unique. Mali has 
21 while Burkina Faso has 10 rural radio stations. These are mainly 
community radios that receive some support from the state.

In Gambia, Senegal and Cape Verde however, all the radio stations are in 
the capital.—Third World Network Features.

-ends-

Written from the editorial desk with background information from Panos 
archives.*

This article first appeared in African Agenda Vol.4 No.1&2 2001.

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