Jagdeo studied the radio landscape

Apr 14, 2013 Features / Columnists, My Column

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When the news came that President Bharrat Jagdeo had liberalised radio, there were many happy faces. Guyana had at last moved away from being the only country with a solitary media house that controlled all radio. Many years ago there were two radio stations, one of which was government-owned because the then government saw the need to have a voice using the most efficient means of communication.
The privately-owned Radio Demerara focused primarily on the business community and indeed, the private media tend to lean toward the private businesses. One reason may be that the private businesses tend to keep the private media afloat by virtue of advertisements.
But there is another reason. Governments, by nature are dictatorial. They tend to concentrate on taxes and when the books need to be balanced they simply tax the business community more. Private radio thus offered the private businesses a voice to direct their challenge to any government imposition that they found unconscionable.
For reasons still unclear, the government-owned radio station that sprang up turned out to be a better station than the privately-owned station. It might have been because the conservative business community could not be bothered too much about what the radio did.
The government radio, on the other hand, had direction. It recognized that it was exceedingly good at entertainment but more than that, it knew that once the ordinary man had a voice then it was on the right track.
In the end the private radio folded and the government acquired its assets. That was almost five decades ago and radio remained in public hands until Jagdeo’s decision to liberalise it. Because it is so pervasive, people fail to appreciate the importance of radio. Those who knew only radio and the newspapers appreciated the power of radio. It was their link to the outside world and the major means of communication between people with information and those who needed to know. It was also their source of entertainment.
With advancing technology the radio became ubiquitous. The transistor had arrived, replacing the bulky tubes and so cars and every mobile unit had one installed. There were the pocket radios for those who had no cars. The radio was everywhere.
Even today with competition from television there is no stopping the radio. Because of the ease with which it transmits messages, politicians and decision makers knew that the radio was a gold mine. The shrewder individual recognized radio for its ability to transmit subliminal messages. People hear things without listening and often wonder at their actions or their response to a certain message.  At no time would they recognise that the simple radio had a major role to play.
Jagdeo is no fool. He knows the power of radio so when he liberalised it, he ensured that the people who would do his bidding got the kind of radio that would blanket Guyana. The government-owned National Communications Network has been reaching across Guyana, but the absence of people who could use radio properly caused many of the messages to be lost. But radio did give the government an advantage.
I have been in communities where there are no television sets; where the only means of getting information was the radio. Under such conditions people tend to believe what they hear on radio. Jagdeo knows this.
In the end we now have a situation where the ruling party, with support from a man who made his millions from the government and from Robert Persaud, who is not only a Central Committee member in the ruling party but who is also a government Minister, is joining the state-owned radio station to provide information countrywide.
Imagine the government wanting to send out a message that could change a situation. It has the advantage of four radio stations to do this. To endorse the message these radio stations will effect the broadcast at different times. The result would be phenomenal.
Those who have a counter message would be hard pressed to combat the initial message heard myriad times prior to the counter message. And the society should recognise that the other radio stations are primarily into entertainment.  None of those owners have any political affinity to the political parties in opposition to the government.
These owners are also within their right to refuse anything brought by anyone, so immediately one can see the political opposition being at a tremendous disadvantage, a situation that would remain until they could themselves acquire a radio licence that would afford them the power to provide countrywide coverage.
The government says that it is prepared to grant licences to the various applicants, but what it is not saying is whether it will grant licences to allow any applicant to provide a national service. For one, the extension would be costly.
Those who have the ability to broadcast countrywide, by association, can share facilities such as towers and repeater stations. But this is to be expected, because the entire situation was properly planned.  The protest by those who need radio licences but have been denied must be seen in this light.
There is another crucial factor and this has to do with the people to help with the broadcast. There is not an amazing reservoir of radio savvy people. Therefore, those who have been provided with the first jump with the available staff have a distinct advantage.
When Jagdeo liberalised radio he studied the landscape and smiled because he had the answer. Today we see the answer. Whether this situation could be reversed is now being examined. Whether it would is another matter.

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