COMMUNITY RADIO IN THE HINTERLAND

Jul 16, 2017 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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There is a revolution taking place in Guyana’s interior and hinterland communities. It’s a quiet one going almost unnoticed on the coastland where over 60 percent of Guyana’s population lives. Over the last two years, radio resumed the popularity it used to enjoy in Guyana decades ago, i.e. before the advent of television and GTV, the trailblazer producer of local TV programming in the 1980s.
NCN (radio and TV) is the descendant of two of Guyana’s first radio services, Radio Demerara, founded in 1951, and British Guiana Broadcasting Service (BGBS) founded in 1958. The former was British-owned so its license required the station to broadcast BBC programmes for 21 hours a week. Local content on BGBS was primarily sports and the coverage of special events.
Two years after Independence, the Government took over BGBS located on High Street, Werk-en-Rust, and renamed it the Guyana Broadcasting Service (GBS). Radio Demerara was acquired in 1979 and the 2 stations were merged into the Guyana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC). Twenty-five years later NCN was born, made up of GBC and GTV. This is the nation’s Radio.
In 2011, on the eve of general elections, radio licences were selectively handed out to private citizens, government officials, their families and supporters. Yet privately-owned radio has not extended their broadcast radius beyond the coastland.
Up to 2015, thousands of people living and working in Guyana’s vast hinterland regions were still outside of the information loop, cut off from the administrative centres. It used to be particularly painful to listen to residents of Kamarang and Ekereku, or Monkey Mountain and even Lethem say that they don’t feel like they are Guyanese.
So the sitting Government (at the time in Opposition) gave a commitment to bridge the long existing information gap (and other inequities) between the coastland and the hinterland. Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Sydney Allicock, gave the assurance to Toshaos and other indigenous leaders (NTC 2016) that radio stations will be established in several locales including Aishalton, Region 9; Moruca, Region 1; and Orealla, Region 6.
“Sometimes you travel to the hinterland and it’s like you are in a different country. This is why Government is ensuring that we make connections across this country, because we believe that knowledge is power,” Minister Allicock stated.
He assured the Leaders that the radio project is the beginning of an extensive programme that also includes connecting hinterland communities as far south as Gunns Strip with internet capabilities. In fact, the Ministry of Public Telecommunications is preparing to start implementing in September a GRIF-funded project to connect certain (identified) poor, remote and hinterland communities all across Guyana to the worldwide web.

THE RADIO CONNECTION
Radio Paiwomak located at Bina Hill in Annai, Region 9 is Guyana’s first community radio station. Its long serving administrator, Virgil Harding, and a small team of broadcasters work under the guiding hand of the North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB). Paiwomak is heard in quite a number of villages in the North Rupununi.
Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo had been integral to the establishment of Radio Paiwomak in 2000 while he served in the PPP administration. He described it as “unfinished business” since the effort was stalled for 15 years, for reasons best known to the PPP. After one year with the APNU+AFC government, the Prime Minister teamed up with one of Guyana’s best in Broadcasting, Dr. Rovin Deodat, the current coordinator of the Community Broadcasting Project. Together they piloted the first two community radio projects in Lethem and Mabaruma.

RADIO LETHEM AND RADIO MABARUMA
These stations were commissioned in May and June 2016 with broadcast schedules containing community programmes and news feeds from ‘master control’, NCN. The team intends to introduce programmes in indigenous languages in the near future and they insist that these community stations will remain non-political and non-partisan. Free training is also being provided to any resident who is desirous of becoming a broadcaster.
Radio Mabaruma went off air for a period last year after its transmitter and equipment on Broomes Hill were hit by lightning during a heavy storm. It was back on air within weeks. Residents within a 25-mile radius of each station agree that both stations have enhanced their lives since they are able listen to radio 24 hours a day, and are kept up to date in real time with all that is happening in the city and the rest of the country. The ICT connectivity programme that will soon connect them with stable internet services, will also open up the worldwide web for them, and provide another medium for information – online radio.
By the end of 2017, we expect two more radio stations to go on air in Bartica and Mahdia. When this is accomplished, there will be an historic seven community radio stations affiliated to the National Communications Network (NCN) and broadcasting on the national frequency. They would also represent a long overdue government investment of over $200M.
A recent visit to Aishalton, South Rupununi by the NCN’s technical team already has the community abuzz. Information Director, Imran Khan noted, “It is rather easy for the significance of a radio station to hinterland residents to be lost on us hyper-connected coastlanders. However, it has proven to be an important facet of life for people who have for years been shut out from access to simple, basic information and communication services, neglected for decades”.
For our brothers and sisters who can now listen to the radio all day and all night and hear their own community broadcasters presenting programmes, it is transformational and empowering.
Quietly, without fanfare, pomp or ceremony, life is getting better for thousands beyond the coastland.

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