NUJ takes steps to start Abuja’s 19th radio station
Speaking in a recent interview with Daily Trust on Sunday, the President of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Mr Waheed Odusile said, “When we were campaigning we promised to give NUJ a radio station, and we have started the process already. We have gone to the NBC (National Broadcasting Commission) and arranged for preliminary investigation […]
Speaking in a recent interview with Daily Trust on Sunday, the President of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Mr Waheed Odusile said, “When we were campaigning we promised to give NUJ a radio station, and we have started the process already. We have gone to the NBC (National Broadcasting Commission) and arranged for preliminary investigation and we are encouraged by their response. We expect that very soon, we will have something good to tell Nigerian journalists about that radio station.”
Elected on July 24 this year, Odusile rode into office on the wave of promised far-reaching changes in the way journalism is practiced, how members of the public perceive journalists, the welfare of journalists, and their sense of worth. On the question of radio station, he said in his campaign outings that he would establish an NUJ radio station which would create jobs, generate revenue for the union, and serve as a training ground for members and prospective journalists.
“When we get the license, we are hoping also to get a TV station,” Odusile enthused during the interview with Daily Trust on Sunday, adding that both the radio and the television station to accompany it will be sited at the NUJ headquarters.
The NUJ headquarters, located at the Jabi District of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, currently comprises a one-storey building and little else, although there is a plan for a multi-storey structure. Odusile said even what exists currently could house the proposed radio station. He explained, “The radio and TV stations will be at our headquarters premises here. The headquarters complex is a big place. This building (the completed administrative block of the NUJ headquarters where he and other national officials have their offices) is large enough for a radio station. Who knows? By the time we complete the permanent secretariat structure, we may just use this office for the radio station.”
When it comes on stream in Abuja, the proposed NUJ radio will be joining at least 18 other radio stations, most of them currently broadcasting on frequency modulation (FM) band.
The existing radio stations include Armed Forces Radio, Aso Radio, Best Afro FM, Brila FM, Cool FM, FRCN Abuja National Station, Hot FM, Kapital FM, Kiss FM, Love FM and Nigeria Information FM. The others are Raypower FM, Rhythm 94.7 FM, Vision FM, Voice of Nigeria (VON), Wazobia FM, WE FM, and Zuma FM.
The Nigerian Armed Forces Radio, the youngest existing radio station in the nation’s capital, is located on the hills of Mogadishu Cantonment in Asokoro, and runs a live radio broadcast, intended to educate and inform the public about military activities. The radio station which was commissioned by former President Goodluck Jonathan in May this year, is believed to be the first ultra-modern military radio station in West Africa, and is envisioned to enhance the dissemination of defense information to the Nigerian public. It is equipped with digital facilities which include a transmitter with the capacity to transmit messages up to 500 kilometers radius. The station is alternatively known as Defense Radio 107.7 FM, as it transmits on 107.7 frequency modulation band (FM).
Brila FM, otherwise called Sports Radio 88.9 FM, describes itself as ‘Nigeria and Africa’s pioneer sports radio” and was established first in Lagos in 2002 by sportscaster Larry Izamoje while the Abuja station, the second in the Brila FM radio family, was opened in 2007. More Brila FM stations came up in 2007 in Kaduna and Onitsha. The Abuja Brila FM station is located on Grange Hill, Mpape, a hilltop masses settlement near Abuja’s elite Maitama.
Rhythm 94.7 FM, located at the Silverbird Entertainment Centre in the Central Business District of Abuja, belongs to the Silverbird entertainment group and took its bearing from the Silverbird Galleria roots in Victoria Island, Lagos.
The Raypower 100.5 FM in Abuja comes from an even bigger Daar Communications family, with 18 FM radio sister stations in 17 states around the country. The stations exist in Kaduna, Benin, Agenebode, Port Harcourt, Jos, Kano, Yenagoa, Enugu, Ilorin, Katsina, Makurdi, Yola, Bauchi, Gombe, Maiduguri, Owerri, Osogbo, and Calabar. The Raypower FM in Abuja started broadcasting on January 1, 2005, nine years after the pioneer Raypower FM station commenced broadcasting in Lagos.
Cool 96.9 FM, which styles itself as “Your Number 1 Hit Music Station”, started operations in Abuja in November 2001 while its sister stations opened in Port Harcourt in 2008 on 95.9 FM and in Kano in 2001 on 96.9 FM. Its Abuja station is at AIM Centre, Independence Avenue, South City Centre, Abuja.
Hot 98.3 FM which also broadcasts from Abuja
WE FM, on the other hand says it comes into being to give Nigerians “a great platform to contribute to the social economic and political development of the country”, and that the station tries to project messages through talk shows all day long.
WAZOBIA 99.5 FM, coined from the Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo words for ‘come’, is a Pidgin English FM station broadcasting from Abuja, Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt. It calls itself ‘The People’s Station’ and ‘Radio the Nigerian Way’, and asserts that it was the first Pidgin English radio station in Nigeria when it started in Port Harcourt in 2007.
Kapital 92.9 FM, a part of the Radio Nigeria network, commenced transmission of FM signals from Abuja on August 10 2002 from the 12th floor of the Radio House in Area 11, Garki.
Not a few observers regard the number of radio stations in Abuja as quite large already. But many of those in the business say such opinion is not quite true.
Love 104.5 FM’s General Manager, Mr Samuel Enobong Akpan said the competition is high but that stations that present good programmes are doing well. “Bigger stations like Kapital FM, Raypower and even Silverbird have advantage over the smaller ones, and that’s why you need to up your game and keep on engineering and re-engineering your programmes to meet the aspirations of your listeners,” Akpan told Daily Trust on Sunday.
He said big advertisers go for the bigger stations and that to get enough of the advertisements, a radio station needs to have a reasonable listenership share.
Samuel Akpan who personally handles The Podium, one of Love FM’s flagship programmes, said the station’s unique selling point is its focus on family issues. He said, “We are a family station, a station that uses its programmes to promote family issues; our programmes are tailored towards every member of your family: whether you are a father, mother or child, you must get something from the station’s programmes.”
Commenting particularly on NUJ’s plan to open a radio station in Abuja, Akpan said the NUJ, which he belongs to, or any other broadcasting entrepreneur was welcome. “Lagos has more than 30 radio stations; as the country’s capital, there is every reason for 20 or more stations to operate successfully in Abuja,” Akpan said.