Satellite operator Eutelsat has closed down the Africa No 1 radio station, which reaches 20 million people on the continent, after it failed to pay its debts, staff said yesterday. The Gabon-based network, which was founded in 1981, went off the air at 1000 UTC on Wednesday.
“Eutelsat has indeed shut down the service because of debts. The two main shareholders have been informed. We’re trying to pay at least part of the debt to be able to resume our activities. We hope to be back on the air, perhaps tomorrow,” Bashir Abubaker, the station’s director general, told AFP.
According to a management official, Africa No 1 has not paid its dues to Eutelsat since the month of September. The bill is a little less than 200m CFA francs (305,000 euros/450,000 dollars) including penalties for late payment. “Eutelsat sent us letters asking us to settle the debt and then cut us off unilaterally,” said the official, who asked not to be named.
Following severe financial difficulties, in January 2008 Libyan Jamahiriyah Broadcasting (LJB) acquired 52 per cent of the shares in Africa No 1 with the aim of rebuilding the network to broadcast on different frequencies in several languages, including French, English and Arabic, as well as Bambara (widely understood in west Africa) and Swahili (an east African language). The Gabonese state retained 35 per cent of shares and the private sector held the remaining 13 per cent.
However, touted investments never took place and the radio’s operations were interrupted by several strikes. Africa No 1 employs about 20 salaried journalists and about 50 freelance correspondents around the world.
(Source: AFP)
on Apr 29th, 2011 at 18:17
Not exactly silenced, it seems —
I.e. 9580 kHz, so is that SW transmitter really off the air or merely unable to access usual programming? (Glenn Hauser, April 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Still on the air at 1725 on 9580. Barely audible. Regards (JM Aubier, France, April 29, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
AFP report that the station closed at 1000 on Wednesday, Eutelsat closed the station as it had not paid its debt to them since September, full story in Media Network.
At 1745 the only station on the channel is playing opera with no announcements, listed is Radio Australia English and BSKSA Arabic
(Mike Barraclough, England, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Much better after 1800. Only music (song from the French singer Michel Sardou) (Jean-Michel Aubier, ibid.)
on May 1st, 2011 at 01:50
More reports of 9580:
Checked 9580 between 0540-0600 UT last night and heard continuous French music playing, featuring several songs from what sounded like Edith Piaf. No announcements at all during this period (Bill Flynn, Pennsylvania, April 30, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
I listened to the signal last night - an hour nonstop of Edith Piaf songs from 0505 to after 0600z, with only a single station ID at 0556. Excellent signal, however, here in California (Bruce Jensen, April 30, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
on May 1st, 2011 at 16:35
9580, May 1 at 0507, music in French reminding me of “Lion King“, not to be confused with talk in Arabic from a similar station on 9575, Médi 1 from Morocco. Initially poor signal improved somewhat during following hour. 0510 song with English lyrix. 0511 YL announcement in French, OM promo for a program after 17 hours. 0524 mostly music. 0532 ID for Africa Numéro Un, more music. 0559 suffering from some intermittent audio dropouts, which worsened, but between them, first caught mention of FM 94.5. No news on the hour, mixed with open carrier. 0605 long list of FM frequencies in different African cities, Africa No. Un mentioned multiple times. Sounds rather normal to me, altho as recently as April 23 I was hearing news during the previous semihour, and questioned how objective it could be since Libya is part-owner of ANO. The press reports confirm that Libya is majority owner, and failure to pay up has disrupted it satellite connexions, at least (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)