The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) is to stop using short and medium wave frequencies so as to save on costs, writes Dennis Itumbi for journalism.co.za. Information Permanent Secretary Dr Bitange Ndemo said the frequencies were consuming too much power and were already overtaken by technological advances.
The national broadcaster has also committed to reduce its power bills by at least Shs. 25 million ($330,000) as a way of dealing with its debts. After a meeting with the Parliamentary committee on Energy, Communication and Information, he said a review of spending at the KBC would be conducted so as to make it more competitive.
(Source: journalism.co.za)
on Jul 29th, 2009 at 16:58
Good luck trying to cover rural Kenya on FM
on Jul 29th, 2009 at 17:53
In Mauritius, MW (3 transmitters on 2 sites) is maintain in case of failure of FM transmissions who are more geographically dispersed, also in the case of intense natural disasters putting down the masts we can rely on a neighbouring island call Reunion to cover us. FM transmission remain a short distance coverage type of service.
on Jul 29th, 2009 at 19:33
This move seems to be hiding the fact that KBC has made some very strange moves into the digital broadcast space and is on the verge of collapse unless the
government pumps in 13m dollars to keep it afloat. KBC is far more interested in TV and the AM radio is seen as a dead loss.
The KBC have a debt of 233m dollars as a result of buying obsolete
analogue transmission equipment acquired on 129m dollar loan from the Japanese government. The government has paid about 116m dollars of the
loan, but the equipment is too expensive to run. KBC says they have a
monthly power bill of 386,610 dollars to keep the MW and SW going.
But compare that to the 31m dollars in assets belonging
to the Kenyan Multi-Media University which were irregularly transferred to the Communications Commissions of Kenya when the university was taken over by the Ministry of Education.
This story is only just starting to develop. Many other public service broadcasters are watching to see how this fiasco unfolds….
on Jul 29th, 2009 at 21:00
As already reported in DXLD 9-052 by Chris Greenway, SW has been gone from Kenya for some two sesquiyears already, so why are they even mentioning it now? (gh, DXLD)
on Aug 2nd, 2009 at 16:46
The “obsolete analogue transmission equipment” was a major new MW transmission network (20 new 50- and 100-kW transmitters at 10 sites) installed by the Marubeni Corporation in the early 1990s. Broadly speaking, almost all of the network is still working - not a bad achievement in Africa almost two decades later.
As you’d expect for a national AM network for a country about the twice the size of the UK, the electricity bill is substantial. The fact that the KBC can’t afford the power bill or the loan repayments doesn’t in itself make the MW networks “obsolete”.
It is, however, true to say that the networks are “obsolete” because most Kenyans now use FM for their radio listening as there are dozens of private FM broadcasters and the BBC, VOA, RFI and CRI all have 24/7 FM relays in Kenya.
It was bad luck for the KBC that they made a big investment in AM just a few years before the FM explosion. With hindsight the KBC would have done better to have installed new FM networks, retaining some limited MW capability for the most remote regions.
It’s now convenient for the KBC’s management to blame their current woes on a decision taken by their predecessors 20 years ago.