[ads1]
Former President, John Dramani Mahama has donated an amount of Gh¢100,000.00 to the management of Accra-based Radio Gold.
The gesture from the 2020 NDC flagbearer is to to support the payment of the license fee and operations of the station.
Radio Gold was among 133 radio stations granted the approval to return to the airwaves by the National Communications Authority (NCA).[ads2]
The station was among the numerous radio stations that were shut down by NCA in 2017 for operating without valid authorisations as determined by the 2017 FM Broadcasting Audit as enforcement action in view of the decision of the Electronic Communications Tribunal.
Following the FM Spectrum Audit in 2017, some stations were found to be in default and were fined by the Authority.
However, some of the stations in default were not satisfied and proceeded to the various courts; Electronic Communications Tribunal (ECT) and the High Court to appeal against the NCA’s decision.[ads3]
This resulted in a decision by the ECT in 2018 which reviewed the status of expired FM Radio Broadcasting Authorisations and which ruled among others that Companies whose authorisations had expired reverted to the same position as a fresh applicant. While some stations shut down following this decision, others did not.
But the NCA has granted some 133 radio stations the approval to return to the airwaves including Radio Gold and Radio XYZ.[ads4]
An earlier statement from NCA granting the stations permission to return to the airwaves reads, “The Governing Board of the National Communications Authority (NCA), at a Board meeting held on 11th October 2021, approved the grant of a total of One Hundred and Thirty-Three (133) FM radio broadcasting authorizations which include new applications from entities whose FM radio stations were closed down after the 2017 FM Audit as well as existing stations which applied for renewal of their expired FM Radio broadcasting authorizations.”
The approval, according to NCA is “subject to the applicants attending a sensitisation workshop on the terms and conditions of FM radio broadcasting authorisations.”[ads5]
