HERE IS THE NEWS AND THIS IS M'BWONGO BEATING IT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 405, 28 March 1947, Page 11

HERE IS THE NEWS

AND THIS IS M'BWONGO BEATING IT

Redittusion Radio on the Gold Coast

NE of the finest broadcasting services in the Colonies is the claim which the Gold Coasters make for their radio organisation. First introduced by the Gold Coast Government in 1935, in the form of a Rediffusion Service, its primary object is to make available to the public for a nominal monthly subscription (five shillings a monthwhich includes the installation and use of a loudspeaker) an amenity which would otherwise be outside the reach of most by reason of the high initial cost of, receivers, and the technical skill needed to operate them.

The popularity of the service has been reflected in the growing number of sub-scribers-700 in 1935, and 6,045 ten years later. At the present time there re 16 stations operating and more than 1,000 applicants are waiting for loudspeakers to be connected to existing services. Over 65 per cent. of the subscribers are Africans. ‘The service is controlled by the Government Broadcasting Department, with its head office in Broadcasting House at Accra. The 16 stations are staffed by trained Africans, recruited from the Gold Coast Technical School and trained at Broadcasting House, but the running and maintenance of the stations is under the supervision of European Broadcast Officers, each of whom is responsible for a group of stations.

Arrangements are now being made for | selected pupils from Achimota College | to go to the United Kingdom (under | the Colonial Scholarship Scheme) for final training. This will include one year | at Queen Mary’s College for telecom- | munications, one year with the BBC, | and a third year with a rediffusion firm. The photographs which appear on this | page, made available to us by the | United Kingdom High Commisisoner’s Office, were all taken at the Accra-Gold Coast Government Station. The picture at the top of the page shows the Talking Drums, familiar to all West African listeners. These drums are heard at the opening of all transmissions. In the background, a news reader can be seen waiting to read a bulletin in the Twi language.