The current state of the power station, Radio Gold 90.5 FM
After months of unsuccessive attempts by management and Parliamentary Select Committee for Communication to get the Power Station back on air after it was brusquely shutdown, workers of station say they now beg to survive in their motherland.
‘Majority of the workers can no longer go to work, neither can they afford to feed their families. ‘We now make passionate appeals to our cherished followers on new media to be able to buy data to stream live’. ‘We have been turned to beggars as a means of survival’.
According to Nancy Kekeli Amelewosi Obimpeh, a news caster, they have resorted to begging in a bid to cope with the harsh economic condition foisted on them by National Communication Authority (NCA) and Minister for Communication-Ursula Owusu. ‘We have devised this means to beg in order to fulfill our broadcasting obligations’.
‘She lamented their inability to pay their bills, children’s school fees and service their accommodation expenses and cannot even afford transportation fares, hence the reason most of them can no longer attend to go to their workplaces and church activities’.
Speaking at a Press Conference to mark the 24th Anniversary of Radio Gold’s existence, Nancy, said some of them cannot even get new jobs because they’ve Radio Gold as part of their work history, while bewailing the Minister’s promise to keep the station off air permanently.
The Minister according to sources has unilaterally decided to permanently block the return of one of the nation’s critical voices, Radio Gold off air.
The radical radio station was abruptly taken off air nine months ago by National Communication Authority (NCA) without notice after two decades of broadcasting.
The station which has been off air since May 9, 2019 has been trying without success to reason with the Sector Minister and a government which has long underlined its hatred for the station it blamed for its electoral loss in 2008.
Radio Gold has over the past nine months subjected itself to an arbitration process being mediated by Parliament’s Select Committee on Communication.
Over the period, Radio Gold has met every demand laid down by Ursula Owusu including withdrawing a notice filed at the Electronic Communications Tribunal (ECT) and filed a fresh application for a frequency at the National Communication Authority (NCA).
Radio Gold’s decisions to withdraw and start the process of acquiring a new frequency was informed by the Committee’s demonstrated commitment to resolving the issue after the initial meetings.
But news reports have it that the Minister has since truncated the entire process of restoring the station back on air without reason(s) communicated to the affected station (Radio Gold).
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