MAC 404- Issues in Broadcasting in Nigeria

Introduction Unlike print media which started early in Nigeria, electronic media did not start at the same period. It took several years before electronic media began to make in-road in Nigeria. This unit is aimed at brief exploration of the history and nature of electronic media in Nigeria.

2.0 OBJECTIVES At the end of this unit, you should be able to: · trace the evolution of electronic media in Nigeria · explain the growth of the industry in Nigeria.

3.0 MAIN CONTENT 3.1 History of Electronic Media in Nigeria The history of radio in Nigeria began in 1932 as a re-diffusion programme of the British colonial government. Then the colonial government chose Lagos as one of the centres among the British colonies where radio signals were received and retransmitted to Nigerian audience via re-diffusion method. According to Okunna and Uzokwe (2006:75): · Between 1932 and 1950, the BBC monitoring station in Lagos was developed into an extensive radio distribution service (RDS) to cater for some dense population centres of the colonial government through re-diffusion stations located in Ibadan, MAC 314 ISSUES IN MASS MEDIA IN NIGERIA 72 Abeokuta, Ijebu Ode, Kano, Kaduna, Enugu, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Jos, and Zaria; these were converted into fully operative radio stations by the Federal Government to form the media of the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS) which was established in 1951. It is pertinent to note that NBS later changed to Nigeria Broadcasting Cooperation (NBC), which later metamorphosed into the present-day Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) in the year 1978. Presently, virtually all the 36 states of Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory Abuja now have radio stations. And with the deregulation of the broadcast industry in Nigeria in 1992, private radio and television stations now operate in the country.