In the past two to three years, Cross River has witnessed a complete paradigm shift from the government monopoly of electronic broadcasting to a new dimension where private individuals can own and operate radio stations.
Despite the reality that broadcasting was deregulated in far back 1992 by the military administration of General Ibrahim Babangida, for over two decades, the broadcast sector was still highly monopolized in the state. The only known electronic media was the state owned Cross River Broadcasting corporation, CRBC which in all humility lacks content and everything you could think of in modern journalism.
As a student of Mass Communication few years ago, I questioned whether the National Broadcasting Commission Decree 38 which confers exclusive monopoly of ownership of electronic media on state was still operational in the state even though I was aware that the section 22 of the decree was repealed in August 1992.
In my curiosity, I wondered why the only state owned University, Cross River University of Technology was running a Mass Communication programme yet media opportunities in the state were very limited. A large chunk of the Mass Communication students especially the ladies will always go for broadcast option thus, I was worried that with just CRBC, the University was only producing seasoned broadcasters for other states.
However, after over 20 years of government monopoly, the trend is changing or has changed to the effect that, we're today counting the numbers of private radio stations in Calabar. Since Hitfm came on board in 2016 as the first private radio station in the state, the electronic broadcast sector (radio) has grown astronomically.
A state that has no single radio station as at 2015 today boast of at least four functional private radio stations today namely, HitFm, FAD FM, Sparkling FM and Correct FM. All these stations were established under the administration of Sen. Ben Ayade.
Before crucification, know that I'm not oblivious of the fact that the operational licence for electronic media is issued by the NBC not state government. But on a good authority, I was informed reliably that almost all stations operating today got their licences long before Ayade came on board but because of the fear that some political gladiators will use the stations to criticize government, state power was deployed to frustrate and ensure that all efforts to come on board ended in futility.
But when Ayade came on board, although it's alleged that the state is frustrating another station which has been on the pipeline for long time, he allowed all these stations to function with or without the fear reportedly excised by previous administrations.
It's an open secret that many people including myself hold the opinion that most or maybe all the stations have not been as objective as we have thought but we've gradually moved from the era where only government stories are heard on radio. The little airtime given to discussing other issues which may not be completely favourable to government is adding beauty to the broadcast sector in the state and democracy in general. People can now call radio programmes to express their displeasure about some government policies which was unthinkable with CRBC during the days of state monopoly.
Besides, many broadcast enthusiasts who were limited because of opportunities are today building careers and fulfilling destinies in broadcast industry. And Cross Riverians today have option of tuning from one station to another. The era where the only options available in the waves were either some stations in Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi or Enugu is over. Most times when I enter taxi and see drivers patronising stations from Akwa Ibom, I'll insist that Cross River station be tuned or I alight prematurely. Yes! I'm that sentimental.
Indeed, there's a new dimension to broadcasting in Cross River. It's not yet uhuru, we're not yet where we should be just yet but we're absolutely, not where we used to be and I think Governor Ayade who didn't frustrate the stations as many said previous Governors did deserves some accolades.
My advice to the stations is that, always, the values and objective of the media profession should reflect in their programmes. They should improve in their content. Too much time is dedicated to relationship (boyfriend and girlfriend) discussions on air. Most times, listeners are bored with duplication of love programmes by different presenters. I'm not saying relationship programmes are not important but they can reduce it for other programmes especially with human angle!
Every programme no doubt is designed with a target audience in mind but presenters don't have control of their audience which makes mass communication heterogeneous in nature therefore, it's pertinent that the stations don't spend all the time shaping the minds of the younger generation that the world is all about relationship and love when other nations are talking about inventions and ideas.
The issue of fake accents too is something that has gradually eaten too deep into the fabrics of the broadcasting in Nigeria. Maybe, it's worst with some stations in the state. The core of broadcasting (media) is to inform, educate and entertain not to impress.
Broadcasters should always be guided by this as they're expected to speak to express and not to impress. This is because when people begin to twist their voices to impress, they may end up missing the message they intend to disseminate because people will either be carried away or disgusted by their fake accents thereby forgetting the message!
Finally, the stations should always remember Marshall McLuhan's phrase that "The medium is the message". According to Wikipedia, this means that "the form of a medium embeds itself in any message it would transmit or convey, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived". They should always strive to build credibility and remain as objective as they can.
Inyali is a university don
