Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria
Encyclopedia
The Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) is Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

's publicly-funded radio broadcasting organization. Among its subsidiaries are the domestic radio network known as Radio Nigeria and the Voice of Nigeria
Voice of Nigeria
The Voice of Nigeria is the official international broadcasting station of Nigeria.-History:Founded in 1961, the Voice of Nigeria began life as the External Service of the then Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation...

 international radio service.

History

The Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria was originally founded in 1933 by the British colonial government. Named the Radio Diffusion Service (RDS), it allowed the public to hear the British Broadcasting Corporation's foreign radio service broadcasts in certain public locations over loudspeakers.

In April 1950, the RDS became the Nigerian Broadcasting Service and introduced radio stations in Lagos
Lagos
Lagos is a port and the most populous conurbation in Nigeria. With a population of 7,937,932, it is currently the third most populous city in Africa after Cairo and Kinshasa, and currently estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa...

, Kaduna
Kaduna
Kaduna is the state capital of Kaduna State in north-central Nigeria. The city, located on the Kaduna River, is a trade center and a major transportation hub for the surrounding agricultural areas with its rail and road junction. The population of Kaduna is at 760,084 as of the 2006 Nigerian census...

, Enugu
Enugu
Enugu is the capital of Enugu State in Nigeria. It is located in the southeastern area of Nigeria and is largely populated by members of the Igbo ethnic group. The city has a population of 722,664 according to the 2006 Nigerian census. The name Enugu is derived from the two Igbo words Enu Ugwu...

, Ibadan
Ibadan
Ibadan is the capital city of Oyo State and the third largest metropolitan area in Nigeria, after Lagos and Kano, with a population of 1,338,659 according to the 2006 census. Ibadan is also the largest metropolitan geographical area...

, and Kano
Kano
Kano is a city in Nigeria and the capital of Kano State in Northern Nigeria. Its metropolitan population is the second largest in Nigeria after Lagos. The Kano Urban area covers 137 sq.km and comprises six Local Government Area - Kano Municipal, Fagge, Dala, Gwale, Tarauni and Nassarawa - with a...

. This service was reorganized into the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) on April 1, 1957 by act of parliament. Its mission was to "provide, as a public service, independent and impartial broadcasting services". By 1962 the NBC had expanded its broadcast stations into Sokoto
Sokoto
Sokoto is a city located in the extreme northwest of Nigeria, near to the confluence of the Sokoto River and the Rima River. As of 2006 it has a population of 427,760...

, Maiduguri
Maiduguri
Maiduguri, also fondly called Yerwa by its locals, is the capital and the largest city of Borno State in north-eastern Nigeria. The city sits along the seasonal Ngadda River which disappears into the Firki swamps in the areas around Lake Chad...

, Ilorin
Ilorin
Ilorin is one of the largest cities in Nigeria and is the capital of Kwara State. As of 2007 it had a population of 847,582.-History:Ilorin was founded by the Yoruba, one of the three largest ethnic groups in Nigeria, in 1450...

, Zaria
Zaria
Zaria may refer to:*Zaria, a city in Kaduna State, Nigeria*Zaria , or Zoria, the Slavic goddess of beauty*Countess Zaria of Orange-Nassau, Jonkvrouwe van Amsberg, a member of the Dutch royal family...

, Jos
Jos
Jos is a city in the Middle Belt of Nigeria.The city has a population of about 1.5 million residents. Popularly called "J-town" or "Jesus Our Saviour" by the residents, it is the administrative capital of Plateau State....

, and Katsina
Katsina
Katsina is a city , and a Local Government Area in northern Nigeria, and is the capital of Katsina State. Katsina is located some 160 miles east of the city of Sokoto, and 84 miles northwest of Kano, close to the border with Niger. As of 2007, Katsina's estimated population was 459,022...

 in the north; Port Harcourt, Calabar
Calabar
Calabar is a city in Cross River State, southeastern Nigeria. The original name for Calabar was Atakpa, from the Jukun language....

, and Onitsha
Onitsha
Onitsha is a city, a commercial, educational, and religious center and river port on the eastern bank of the Niger river in Anambra State, southeastern Nigeria....

 in the East; and Abeokuta
Abeokuta
Abeokuta is the largest city and capital of Ogun State in southwest Nigeria and is situated at , on the Ogun River; 64 miles north of Lagos by railway, or 81 miles by water. As of 2005, Abeokuta and the surrounding area had a population of 593,140....

, Warri, and Ijebu-Ode in the West. Each of these stations was considered a subsidiary station of a regional station. The subsidiary stations broadcast local interest programs during part of the day, and then relayed programming from their regional station during the rest of the broadcast day. National programs were broadcast from two shortwave
Shortwave
Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...

 transmitters and one mediumwave
Mediumwave
Medium wave is the part of the medium frequency radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. For Europe the MW band ranges from 526.5 kHz to 1606.5 kHz...

 transmitter located in Sogunle, near Lagos.

In late 1960, the Federal Parliament amended the NBC Ordinance to allow the sale of commercial advertisements. The first ads ran on October 31, 1961, and were broadcast from Lagos. By 1962 regional and provincial broadcasters began selling ads to local businesses. The goal of allowing radio advertisements was to help provide additional funding to NBC stations beyond that received from the government.

The Federal Parliament approved the creation of the Voice of Nigeria
Voice of Nigeria
The Voice of Nigeria is the official international broadcasting station of Nigeria.-History:Founded in 1961, the Voice of Nigeria began life as the External Service of the then Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation...

 (VON) external shortwave service in 1961. Broadcasts began on January 1, 1961 from Lagos State
Lagos State
Lagos State is an administrative division of Nigeria, located in the southwestern part of the country. The smallest in area of Nigeria's states, Lagos State is the most populous state in Nigeria and arguably the most economically important state of the country and west Africa, containing Lagos, the...

. Its initial operations were limited to two hours a day to West Africa, but by 1963 VON had expanded both its coverage and transmission times with the addition of five additional transmitters.

In April 1961, with financial assistance from the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....

 and technical assistance from the British Broadcasting Corporation, NBC began the National School Broadcasting Service in April 1961. The NBC Schools unit broadcast lessons in various school subjects for primary and secondary schools, as well as special programs for teacher training colleges. The Schools unit was based in Ibadan
Ibadan
Ibadan is the capital city of Oyo State and the third largest metropolitan area in Nigeria, after Lagos and Kano, with a population of 1,338,659 according to the 2006 census. Ibadan is also the largest metropolitan geographical area...

.

The NBC and the Broadcasting Corporation of Northern Nigeria (BCNN) were merged together in 1978 to become the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN). Mediumwave transmitters previously owned by the NBC were transferred to the individual state governments where the transmitters were located. At the same time, the states transferred shortwave transmitters to the FRCN.

In 1996, VON installed three high power transmitters at its Ikorodu
Ikorodu
Ikorodu is a city and Local Government Area in Lagos State, Nigeria. Located along the Lagos Lagoon, it shares a boundary with Ogun State. As of the 2006 Census Ikorodu had an enumerated population of 535,619.-History:...

transmitter site, allowing worldwide transmissions for the first time.

FRCN Today

FRCN's mediumwave service, Radio Nigeria, has 25 stations located throughout the country, and together with Voice of Nigeria, considers itself to have the largest radio network in Africa . In 2007, FRCN began introducing FM transmitters in some locations, and plans to begin upgrading and modernizing its shortwave and medium wave transmitters in the coming years

External links

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