The two media houses owned and managed by Bauchi state government—Bauchi State Television Authority BATV and especially Bauchi Radio Corporation (BRC) have earned a notorious name—Tashar a gafarce mu.
Literally referring to the repeated apologies by Duty Continuity Announcers/On Air Personalities, whenever the station(s) go off air during transmission, the two stations have become comatose.
This is occasioned by dearth of equipment following years of neglect by the government of Bauchi State, which owns them. The hope of the stations for revival, on the current governor Bala Muhammad being a journalist, may be a mirage, as the administration has not indicated any commitment to rescue them.
Of the two stations, Bauchi Radio Corporation suffers the most, as its two main channels can no longer cover even one fifth of the 20 local government areas of the state. Established since 1978, the Bauchi Radio Corporation has AM and FM arms, broadcasting 18 and half hours daily before the deterioration of its equipment.
The AM arm of the station is currently grounded, while the FM is operating on a weak transmitter bought 19 years ago during the tenure of Ahmed Mu’azu, the then governor who later became the PDP national Chairman during Good luck Jonathan’s administration.
The transmitter of the grounded AM station of the BRC was of HARRIS brand that has since closed the production line of such transmitter, making it impossible for the station to get the spare parts to fix its already worn out and outdated HARRIS transmitter.
When WikkiTimes visited the Yelwa station of the BRC where its transmitters are housed, the frustrations on the face of Egr Habibu Abdullahi who was sighted battling to fix the transmitter was glaring. The obsolete equipment that seems “irreparable” appeared to have compounded the nightmares of Egr. Abdullahi who told this medium that; “BRCs’ problems are my own problems, because I have been part of the BRC family since the days of Tatari Ali.
Eng Habibu who took the reporter round some of the outdated facilities says the management of the station had no choice than to resort to buying road side equipment to manage its studios; “because the equipment are no longer in the market”, he says.
The BRC’s problems are not only compounded by outdated transmitters and obsolete equipment, its standby generators at both Yelwa and Ahmadu Bello are “old, weak and fuel guzzlers”.
The station must have the standby generators functioning at both Yelwa and Ahmadu Bello sites simultaneously.
The consistent power failure which has become the norm in Nigeria usually force the generators to work for longer hours, and as a result they normally overheat and had to force the management to stop transmissions until they become cool. That explains why the BRC is only transmitting for 11 hours instead of the 18 and half hours it used to.
Engr Habibu said “the transmitters are heavy machines that do not tolerate low voltage of electricity so if the voltage is low, it compounds the problem for the transmitter just as if the power is high, that also becomes a problem”.
Upon entry into the BRC, one could notice that the problems of the station are not only restricted to old transmitters, weak and outdated equipment and shortage of manpower, the wreck cars; Peugeot station wagon, Chevrolet Saloon car, and the Toyota bus used in transporting duty staff are old bangers that keep aging and reducing in quality when their services are mostly needed.
Programs running on AM now shifted to FM station
The sacked AM station of the BRC has significant cost on programs, audience reach and on advertisement. For instance, more than 10 different programs that were running on the AM station have to be transferred to the FM arm “which is further stretching the already outdated and insignificant equipment on the FM arm of the BRC” a staff of the station who pledges anonymity told this medium.
He said programs like “maji ma gani, Yau da Gobe, all news programs, all sponsored programs, all religious programs and all adverts on the AM have been moved to the FM station of the BRC.
The station, he said is overstretched and the number of programs aired on the FM has tripled “since the AM arm was grounded. “Remember the number of listeners who prefers the AM station of the BRC is twice that of the FM because of the perception that FM station is for youths who prefer musical or entertainment programs.
The staff who is familiar with the listenership of the two stations says “there are many of our listeners that are completely excluded from news and entertainment and above all, from knowing the activities of government, because they don’t listen to the FM station—in fact some of them do not even know that the FM station exists.”
The Managing Director of the BRC, Alhaji Sirajo Maaji had also conceded that the inability of the AM station to function has forced the station to move many programs to the FM arm, including sponsored programs.
No employment since 2009 despite yearly retirement
Again, the BRC is not only affected by dearth of equipment or thirst for modernization, it is significantly affected by inadequate staff, forcing the station to rely on casual staff to produce and air programs.
For instance, the last time the BRC employed staff was in 2009 during the administration of former governor Isa Yuguda.
Despite consistent retirement of staff yearly at the BRC, no new employment has been done since 2009, forcing the station to rely on 170 casual staff and 30 volunteers producing programs for the mother stations and the 10 additional community radio stations spread across the 20 LGAs of the state.
The BRC which has 135 staff on its payroll is still facing eminent challenges in manpower “since most of the staff are sent to work at our community radio stations, which implies that we have to rely on our casual staff to produce programs.
“In fact most of our staff in the newsroom are currently managing our community radio stations, which has further depleted the number of newsroom staff that are supposed to work for the mother station”, the staff familiar with the internal running of the station had told me.
“And remember, the station is over 37 years, most of the staff are as old as the station, they are retiring every year and there is no new employment, therefore the problems of the BRC are predictable”, he emphatically added .
Some casual staff work for 15 yrs without being employed; paid between N3,000 to N5,000 monthly
The casual staff working with the BRC are also not without their own pains. Many of them have worked for over 15 years without being absorbed as full staff under government payroll.
Some have left in frustration to other media houses having spent many years with the BRC without being employed.
The 15 years put in as casual staff is averagely about 42.8 percent time of the entire civil service career. The over 170 casual staff are paid between N3,000 to N5,000 as monthly emoluments “and I can assure you that 80 percent of the programs produced and aired at all channels of the BRC are produced by us” one of the casual staff who pleaded for anonymity told WikkiTimes in frustration.
He said the management of the corporation for not making a case for the casual staff to get employed, a claim, the Managing Director of the BRC, Sirajo Maaji refuted.
“Everywhere we go, ours is to present a case for them, but we are not the one to employ them. “Even as I’m talking to you, the time you called my line, I was with the Chairman, Tafawa Balewa LGA, Barrister Kefas Magaji, because there are some that are working with the BRC at LGA levels, so if they employ them, they are reducing the burden on us” he said.
Sirajo Maaji says, “the permanent staff are putting their retirement and there is no replacement, and we need to transmit, and with this large number of radio stations, we need to transmit, we have no option than to go with the casual staff”, he added.
The problems nerve wrecking the BRC are almost similar with its sister TV station, the Bauchi State Television Authority (BATV).
The BATV has a total of 87 staff and 30 casual workers producing programs. The station’s equipment are equally in terrible condition. For instance, BATV was transmitting on a 40 kilowatt transmitter, but had to resort to a 5 kilowatt transmitter which only spread signals of the station within Bauchi metropolis.
Like the BRC, the BATV did not also make any employment in the last 15 years despite yearly retirement of its personnel.
Despite challenges, state govt did not approve digitization proposals for BRC and BATV
The managers of BATV and the BRC during ministerial briefings in the buildup to budget preparations for 2020 in December, 2019 had presented various estimates that were supposedly meant to digitize the two media outfits.
The BRC presented an estimated N600 million proposal while the BATV presented an estimated N1.1 billion to help it go digital.
All the two proposals were not captured on the revised and approved budget despite repeated pledges and promises made by the state governor Bala Mohammed in the buildup to the election and of recent, during a retreat organized for top government officials at the Bauchi state university, Gadau.
The Governor during the retreat says, “unfortunately, the Bauchi state Radio Corporation and Bauchi state Television are now broadcasting with obsolete and archaic equipment. “Consequently, in keeping with global trend of digital broadcasting, we are embarking on the digitization of the two media houses”, a promise that is highly unlikely in view of details in the budget.
The overall recurrent and overhead cost for the BRC in the approved 2020 budget is puts at N239,286,764 and N 123,500,000 respectively.
The BATV’s recurrent and overhead allocations for the 2020 is N135,510,618 and N53,150,000 respectively.
The 2020 approved budget did not also make provisions for the over 170 casual staff and 30 volunteers producing programs for the mother stations and the 10 community radio stations, it rather allocated a paltry N465,204 for domestic staff allowance.
Despite the inability of the state government to properly fund and digitize the media houses, the state governor Bala Mohammed during the recent retreat says additional 10 community radio stations will be added to the existing ones to make them 20.
That means every LGA in Bauchi state will have one community radio, a development many media spectators say is very difficult to be sustained.
When contacted on the 2020 budget that fails to future digitization of the media houses despite repeated promises by the state governor to digitize the media houses, the state commissioner of Information and Communication, Alhaji Garba Dahiru said “I’m appointed newly into the ministry, I need time to study the budget”.
