Keta-based Jubilee FM taken off the air

Keta, July 28, GNA - Transmissions by the Keta-based Jubilee FM station was suspended indefinitely on Thursday by an order of the National Communications Authority (NCA), both management and industry regulator have confirmed.

The closure of the station, operated by Vision Three Company Limited, was enforced by personnel of the Keta Divisional Police after the NCA had detected that the station's transmitter was over-modulating and spreading across a wider area than authorised.

The NCA told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that the closure became necessary to compel the station to address certain technical deficiencies on their transmitter, which were made known to the operators after three inspection visits to the facility. It explained that in response to an application by the operators, the station was assigned a Frequency of 96.5 megahertz (MHz) and authorised it to do test-transmission, subject to addressing some technical deficiencies reported by an inspection team which had visited the facility.

For instance, a major deficiency identified by the inspection team was that the station's locally-assembled transmitter did not meet the standard requirements and could over modulate and lead to distortions in the airwaves.

It said this major problem had been communicated to the company on two other visits but it was not addressed. Rather, the station continued to transmit with the sub-standard equipment resulting in over modulation to 96.7MHz.

The Authority said the management was accordingly informed about the development and in an apparent attempt to correct the anomaly a technician at Jubilee FM fidgeted with the transmitter, resulting in the station also picking up 96.6MHz.

The NCA said it considered this latest development very serious and illegal because The International Telecommunication Union, which regulated the world's frequencies, allotted only odd numbers to Ghana, hence no operator in the country was to use frequencies of even numbers, such as the 96.6MHz that the station was using, hence the closure. The NCA said its last visit to the station was on July 26 2006 and was prompted by a report by the station management that Obonu FM was interfering with their transmission.

Obonu FM, a public radio service operated by the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, has been assigned 96.5MHz. The NCA said the management of Jubilee FM had held talks with the Authority and indicated their intentions to import a new transmitter in order to resume operation.

Any FM station that fails to resume transmission after two years of suspension or closure forfeits its frequency.