The Public Broadcaster, GBC is appealing to government to provide funding to enable it to carry out it’s mandate diligently and provide quality content to the public.
The Deputy Director of Human Resource, Abdul – Razak Tahiru, in an interview disclosed that despite its achievements, GBC is burdened with numerous challenges @ 84, such as technical issues and under staffing in the core departments especially the news department.
He said the inability of GBC to live up to expectation has resulted in public apathy in payment of the TV License fee.
Mr Tahiru said this coupled with the challenge of generating revenue is draining the Corporation. He appealed to government for financial clearance to recruit and replace staff who have either retired, resigned or passed on.
Established on July 31, 1935 by the Colonial Governor Sir Arnold Hodson, the Broadcasting Service was originally known as ZOY which championed the cause of the then colonial government and was renamed the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation after independence in 1957.
Historically it has been independent of the government Information Services Department since its establishment to serve the general public.
The purpose for the relay service was to bring News, Entertainment and Music into the homes of all and sundry, bring to an end the barriers of isolation and ignorance in the path of progress and also to enable the people of Gold Coast to improve on their very rich cultural music.
The Broadcasting Service was housed in a small bungalow on 9th Road near the Ridge Police Station in Accra with eight technicians and broadcasting begun in four Ghanaian languages, namely Twi, Ga, Fanti, Ewe, and later Hausa.
Part-time staff were engaged to translate and announce the news in these languages until 1943 when full-time staff were appointed. It was administered by the Public Relations Department, now the Information Services Department.
GBC currently has five digital channels namely GTV for programmes, GBC News solely for news, GTV Sports plus for sports activities, GTV Life for religion and culture and Obonu TV serving the Ga cultural. It operates Radio Ghana FM staions accross the country.
GBC throughout these years has been able to serve its listeners with authentic content and striving to perform better.
It has also come a long way producing competent and skillful media personnel to both the public and most private media organization.
The Deputy Director of Human Resource Abdul-Razak Tahiru noted that despite the Corporations achievements, the major challenge is funding and asked government to as a matter of urgent use the laid down regulations guiding TV Licensing Act 1966 (NLCD 89) as amended that mandates GBC to collect the TV licence fee to enable it resource the corporation.
He also called on for financial clearance to replace retired staff to maintain standards.
He urged Ghanaians to trust and continue to listen to the public broadcaster as the Corporation is working hard to improve its contents and will continue to serve the the interest of the public.