GBC at 88 so far so what?

The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, the nation’s state broadcaster, is 88 years old this month. It is a great milestone in the Ghanaian media space.

The 88th anniversary of the nation’s premier media institu­tion brings to the fore the real diagnosis of the institution, by way of its relevance, reputa­tion, prospects, leadership, and challenges.

One of the relevant issues to be looked at during this 88th year and beyond is the state of the State Broadcaster. This is key because it is the exact time for the GBC to tread in a well-de­fined route of professional and effective broadcasting delivery to the nation as per its primary objective.

GBC over the years enjoyed absolute monop­oly within the Ghanaian airwaves until the early 1990s when it was faced with severe, competition. Competition we say is very good for good reasons. One, it provides avenues for quality and excellent custom­er delivery, in this case, the production and provision of highly qualitative content for the audience.

The competition GBC faced meant that its audience then had the option to choose either to continue to listen and view its programmes or choose other stations. This was apparent about the importance for GBC because it needed to provide reassurance that had to win the largest audience share but woe­fully this was not the case.

88 years on, it is still strug­gling to keep its head above the waters. This is against the backdrop of huge experienced and professional human capital, gargantuan infrastructure around the country and governmental support the state broadcaster enjoys.

There has rather been a sub­stantial audience penetration by the other later stations into the Ghanaian broadcasting arena. For some reason, these stations, according to available statistics have a larger audience share and provide satisfactory broad­casting, even though not too professional as compared to the GBC, to the cross-section of the Ghanaian listening and viewing population.

So, what went wrong? This could be attributed to the following but not limited to governmental interferences, lead­ership, logistics, funding among many others and quite recently brain drain.

These have been the bane of the GBC, even though succes­sive governments have over the years promised to help the institution grow to be­come one of the world’s best broad­casting in­sti­tu­tions. Government interference, brings to mind, the issue of media ownership and control which in most cases provides avenues for dictatorship and editorial manipulation.

When this happens, GBC would be compelled to dance to the tune of the government and not to inward plan which apparently would lead to the loss of audience but in the broad­casting industry all is about how wide you transmit, how large is your audience, how relevant your content is to your audience and what impart you exert on society.

Governmental interference has also contributed to poor leader­ship delivery as over the years as many as 19 Director Generals have led the corporation and about seven of these were at post for as little as two years. The question is how effective the best planner can be for just two years considering such a huge institution like the GBC.

GBC is also seen to be lagging behind in the technological age of broadcasting. Equipment ap­pears so absolute and difficult to use. In today’s world of broad­casting, Artificial Intelligence. Generational Shifts, Voice-Con­trolled Devices, NextGen TV, Technology, Augment­ed Reality Graphics, Over-The-Top Technology, and Virtual Cloud Technology among others make broadcasting more exciting and viable.

Broadcasting thrives also on social media but until quite recently, GBC was not active on social media. On many occa­sions, even the GBC tune-in facility would not work, and Facebook live streaming was down. Such little mishaps turn the audience away and they may not come back, especially the au­dience who primarily patronise via the intendent.

By and large, the staff of GBC have done very well by working under such difficult conditions. Ethics professionalism and courtesy have always been their hallmark.

With only one radio station (Radio ZOY) in 1935, GBC can now boast of 18 FM stations and seven TV stations, across the country with each FM Sta­tion now broadcast in a specific local language.

With ingenuity, the role of the state broadcaster has been played very well with important functions that include influenc­ing public opinion, determining the political agenda, providing a link between the government and the people, and positively on society. Not it has not been able to do properly perhaps, is acting as a government watchdog for obvious reasons.

To date, the state broadcaster still has some pro­grammes that are as old as 30 years and over. Talking point, Adult Education among others are very old but educative and inspiring programmes are still be aired.

The GBC was set up to chiefly provide Public Service Broadcasting Ser­vices. This means that the media house is under obligation to produce and broadcast programmes which serve the public interest rather than only commercial impera­tives.

Since the 1930s when broad­casting was introduced in Ghana, it has been positioned as a service with a duty to ‘in­form, educate and entertain’ the audience as opposed to serving the commercial interests of the paymasters.

This raises the issue of fund­ing because, unlike commercial media owners, the GBC then and now is funded by the central government and, by extension, the public. The broadcasters are often funded by a license fee but can also be supported by adver­tising revenue and other sources.

Amidst this PSB also requires GBC to develop high public ser­vice broadcasting standards of availability, impartiality, and dis­interest. Again, GBC must pay undivided attention to minority interests and representation, which is the voice of the people.

This obviously has worked well with the state broadcaster, not only that it has spearheaded the use of the media in projecting national vision and culture by providing a counter-reaction to ‘vulgar mass news and entertain­ment approach of the industry.

Hardly would one hear inde­cent language in any GBC pro­gramme as is heard elsewhere. If the GBC can remain impartial and highlight minority interests as required, then much more needs to be done and here kudos goes to the current Director General who has initiated some measures to address these.

GBC must utilise its huge rich human capital to find means of raising enough income to sup­port its activities. For instance, the renowned GBC Training School could be upgraded to enrol broadcasters to be trained for fees on a larger scale as done by other international broadcast­ing organisations. This arguably would be a good regular income for the corporation and help defray most of its accumulated high debt.

It must also find other means to generate more income. GBC must grow to compete on the international scene when one day it could be in the position to for example, exploit the use of its various assets such as selling international rights to its pro­grammes, licensing programme formats, and merchandising to raise not only local capital but some form of forex.

Renowned public service broadcasting services in the United Kingdom. France and Germany among others, raise monies not only from license fees but also from advertising, and sponsorships. Public service broadcasting in America for instance is funded through a combination of donations, fund­raising activities, and payments from members of the PSB net­work. Can we be there one day? Yes, we can.

Kudos to, the management and staff of GBC. Posterity will forever remember you for at least helping to keep this nation­al asset running.

BY NANA SIFA TWUM (PHD)