Radio Gold, Radio XYZ closed down

Two radio stations affiliated to the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) – Radio Gold and Radio XYZ – have been taken off the air yesterday.

It comes after officials of the National Communications Authority (NCA) and some police personnel stormed the premises of  Radio Stations.

Some workers of  Radio XYZ have confirmed that the police team led by the NCA officials stormed their offices to effect the closure.

The development came in the wake of the invitation by the CID to the NDC National Chairman Samuel Ofosu Ampofo to help in the investigation some recent crimes in the country.

Meanwhile, the NCA has in a statement said it was shutting down stations that had defaulted in renewing their licenses.

“Radio stations operating without valid authorisations as determined by the 2017 FM Broadcasting Audit are being shut down with immediate effect as enforcement action in view of the decision of the Electronic Communications Tribunal.

“Following the FM Spectrum Audit in 2017, some stations were found to be in default and were fined by the Authority.  However, some of the stations in default were not satisfied and proceeded to the various courts; Electronic Communications Tribunal (ECT) and the High Court to appeal against the NCA’s decision.

“This resulted in a decision by the ECT in 2018 which reviewed the status of expired FM Radio Broadcasting Authorisations and which ruled among others that companies whose authorisations had expired reverted to the same position as a fresh applicant. While some stations shut down following this decision, others did not,” the statement said.

 –Starrfm.com