Dear Editor,
For those unaware, let me inform them that Berbice is picking up the signals of its first FM broadcasts. FM 88.3 is broadcasting music and the transmission is very clear. This is a most pleasing and positive development for the Ancient County and is significant, especially since Berbice has been given the ‘left-overs’ treatment for years when it comes to accessing a radio station, more so an FM broadcast. FM 98.1 has been around for more than a decade, yet the station has not seen it fit to expand its signal to the Berbice area. My last conversation with the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of National Communications Network Inc (NCN), Mr Mohamed Sattaur informed me that the New Amsterdam Technical Institute (NATI) would have been embarking on some study or research into why Berbice was not receiving the signals of FM 98.1. Nothing has come out of that discussion, and the study, I believe, was never done.
Berbicians depend on the online broadcasts of FM 98.1, which are hosted online through NCN at http://www.radioguyanafm.com/radioguyana/hotfm/ and http://tunein.com/ radio/Hot-FM-981-s131675/ by an overseas group of Guyanese with a conscience like Michael Dabydeen. Any time the online broadcasts go down, I would contact Mr Dabydeen and he would assiduously try to ascertain if the fault is with NCN Guyana or with their hosting capabilities; most often the fault is with the Guyana side.
As for Voice of Guyana (VOG) and Radio Roraima (RR), both online systems have been down for months, even though the NCN website has a section for these.
But hope has finally come to Berbicians; a clear, digital-sound radio station that offers a variety of music, it seems, 24 hours a day. I would like to thank whoever is broadcasting this signal and hope that this is the first of many such initiatives for us Berbicians.
Obviously some entity has spent money and invested in some sort of system that allows its FM signals to reach Berbice, and that is a good thing.
Yours faithfully,
Leon Suseran
