The Linden Television Station has started broadcast tests and is set to begin transmitting on Channel 13 in that region soon.
“There were tests done on Monday and it reached all the way to Adventure,” a source close to the station told Stabroek News on Tuesday.
However, the official preferred for the board to make a formal announcement on the broadcast.
Chairman of the Guyana National Broad-casting Authority (GNBA) Lenno Craig on Tuesday told this newspaper that while he was not aware of the tests being undertaken, the station was cleared to begin broadcasting whenever it chooses. “They will notify us of their actions in due course, however there are no impediments if they turned on now,” he said.
Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, in early February, announced that the television station was expected to be up and running on the National Communications Network’s Channel 13 frequency.
Although up to late last week all technical mechanisms remained in place to facilitate transmission from the station, wrangling between the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) and the Board of Trustees of Region 10 Broadcasting Inc. (RBI) had left the launch in limbo.
The dispute erupted over the special purpose company set up to operate the station and the RDC’s expectation that it would control the station.
Nagamootoo had visited Linden and held a stakeholder consultation at the Watooka House, where he reaffirmed the APNU+AFC coalition’s commitment to ensuring that the region has its own television station in the shortest time possible.
As the person responsible for the information sector, the Prime Minister used the consultation exercise to address the issue and others raised by stakeholders.
He had urged all stakeholders to work towards finding common ground so that the television station can be returned to the community in short order and the matter concluded to the satisfaction of all parties, the Government Infor-mation Agency (GINA) had reported.
On April 8th, a meeting was set up to iron out issues and set up a Board that stakeholders approved.
Former Regional Chairman Sharma Solomon had explained that the history of the Linden television station ownership goes back to the Green Construction Company gifting same to Linden and it was managed by the RDC on behalf of the people.
Subsequently, following protests and the deaths of three Linden men in 2012, an August 21, 2012 pact was signed between the region and the government and it was agreed that the dish and transmitter that were given to Linden would be given to the RDC. It was also agreed that the dish and transmitter should be transferred to the region within 14 days of the signing of the agreement. Further, it was agreed that the region would apply for a broadcasting licence and the government would facilitate the granting of that licence.
However, Solomon said since then Guyana’s broadcasting laws have evolved and now there is a Broadcasting Act which deals with the ownership of a television station and how licences are awarded, and the station could not be owned by the region. As a result, RBI was created by Solomon to meet the licence eligibility requirements.
The company initially comprised Directors who were taken from a cross-section of the Region 10 community.
They were Solomon, Sandra Vantull, Pastor Morris McKinnon and the now deceased Haslyn Parris.
However, it was agreed that the Board be expanded to include a wider cross-section of interests in the community; namely, the RDC, the Mayor & Town Council, labour, business, youth, religion, and women.
