The rebranded and upgraded ANSA McAL radio station – MIX FM – can now reach about 90 per cent of the Guyanese population with the expansion of their service to Linden.
This is according to the station’s Technical Manager Shameer Ali, who said that their transmission system has been built around a high quality state-of-the-art equipment layout.
He said that this starts with what is known in the radio broadcast industry as the “Rolls-Royce” of transmitters – the GatesAir transmitter. From there, he said, they procured what they could call “the Ferrari or the Mercedes of antennas” – the ERI antenna.
“This entire system is powered by what we call a dielectric remote controlled system. Our technical team spent many months designing our transmission networks to maximise coverage in every square inch of our licensed zones that being the primary zone one [and] secondary zones three and four,” Ali said.
He explained that the process involved hundreds of computer simulations using various transmission systems and location combinations, as well as location scouting. The final design consists of three transmitter locations in Georgetown (90.1FM), Berbice (91.5FM) and now in Linden (103.3FM). This, he said, will allow the station to be heard by approximately 90 per cent of the Guyanese population or over 618,000 persons, an ability he claimed that no other radio station in the country has.
“To roll out our Berbice relay transmission, we partnered with E-Networks. We also partnered with Digicel to roll out our Linden relay transmission system which has been on air for the past 24 days on uninterrupted broadcast. It is important to establish that while these are three separate frequencies, they are all fed from the same programming signal emanating from our studio right here in Georgetown,” Ali said.
He added that the system was carefully designed to ensure very reliable operations with main and standby systems and built in modular redundancies in each transmitter. They will also have full remote access so that they can control and monitor all the systems.
“We did not stop there. To have consistency in our programming, we employed a reliable automation and programming software, and to tailor the sound of our network, we invested in the granddaddy of audio processing, the Omnia.9,” he said.
According to Ali, they will stay true to their chart hits-based radio station, where 95 per cent of their content is music based. And because they subscribe to a music subscription service, they have access to music that is of high quality and formatted for radio.
Also speaking at the event was Guyana National Broadcasting Authority Chairman Leslie Sobers, who complimented the station and said that they have so far demonstrated a fairly admirable level of responsibility with regards to how they do broadcasting in the country. He explained that he was informed by the Special Investigative Committee that deals with broadcasters who break the law that they have only had to call the station once which was for a minor infraction.
Sobers also urged them to ensure that there is a greater increase in local content and local music on the airwaves.
The ANSA McAL Group of Companies bought the station, formerly known as iRadio Inc, in August 2015.
