Next up is Kenya. CaK is already studying the process there. Expect the nairobi radio market to open up soon. Getting that analogue radio licence in Nairobi is harder than striking oil.
Analogue radio frequency by nature are a limited resource. Only a few can be issued otherwise they will be so close to each other, thus causing interference will be inevitable I.e 101.5 and 101.9 etc. Secondly they have been issued under the table between 90’s and 2000’s. A lot of former politicians hold them unused or rented out to current stations. Let Radio frequency spectrum be digitized and freed up for all new/old players. From 30 stations currently to over 100 in Nairobi. Since it will be digital then interferences will not be possible and many can be issued. There are a lot of digital tuners out there so the consumers would not be affected. All digital t.v’s can pick them clearly.
SK Macharia really benefited from liberalization of airwaves after Kibaki came to power. His company has too many frequencies, mpaka there is a time he deliberately jammed Radio Africa’s Kiss and Classic signals after they poached kina Titi Nagwala and Samboja.
But FM signal isiwe switched off because there are some remote places in Kenya that are not even adequately covered by telecommunication or broadcast services.
It can be done in phases, in remote area it can even be done by digital receives that also get satellite feeds. Its very cheap to host them on satellite only that few have the receivers.
Yes, he got TV & Radio licence under Nyayo. However they were for Nairobi only. Sometime in 2003 he walked into CaK with Mary wambui on tow. He asked DG then to give them a brief of unused frequencies in the country. That time she was very powerful. The list was provided. She told DG to assign them to Macharia. The letter was written and he walked out with almost 30-50 frequencies. Soon nation did the same and lastly radio Africa. Each got a dozen. That’s how the media owners association become the media cartel. Between them and former President Moi own standard media own 70% of radio frequencies in Kenya. KBC own the other 20% and the rest 10%. They fought TV digital migration and the same is expected on radio. The price is billions in advertising revenue a year.
Some of the digital radio receivers in the market currently. Simple, small and familiar. The only change is that you don’t turn a knob but use a button to search for your favourite station.
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