How FM stations jostle for audience in Kano
Since the return of Nigeria to civil rule in 1999, many individuals and groups have been making efforts to take advantage of the new found press freedom to entrench transparency as well as make governments at all levels accountable to the people.
In the course of such struggle, various media outlets, both broadcast and print, have emerged across the country especially in the last decade. Even in the North which was previously thought to be lagging behind in terms of media proliferation, some of its most politically sophisticated states, like Kano, have become beneficiaries of new media establishments.
From 2003 to date, Kano State has seen the rise of broadcast media, particular radio stations which are believed to be more popular to the people considering that it requires little literacy to operate and because it mostly broadcast in Hausa, the predominant language of residents.
It is believed that the emergence of private radio stations, specifically the frequency modulation (FM), stations were inspired by the need for the common people to have their voices reflected in the political sphere.
Previously, residents usually relied on one-sided information about social, economic, political, educational and even cultural activities from the government dominated media machinery, a development that denied the populace the opportunity to express their views on issues or to question how they were being governed.
However, with the emergence of private stations like Freedom Radio, in 2003, governments began to lose their control and hegemony on public information. The station was the first to introduce programs like Ko Wace Gauta Ja Ce, a political programme that gives the opposition parties and individuals the opportunity to raise questions on public issues and criticize government policies.
The programme at one point became so fierce that it set the station against the then government of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, who was said to believe that Freedom Radio was airing biased reports against his administration.
The station’s Manager, Malam Musa Mamman, in a chat with our reporters, said the mission of the station was to give a voice to the voiceless, but nonetheless admitted that some mistakes had been made when the station was new.
“But with time, we came to learn from the errors and to ensure that our programmes are as free from libels as possible. We have made huge successes in checking libelous materials. In fact, our aim is to reduce the frequency of political violence drastically by giving a right of reply to those who feel aggrieved,” he said.
Mamman said the station, like other media organizations, relies mostly on revenues from political and product advertising for its survival. Apart from Freedom Radio, Rahma Radio is also another station that is fast becoming popular in the state. Established in August 2011, the station, owned by Hajiya Binta Sarki Mukhtar, was said to have emerged to make its contributions in reducing the stubbornly recurrent incidence of clashes between farmers and pastoralists as well as between rival political interests.
“We have noticed that some of the political programmes aired by our competitors actually intensify tensions within the society because many people are given airtimes to broadcast libelous comments against opponents,” said Malam Abubakar Aliyu Darma, the station’s head of operations.
“This is why we thought that it would be a good idea to provide an alternative platform where people can come and express their views without causing unnecessary tensions and disagreements. We also try to foster unity even between various religious groups,” he said.
He added that when Rahma Radio was first set up, there were challenges like the inability to make the station operate on its own and pay its own staff.
“The proprietor had to source for money from other businesses to fund our operations but gradually, the stations is becoming independent. We are generating advertisement modestly, which is the sole source of our revenue”, Darma said.
While Freedom Radio boasts of branches in Jigawa and Kaduna states, Rahma Radio, according to its staff has the capacity to reach audience in all the 44 local governments of Kano state as well as some parts of Kazaure, Daura, and Bauchi in Jigawa, Katsina and Bauchi states respectively.
Another popular FM station, which is quite famous with Kano metropolis, is the Wazobia FM station which is also barely two years old. Our reporter learnt that Wazobia shot to stardom through one of its flagship programmes, “Sandar Girma” (Staff of Honour), which offered a powerful critique of issues and government policies.
Strangely, it was the same programme that hurled the station in trouble last year, after it was blamed for allegedly inspiring the killings of nine female polio vaccinators a day after it offered a fierce criticism of the polio vaccine in its broadcast.
Wazobia remained closed down for much of last year after its licence was revoked by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC). But it has now re-opened, though the troublesome programme had to be ultimately shelved.
Our reporter noticed that other private stations that have also recently sprouted in the state include Express Fm, Cool FM and Dala FM, all with their distinct mission and audiences.
It was learnt that most of the stations usually engage the services of Lagos-based rating agencies in order to help them assess the level of the popularity and size of audience. Some of the rating agencies are Media Planning Service, Lagos and OMB Media Reach.
But some of the FM stations said they were suspicious of hiring rating agencies because of claims that some of the agencies are often compromised by some radio stations who want to get favourable ratings which help them to boost their revenue generation. They did not specify any agency that engages in such practice.
Sunday Trust also gathered that most of the radio stations operating in Kano are confronted with the same challenge that plagues many organizations in other parts of the country: Epileptic electricity supply.