HISTORY OF Borno Radio Television (BRTV)

BY
Abdulmalik Grema Mustapha
Group B project
The station started as a provincial Broadcasting station in 1957
for relaying programmes from the defunct N.B.C Kaduna and
Lagos. At that time, it had total of only one hour of broadcasting
of local programmes. Thus it was then seen just as a relaying
station for most of its programmes from 5.30 to 11.00pm daily
on the medium wave (MV)

In 1970, a short wave transmitter (SW) was installed giving the

station a more powerful transmitting capacity. Consequently the
station was allowed to run more local programmes but had to
relay Network News, Educational programmes and other
important National programmes.

In April 1979, the Federal Military Government through decree

No 8 1979 abolished the former N.B.C stations and established
the federal Radio corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) with effect
from April 1978, the same decree also handed over the former
NBC station to their governments in all the then nineteen (19)
states.
As result of that, in 1980 the board of Governors approved the
change of name of the corporation to Borno Radio
Corporation(BRC).
In August 1983, the state Government set-up a state Television
Station known as Borno state Television(BRTV) to transmit on
1KW UHF Transmitter.

The General Manager of the corporation was then appointed as

the Administrative Manager to oversee the take-off of the
Television Station.

The Radio and Television services were operated separately

until 1984when an edict was promulgated to merge the two
organizations to be known as Borno Radio Television
Corporation(BRTV) with staff strength of 330.

RADIO SERVICE
At that time in history, the radio station has five (5) Transmitter
located at Gubio and Baga Roads. At that time it broadcasts for
19 hours from 5.00am to 12.00mid-night. With time all the
Transmitters become old and non-functional.
As of the early 1990s, the only functional Transmitter was the
FM Transmitter whose reception was limited to some parts of
the state capital instead of the whole state. This unfortunate
scenario forced the military Government to procure two(2) New
50 KWs solid state Transmitters in January 1996 and were
supplied in November of the same year, but could not be
installed by the
successive administration to data.
TELEVISION ARM
The Television started transmission on a 1kw UHF Transmitter
on the Channel 38 in 1983 up to 1991. At its peak the transmitter
which was serving only the state capital has since grounded.

This informed the decision of the then military Government to

award contract for the supply and installation of a 10Kilowatts
transmitter (VHF channel 8) in 1991.this transmitter is the one
the station is using to date.

OPERATIONS
The station mostly runs its services on Government, it has a
number of serviceable Generator sets, and it has the following
departments.

News and Current Affairs

Programme
Engineering
Marketing
Administration
Supply and Accounts
Finance.
.