The Daily Observer (Banjul)
Musa Ndow
21 October 2009
Members of the Board of Directors and the senior management of the Gambia Radio and Television Services (GRTS), yesterday, visited their phase II project sites in Abuko and Bonto in the Kanifing Municipality and Western Region respectively.
The senior offcials of the national broadcastercomprised of Alhaji Momodou Sanyang, the director general of GRTS; Marcel Thomas, member of the Board of GRTS; Alhaji Sereign Faye, director TV and Radio Programmes; and Bai Sanyang, director of TV engineering amongst others.
The team had their first visit to Abuko, where they inspected three forty-foot containers loaded with masks awaiting to be installed in Mansakonko, Basse and Kudang, before proceeding to the newly offloaded 100KV generator at Bonto in Western Region. Shortly after visiting the sites, Alhaji Momodou Sanyang, director general of the GRTS, expressed his satisfaction with the GRTS ongoing projects.
According to him, these were possible because of the intervention of the Gambian leader, His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, whom he saluted for his intervention in buying the equipment and supporting the institution, bringing it to where it is today. According to him, the president's intervention to acquire the equipment, enabled them to improve on their operational services.
He said the Gambian leader's intervention had not only helped them improve on their production capacity, but also enabled them save some money to get themselves some other things on the other side; such as the new generator at Bonto amongst other things. He added that the generator has been built purposely for GRTS. "I am very much grateful to the government and the Ministry of Communication, Information and Information Technology for their support," said DG Sanyang.
Marcel Thomas, a member of the GRTS Board said he was very impressed with what he had seen on the grounds and that they are gradually getting the things together that would complement the effectiveness and efficient services of the satellite broadcasting system. Thomas however expressed the Board's concern in building the technical capacities of the technical staff, so that they can take care of the equipment. "Lot of money has been spent on this equipment; when they are left to deteriorate that would be another set back and would cause GRTS to spend another huge amount of money to repair them," he pointed out.
He said they would make sure that they train their technical staff on all categories so that they are able to look at this equipment and to ensure that they are given the maximum care. He said GRTS have come a long way since the installation of the satellite project, noting that the programmes are improving, images are coming with quality and that the programme contents are also excellent.
He added that they are also trying to diversify their programmes and most importantly, try to make them more relevant to their social development. According to Bai Sanyang, director, TV engineering, the equipment was part of the Phase II of the GRTS satellite project. He said the GRTS satellite system has a global coverage, and that it covers Africa, Asia, Europe and America.
He then assured that the new equipment would be installed for their inland coverage, targeting Basse, Mansakonko, and also a new site that would be established in Kudang. According to him, there are two more packages in the pipeline, earmarked for Kanilai and Abuko. He said after the installation process, they would have full territorial coverage and also a radio FM coverage.
Viewers' expectationThe director of TV engineering further indicated that with the new equipement, it will greatly help GRTS viewers to get quality images and would also accord every body, even the lowest income earner to access the television. He said "with these new services, one can even watch GRTS if you don't have electricity. You might also not need satellite when you are within the country," he concluded.
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