The University of Guyana Center for Communication Studies on Thursday launched the 95.5 FM Intelligent Radio Station at the Turkeyen Campus.
It is aimed at facilitating the Journalism programme at the university to train students in broadcast.
Minister of Public Telecommunication, Cathy Hughes said that the radio station should fill the gaps in producing quality broadcasters.
She said the lack of a training facility may have been the problem for not producing broadcast at a high level.
“Today UG’s Communication Centre is bridging that gap and this station will provide the practical on-the-job experience every good journalist needs,” the Minister said.
She encouraged professionalism when broadcasting on the campus airwaves.
“I’ve noted that this is the ‘Intelligent Radio’, it is my hope that on these airwaves we will find balance in reporting, the sharing of both sides of a story, the understanding and acceptance of varying perspective of an issue, that objectivity and fairness will be the mantra, that fact checks and double-checks before they are aired and that fake news that dominates today might be reduced,” the Minister said.
Director for the Centre for Communication Studies, Denise Hopkinson-Braam said the radio station is a dream come through.
The Director said it is a non-profit and non-commercial community-based radio station.
“The University of Guyana is poised and ready to be able to help our communities surrounding us. We are ready to provide fit and proper content for our airwaves, educational and entertaining content with people who sound like Guyanese, we are ready to celebrate our own cultures, we are ready to educate our communities,” Hopkinson-Braam said.
Chairman of the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority, Leslie Sobers encouraged the radio station to broadcast more local content.
“I know that we are going to be the forerunners in terms of real local content. We do have some amount of local content but I have a difficult time trying to persuade broadcasters to give Guyanese more of our local content,” the Chairman said.
According to Sobers, they have not yet achieved 30% of air time being dedicated to local content.
ExxonMobil, the University of Guyana and the University’s Alumni funded the radio station to the tune of about $6M.
The 300 watts radio station with a 10-mile radius reach will be broadcasting education, entertainment, history and current affairs on Mondays to Fridays from 5pm to 9am for the first six months and then from 10am to 9pm and on weekends.
