The National Communication Authority (NCA) has backtracked that frequencies of radio stations that were shut down may lose the frequency they were transmitting on before their closure.

This follows a revelation by NCA’s Acting Head of Engineering Division, Edmund Yirenkyi Fianko, that frequencies of defunct radio stations are not guaranteed even though their operation licenses have been approved.

Using Radio Gold as an example, he told Samson Lardy Anyenini, the host of JoyNews’ Newsfile, that there is no guarantee the broadcast station will get its frequency back now that it has been given a license to operate.

However, the Authority’s Director-General, Joseph Anokye, even before the show ended, sent a text message assuring all broadcast stations who had their license revoked that their transmitting frequency will not be changed.

On Tuesday, October 12, 2021, the Authority’s Governing Board approved some 133 stations to operate under certain conditions.

Amongst them were Accra-based Radio Gold 90.5 FM and Radio XYZ 93.1 FM, which were shut down in May 2019.

Officials of the NCA stormed the stations’ premises with armed security personnel while they were on-air and ordered their immediate closure.

They were then handed letters detailing the reasoning behind the order while asking them to re-apply for a license if they wished to operate as Frequency Modulation (FM) radio stations.

Two years down the line, the Authority says it is ready to grant them broadcasting authorization “subject to the applicants attending a sensitisation workshop on the terms and conditions of FM radio broadcasting authorisations.”

In a statement dated October 12, the NCA explained that the “provisional authorisations shall be issued to the successful applicants at the end of the workshop and frequencies shall be assigned to the applicants only upon the fulfilment of the conditions of the Provisional Authorisation.”

The Authority, however, cautioned stations broadcasting without permits to desist from the act or incur their wrath in pursuance of Section 2(4) of the Electronic Communications Act, 2008, Act 775.