The Gambia Radio & Television Service is the national broadcaster of the West African state of

the Gambia The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the List of African countries by area, smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for ...

. Gambia Radio & Television Service currently broadcasts in English and native local languages.

History

The history of GRTS stems from the

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

of the older and more established Radio Gambia and the rather recent Television Channel. Radio Gambia was the first media broadcaster in the Gambia, opened in 1962. Its historical base is

Bakau Bakau is a town on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Gambia, Gambia, west of Gambia's capital city of Banjul. It is known for its botanical gardens, its crocodile pool ''Bakau Kachikally'' and for the beaches at Cape Point (Gambia), Cap ...

(a town in the Gambia). In December 1995, GRTS was commissioned by the Gambian government which began test transmissions under the Gambia Telecommunications Company (Gamtel), using a 5KW transmitter in Abuko. Then, it adopted its own television channel. The Station operates as a

public service A public service or service of general (economic) interest is any service intended to address the needs of aggregate members of a community, whether provided directly by a public sector agency, via public financing available to private busin ...

station based on the tradition of Radio Gambia. Up until broadcasts started, viewers relied on Senegalese television, where 75% of its programming was in English, yet few people understood the language and the news attracted the viewers more. Thanks to a joint URTNA-CFI collaboration, the station carried

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in ...

and the

1996 Summer Olympic Games The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

, followed by the installation of two transmitters in August 1996 (5KW and 2KW) enabling the television signals to be received nationwide. The Station's programmes are mostly news, public service announcements, education, entertainment and religious related (

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

and

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

only, mostly Islam and nothing on

Traditional African religion The beliefs and practices of African people are highly diverse, and include various ethnic religions.Encyclopedia of African Religion (Sage, 2009) Molefi Kete Asante Generally, these traditions are oral rather than scriptural and are passed do ...

Awards

In 2010, the station was awarded the ''National Order of the Republic of the Gambia'' with the rank of commander.

The Daily Observer ''The Daily Observer'' is a newspaper published in Bakau in Banjul, the Gambia. The paper, Gambia's first daily newspaper,Gabriel I. H. Williams, ''Liberia: the heart of darkness'', Trafford Publishing, 2002, p.333 was founded by Mae Gene and K ...

National Award recipients approved

Notes

External links

Official site
Television stations in the Gambia 1995 establishments in the Gambia Radio stations established in 1962 Television channels and stations established in 1995 State media Publicly funded English language broadcasters {{Africa-tv-station-stub