Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation - (TBC)

The history of broadcasting in Tanganyika, especially TBC can be traced back to world war two. The increase demand for information on behalf of Africa population and the government‘s want to establish an effective instrument for propaganda led to first discussion about the foundation of broadcasting system in Tanganyika. Initially it was proposed to extend the existing network in Nairobi and to erect a radio transmitter in Tanganyika picking up signal from Kenya’s capital.  But on August 27^th 1942, the realization of these plans was rejected by the information office on the grounds that the resource in technical equipment available for reception was small and less than ten Africans owned receiving

 sets. Furthermore the scheme was dropped on the colonial Governments assumption that the central station would not be able to cater properly for the individual need of the territory. 

Hence it was decided to postpone the establishment of broadcasting systems for Tanganyika until the end of the war. The officials agreed that the information office should first increase the number of sets coupled with public address equipment which were capable of being heard in communal places by large numbers.

 

The plans were put aside again after the Second World War due to economic crisis at the time. In 1950, the Tanganyika administration entrusted W. H.  Thorneycroft, an engineer from BBC London, to conduct a survey on the feasibility of an own radio station for territory. Thorneycroft suggested that a modest service for Dar es Salaam should be started on trial basis, with grants from the colonial development and welfare funds amount to 11,320 starling pounds.  The experimental broadcasting stations named “Sauti ya Dar es Salaam” come into operation on July 1^st 1951. It was put under the social Development department which was headed by C. A. l. Richards.

 

However at the very beginning, Sauti ya Dar es Salaam broadcast for only one hour per week in Swahili, with the program repeated twice a week. All transmissions were devised under the general control of the social development department and the station was supplied with daily news bulletin from public relations department. Nevertheless there was only small audience since the price for small receiving set available; a South African made “Saucepan special” was 8 starling pounds. It was estimated that merely 1,000 people were listening to the programs then.

 

In February 1952, a Marconi medium –wave transmitter was added to the equipment in use, and subsequently the air time was increased to one hour per day in the evenings. To know to what extent the radio was effective, the social Development department proposed to set up 30 communal listening places.

 

During 1953 the program was extended to three hours daily, two hours in Swahili and one in English. Furthermore morning transmission for school was introduced at experimental stages. An officer from the department of education was transferred to work at Sauti ya Dar es Salaam. To enable the radio to work properly, one African and two Europeans went to BBC London for training on programmes production.

 

From March 1^st to April 30^th 1954, the first regular school broadcasts went on air, supplying programs for middle school, secondary school and teachers training centres. Total education air time came to five hours per week which was shared among the already mentioned school broadcasts, the English teaching program “sema kiingereza” and Swahili by Radio. On those days the reception was already good in coastal towns such as Tanga, Lindi, Mtwara and Mombasa in Kenya, as well as Arusha, kongwa, Nachingwea and Mbeya.

 

TANGANYIKA

BROADCASTING SERVICE

In 1955, Sauti ya Dar es Salaam was transformed into a governmental department named Tanganyika Broadcasting Service (TBS). The station moved to Pugu Road (Today’s Nyerere Road) on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam where new premises had been built. Equipped with a 20 KW medium-wave transmitter, which was the most powerful in east Africa by that time, TBS gained an almost territory-wide coverage and reception reports were received from countries as distant as Japan, Finland and News Zealand.  In addition the station had been provided with few offices, two studios, control room, a small records library and a mobile recording apparatus. The service was on air for eight hours. During school terms, educative programmes were broadcast from 8.30 to 10.30 am.

 

Simultaneously, the audience increased rapidly, 7,523, receiving set were licensed only in 1955. Another 200 receiving sets were distributed to middle school, secondary school and teacher training centres in order to enable the 17, 000 students to listen to school programmes which had already becomes an establishing feature of education system in Tanganyika. Moreover, 16 community listening points in Dar es Salaam and the larger up-country towns were maintained by social Development Department.

 

 TANGANYIKA BROADCASTING CORPORATION

July 1^st 1956, the Tanganyika Broadcasting Corporation, known as TBC, came into being. TBC was independent of government, but this nominal status guaranteed little autonomy. The board of the corporation consisted of a non official chairman, two official and five non-official members of whom three were African, one European and one

 

Asia. All of them were appointed by the governor of Tanganyika. In addition, it was decided that more than half of the members of corporation may be persons holding office of emolument under the crown. A further indication for the TBC’s dependence was that the station recurrent expenditure was met by government grant of 50,000 to which small revenues from announcement and royalties on gramophone records were added.

 

In 1957 it was estimated that 80,000 radio set were in use obviously enough to introduce an annual license fee of 10 s per radio receiver. Furthermore grant of 20,000 starling pounds from colonial development and welfare funds was approved for the acquisition of second shortwave transmitter  (10 KW)and another medium wave transmitter (1 ¼ KW). The amount of 5,000 starling pounds needed to acquire new equipment was supplied by the administration; the total air time was increased from 27 to 37 hours per week. About 70% of the programmes were broadcasting in Swahili. TBC was provided with world news from London based Swahili service which had been lunched on June 27^th 1957.  Daily local news bulletin in English were obtained from the Tanganyika standards.

 

In May 1958, Thomas W, Chalmers a BBC officer was appointed the first director of broadcasting. Charmers, who was responsible in developing Nigerian broadcasting corporation (NBC), become the chief executive of the board and his main duty was to exercise day to day control over the affair of the corporation.

 

At the end of 1959, a short wave transmitter of 10kw and a medium wave 1¼ KW was installed. This made it possible to broadcast two programmes at the same time. The national programmes in Swahili and another programme for English speaking listeners. The first programme was in air in the morning from 6.15 to 8.00, at noon from 12.00 – 1.30, and in the even from 4.30 to 10.15. The second programme, which was mainly relay in taped material and foreign source with an emphasis on Tanzania news, was transmitted from 12.00 noon to 2.00 pm and from 7.00pm to 10.15 pm. Moreover the channel broadcasted daily programmes for the Asian listeners from 6.30 to 7.00 pm. These Asian programmes alternated between Hindustani and Gujerat

 

In July 1^st 1960, the TBC instituted its own news service, and the

Tanganyika standards did no longer supply the station with daily bulletins although news was still purchased from the paper on the agency basis. For international reports, the TBC continued to rely on BBC programmes both in English and Swahili.

 

Hence on the eve of independence, broadcasting in Tanganyika had already achieved some remarkable results. First, three short wave transmitters ensured nearly country wide coverage, and two medium waves transmitters served the capital and its surroundings. Second, 94 of 123 people employed by the station were well trained Africans who were at ease with the operation of the broadcasting systems. Third, transmission to school had passed the experimental stage and was on air for 16 weeks of the year. Altogether, 207 hours were broadcast to schools in 1960. Finally, it is estimated that nearly 500,000 people were listening to the station regularly.

 

RADIO

TANZANIA DAR ES SALAAM (RTD)

The broadcasting policy of RTD was determined by TANU’s Mass Media Committee which was presided over by Minister Wakil. At the time of Arusha Declaration (1967), almost all people in Tanzania were able to listen to the National Radio (RTD). But as time went on, people’s interest in RTD diminished and they started to tune in to other foreign radio stations like BBC, VOA, Voice of Kenya (VOK), and many others. This was because RTD concentrated much on the educational programmes like adult education and the also to educate the people on the policies of Ujamaa na Kujitegemea (Socialism and Self Reliance). Another reason was because most of the programmes that were broadcasted were educational, which mostly incorporated political contents reflecting the philosophy of socialism and self reliance and people wanted to be entertained, so they tuned in other stations which were providing entertainment. Some of the broadcasts could not be heard at daytime, this also was among the reasons that RTD lost its listeners.

In 1970, RTD made the following resolutions in regards to its broadcasting policies:

• To review it’s objectives
• To redefine it’s broadcasting policy
• To reorganize its structure and activities in accordance with the TANU and government’s objectives.

When one looks at the policies, it is relevant to say that what RTD was doing was exactly what the government wanted it to do. It was used as a government’s mouthpiece to propagate the policy of Socialism and self reliance.

 

The plan to implement these resolutions was completed later that year and was presented and approved in the parliament by the Minister of Information and Broadcasting Hon. Jacob Namfua. This plan had a severe effect on the running of RTD because it stated that RTD was a party and government instrument with the prime concern of mobilizing the masses to participate in the policy of socialism and self reliance. This brought about an overall change of radio programmes as well as news reports. For most of the programmes were directed towards the information on the meaning and what the socialism and self reliance was all about. RTD was also expected by the government to; defend the nation’s independence and integrity, enhance the building of socialism and self reliance, participate in the liberation of Africa, maintain African unity, follow a non aligned policy and maintain world peace and justice.

 

TAASISI YA UTANGAZAJI TANZANIA (TUT)

The Public Services Broadcasting Reform has taken place all over the world as the result of political, economical, cultural and technological changes occurred over the last 10 years in the world. Public broadcasting was forced to re-examine its purpose, its nature, and its mission. From the close of the Second World War until the late 1970’s, public broadcasting organisations had stood in powerful, resilient opposition to commercial systems, and they dominated the cultural geology of the societies from which they had been formed.

 

In the 1990’s, the African media were poised on the brink of change. Much government-controlled African broadcasting was decentralized as multiparty democracy gave way to greater freedom and created a demand for more accountable institutions.

 

In Tanzania, there has been Public Service Reform Programme aimed at improving quality, efficiency and effectiveness of services and performance through out the public service on continuous and sustainable basis. This resulted in the establishment of Taasisi ya Utangazaji Tanzania (TUT) on 12^th June 2004 following the merger of Radio Tanzania Dar Es Salaam (RTD) and Televisheni ya Taifa (TVT). The exercise brought Radio and Television broadcasting under one management. When TUT failed to perform according to what was expected over the short period of time, the turn around strategy was formulated. The TUT turn around strategy was aimed at turning the organisation into a truly public broadcaster, accountable to the public through its programmes whilst embracing quality, impartially, broad coverage and accessibility to all stakeholders. Hence in March 2006 TUT was changed to become TBC, and Radio Tanzania Dar es salaam as one of TBC affiliate was renamed TBC Taifa.

 

TBC was officially launched in May 2008 by His Excellency Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, the president of Tanzania. TBC is a public broadcaster which aims at expanding the use of Kiswahili language in the Sub Saharan Africa, to broadcast news impartially as well as reaching the multitude in all parts of the country.

 

TBC has four channels, TBC 1, TBC Taifa, TBC FM, and TBC International.

TBC 1 is the television channel. TBC Taifa is the former general service of RTD (Idhaa ya Taifa), TBC FM is the former PRT and the new English channel TBC International.