ELBC - A Brief History

An Overview Of The Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS) Past, Present and Future:

1. LBS’ PAST:

The history of the Liberia Broadcoasting System can be traced as far back as the latter part of the 1940’s when the late Dr. John B. West set up the first broadcasting facilities in the country known as the Eternal Love Broadcasting Corporation (ELBC). These facilities were simply operated as a hobby but ceased its operations in the early part of the 1950’s when maintenance cost of the equipment became very expensive.

In mid 1950’s, to be exact, 1956, two prominent communication experts, in persons of Mr. Samuel Watkins and Mr. Sewell T. Brewer appropriated an idle 10kw medium wave transmitter of the National Telecommunications Service and set up an amateur broadcasting station called ELRS.

The prefix “EL” is an assigned code to Liberia by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for broadcasting purpose in the country. Messrs Watkins and Brewer then sought the programming and production assistance of G. Henry Andrews and the demand of the tiny station soon outstripped its meager resources.

The instant success of this tiny station led to plans for a national radio station and by 1959, negotiations were concluded between the government of Liberia and an overseas company called Rediffusion International Ltd. of London for the establishment of a commercial sound broadcasting service which was renamed ELBC after its predecessor, John B. West. This new station was powered by two 10kw medium and short wave transmitters respectively and was situated in Paynesville with studios in the Centennial Pavilion on Ashmun Street. ELBC and ELRS were both formerly housed in the Pavilion. Rediffusion provided Kim Jackson as its first Station Manager.

President William V. S. Tubman officially opened the station, which was owned and managed by Rediffusion, on January 1, 1960. The government of Liberia was entitled to forty-nine’ (49%) percent of its profits and Rediffusion had fifty-one’ (51%) percent. The new station, ELBC, as a commercial venture became a failure at that time due to its location, even though it served the nation very well. As a result of this setback in operation, the Bureau of Information, now Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs & Tourism, had now completed and moved into its building on Capital Hill removed the studios from the Centennial Pavilion to the top floor of its building in other for proper monitoring.

Since the establishment of the station in 1960, massive efforts have been exerted by government for the development of a national broadcasting entity in the country. This effort bore fruits in the 1980’s when the government of the United States of America through its development arm USAID assisted the Government of Liberia to set up the Rural Communications Network called Liberia Rural Communications Network (LRCN).

By the establishment of the rural broadcasting division, the Government of the People’s Redemption Council, headed by Mgst Sgt Samuel K. Doe, created PRC DECREE No. 20 to replace Chapter 87 of the Public Authority Law which established the Liberia Broadcasting Corporation to the Liberia Broadcoasting System, on the 10th Day of October, A.D. 1980. In 1979, the Government of Liberia secured a grant from the Japanese Government to rehabilitate the main administration and studio building to international standard. Both the TV and Radio studios were furnished with modern State– of-the-Art equipment and studio facilities.

This newly created system now incorporates ELBC (FM, AM, MW, SW), ELTV & LRCN. They now operate under a system. This fine setup, which has one of the best broadcasting facilities in West Africa, was completely destroyed by the prolonged civil war.

Prior to the civil war in the country and even right now, the Government of the Liberia is responsible to provide sixty percent (60%) of LBS’ operational funds while LBS management is to raise the balance forty percent (40%).
LBS’ PRESENT CONDITION:

As indicated earlier, the Liberia Broadcoasting System (LBS), prior to the civil war in the country, was up-to-date with modern equipment and facilities of the time. All of its studios (Radio and Television) were well equipped with State-of-the-Art Equipment comprising a mixture of Analog and Digital equipment.

The senseless civil war of the 1990’s vandalized all the facilities of the system all around the country. At the peak of the war, all essential staff left for safety thus leaving the facilities of LBS in the hands looters who massively looted the remaining equipment and facilities while the ones that could not be taken away completely burnt. The present condition of LBS is terrible. The entire back line of the main building where the Operations Department, the Power House and the FM building are located are all damaged and need urgent attention. The main administration and studio buildings has at the moment, become a complete waterlog. At the peak of the rainy season, the building experienced serious flooding.

At the moment, there are no television (TV) equipment and studio facilities, also no Medium (MW) & Short wave (SW) facilities and equipment, which were used in the past to broadcast throughout the country and beyond. The Frequency Modulation (FM-89.9) facilities including its building were also burnt down completely thus, leaving behind the cracked walls.

The system is presently transmitting on an FM Transmitter (FM-99.9) that covers far less than 60 miles away from its CPU, which makes it very impossible to cover the entire nation. Presently, Radio France International (RFI) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) have installed two Frequency Modulation (FM) Transmitters on the compound of the Liberia Broadcoasting System that enable these great countries to relay all of their regular programs on both FM-103 and FM-106 respectively.

LBS, at the moment, is being housed in the LRCN building, while the warehouse of LRCN is being used as the powerhouse for the system. Although, few of the buildings on the compound of the system were temporarily renovated when the war ceased in 1991 & 1992, there is still a lot of work to be done if the system must go beyond its pre-war status.

After successful negotiations, the management of the Liberia Broadcasting Corporation was finally passed on to the government and by June 30, 1968, the last of the Rediffusion Manager, D. Stuart-Williams, was succeeded by Mr. G. Henry Andrews, who after having received professional training in both journalism and broadcasting in the United States, was with the station since its establishment in 1960.

Due to the interest government placed on broadcasting, she later acquired ownership of ELBC and at the same time, established a television service. Special agreements were again concluded between the Government of Liberia and Rediffusion and the ownership of the station was given to the Government of Liberia as a result of the negotiation. Right after this transaction between the Government and Rediffusion, a TV studio was set up and the management of the newly created Liberia Broadcoasting Corporation vested in Rediffusion Liberia Ltd. As a result of this latest agreement, ELTV went on the air, powered by a Pye Cambridge Transmitter with an effective radiated power of 3kw broadcasting on 625 lines, C.C.I.R. Channel E6 on January 1, 1964, exactly four (4) years after the new radio station was officially opened by President Tubmam. The General Manager for ELTV at the time was Mr. Hedley Chambers.

The system, at the moment, lacks adequate office space and vehicles to facilitate smooth operations. We have been blessed in the recent past, under the Charles A. Snetter leadership to be given some modern broadcast equipment to boost the output of the station by Liberia’s traditional friend, the United States of America. This latest development has greatly helped in improving the standard of the station.

A couple of new programs have also been introduced by the Snetter administration to give LBS radio new flavor in the information industry. Some of the new programs introduced are: LIBERIA PANARAMA, LET’S TALK, and MINISTERS’ HALF HOUR, among others. The administration of LBS is presently placing high premium of staff training.

Under training, there is at the moment six months intensive training going on for young Liberians who want to practise journalism as a future career. Opportunity is offered to all employees as well as those out of the employ of the system. For external training, opportunities have been unfolding to employees of the station to study in a number of places, including the People’s Republic of China, Egypt among others. Prince Kordorwalee is the most recent employee who just returned from China on two month intensive training in Television Production.

Plans are on the way for more employees to leave the country for training in a number of areas. Mr. Jusu Sarnor is expected to leave for Egypt for 10 week training in Engineering Technology in Broadcasting & Radio, Messrs Benjamin S. Taingay and Titus Kesselly Kamaboakai are expected to go to Johannesburg, South Africa for some few days on AIDS sensitization workshop and Miss Ivy Fairley is also expected to leave soon for the USA for more training. This is how far the training opportunity at the state-owned media house is looking like at the moment.

THE FUTURE OF LBS:

The future of the Liberia Broadcoasting System is one that can be described as being bright in terms of capacity and institution building. At the moment, serious negotiation is taking place between the Liberian Government and a number of countries to assist in the rehabilitation of the nation’s public broadcast facilities. The latest is the Chinese who have agreed in principle to assist the Liberian Government provides FM facilities and boosters around the country to improve its radio signals. The Chinese technical team is presently in the country on technical assessment.

There is also a plan to restore a small television service (about 5000 KW) in and around the capital city, Monrovia. This is the beginning of greater opportunity for the LBS family and the people of Liberia. We look forward to seeing the future of the Liberia Broadcoasting System in which her prewar facilities and equipment will once again be restored all around the country but this time with modern digital equipment.