NCN is being overtaken by the radio choices on the internet

Dear Editor,
Could NCN’s ‘Morning Show’ with the young Ms Holladar really be better? One of our few radio listeners that we have left in Guyana asked that question in a letter in the Sunday Kaieteur News. But NCN radio and even television on the whole could be much better if this network had competent persons managing it. I stopped listening to radio in Guyana after they pulled the plug on Radio Roraima a few years back. Radio in Guyana isn’t worth listening to. Radio Roraima is back on the air but only on the FM band available to Georgetown listeners.

The writer is right to have mentioned that NCN radio does not have a balanced music sheet. It does not cater for its audience. Yes, we live in Guyana, in the Caribbean and local and Caribbean music must be played (which I do not like), but people like me must not lose sleep in the nights to listen to the American Music link with the Voice of America if I want to listen to some adult alternative, pop, rock, soul, or some other genre of American music.
I tune in to Canadian and American radio stations on the internet — quality radio worth listening to. A long set of songs is played, which is followed by eight or ten minutes of advertisements, and the cycle continues throughout the day, with a little news and weather every now and again. Gosh, if only our 98.1 FM station could be like that. Instead we have shows named after alcoholic beverages being deejayed by loud-mouthed persons encouraging you to drink this stout and that beer. What utter nonsense.

Up to now, NCN has not answered on the issue regarding VOG and 98.1 FM not being heard on www.jumptv. com since December last year. They keep telling the public to listen to Guyana radio on the internet, when in reality, nothing is being heard. I have tried listening on computers other than my own for the sake of trial and error, and I still cannot get 98.1 on Jump TV. Berbicians are still waiting ever so patiently for their own radio station or perhaps to get 98.1 and Radio Roraima.

NCN should get some advice from radio counterparts in North America or other Caribbean territories with regard to how to be competent in the radio business. Isn’t NCN being embarrassed enough in these columns for management to improve?

The writer seemed to have a liking for alternative rock, country and classical music. Well, if he can access the internet, then he can visit www.live-radio.net. There, he can find over 2,000 radio stations broadcasting to your PC from every corner of the globe — beaming some kind of sound, music and voice that caters for every and any genre of music. There is news radio, religious radio, talk radio, community radio, college radio, all-music radio playing one or more of the music genres alone, foreign languages, etc, etc. The sky’s the limit, really. XM/Sirius Satellite Radio online also has dozens of digital sound radio channels from commercial-free music channels, exclusive series and live performances of your favourite rock and country artistes, one of a kind talk radio such as the Oprah channel, the Doctor channel, Sports, near CD quality sound, for just under US$3 per month. You can get a free three-day listening preview at the XM/Sirius website, so register and hear what I am talking about. I also think that in the not too distant future listening to radio with a radio will become an ‘extinct’ pastime. Internet radio listening would be the ‘thing’ of the future if it hasn’t become the ‘thing’ of the present as yet.

Why be bothered and troubled about NCN radio when we have a bundle of other radio broadcasts to choose from? The government can take however long they want to bring private radio stations to Guyana and NCN can be silent however long they want on the 98.1 Jump TV issue. I really do not care. Once I can afford (and internet services are becoming quite affordable and popular in Guyana these days) my little internet service, I am the happiest man alive because I can listen to much better choices of radio of a certain quality and standard that would take NCN radio several lifetimes to achieve.
Yours faithfully,
Leon Jameson Suseran