By Adedayo Odulaja
With today making it two decades since it officially hit the airwaves, Raypower FM 100.5 is celebrating 20 years of commercial broadcasting in Nigeria.
The station, based Alagbado, on the outskirts of Lagos (close to the state’s boundary with Ogun State), is the pioneer private radio station in the country, having come on air on September 1, 1994.
Owners of the station laid the foundation in 1993, but the coming to power of General Sani Abacha brought all arrangements, which had been concluded at the time for transmission, to an abrupt halt.
The delay enforced by the military government, which took over from the interim government headed by Ernest Shonekan, was to last for eight months. It finally ended sometime in August 1994 when the government in power gave Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi, chairman of Daar Communications Limited, the go-ahead to commence transmission.
The station had hit the airwaves in December 1993, starting the test transmission meant to usher in the full transmission process before the directive to suspend such plans.
The coming on air of Nigeria’s first privately owned radio station was made possible by the deregulation of the broadcast industry by a decree in 1992.
