The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) is a quasi-independent Government body that is responsible for regulating the communications and broadcasting sectors operating within the United Republic of Tanzania.

The authority was established by the Act of parliament under the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Act no. 12 of 2003 to regulate all electronic communications for both Radio and Television, postal services, and management of the national frequency spectrum in the country.

The Authority became operational in November 2003 and effectively took over the functions of the two defunct government bodies which are the Tanzania Communications Commission and Tanzania Broadcasting Commission respectively. The TCRA ensures the efficiency of these sectors, and that they are accessible and technologically advanced.

The main strategic goal for the authority among others is to enhance the welfare of Tanzanians through effective competition and economic efficiency on the regulatory framework that ensures universal access to electronic communications.

TCRA is committed to enhancing the welfare of Tanzanians through the provision of effective and efficient regulatory services that ensure universal access to communication services, through the quality management system in all processes needed in its areas of jurisdiction.

The Tanzanian government through its communication regulator TCRA has a reason to stand a good chance in support of the tremendous development achievements acquired so far for radio communications in the country.

In general, the historical revolution of electronic mass media has been directly shaped by advancements in media and communication technologies. The invention of radio waves by Heinrich Hertz in the late 1880s has made radio broadcasting supersonic in the present century.

Radio has become the leading electronic mass communication device because its technology is easy and movable which enables reach a larger audience at one time.

Another thing is that it is cheap and more affordable to listeners than other mass media such as the newspapers for the print industry. The Radio became the “perfect” mass media of its time because its technological mode of information delivery renders futile things like the necessity for literacy than newspapers which demands from the readers.

The historical accounts show that during the colonial period in the then Tanganyika colony, the adoption of new media technologies was slower both before and after independence time.

The exception was the printing press largely because of the efforts of missionaries. Spreading the gospel by Christian missionaries depended much on the written word, which eventually paved the way for the launching of journals, periodicals, and newspapers.

For a while before and after independence time, radios became more popular and had a greater advantage on the audience, especially in the city of Dar es Salaam which had been populated by many people.

Despite having a large number of people than any other town in the country at the time, a small radio transmitter had been built by the colonial government but had a small reach within the city of Dar es Salaam.

Radio Broadcasting for Development in Tanzania couldn’t be received reliably over 300 kilometers beyond the eastern coast. This is because a small percentage of the population listened to the radio. After all, most couldn’t afford radio receivers. Even by the late 1960s, less than 30 percent of the population listened to the national radio daily.

The first audience survey conducted in 1960 showed that 10 percent of the households in the city of Dar es Salaam had a radio set compared to only 2 percent in the countryside. As more investments in radio, the transmission was made by the government and other stakeholders, and as its reach increased throughout the country the radio held sway.

When private radio stations were allowed in the early 1990s the influence of the radio increased and has remained so up to date.

TCRA’s Acting Head of Communications and Public Relations Semu Mwakyanjala said in an exclusive interview with this reporter that, “when Tanganyika (Tanzania) attained its independence in 1961, the nation which by then had a population of 9 million people had only one radio broadcasting station.

The facilities for the radio were inherited from the British colonial government and were governed by the Tanganyika Broadcasting Corporation (TBC). According to him, now there had emerged a proliferation of radio broadcasting stations registered in the country with the total number which has pegged at over 200 radio stations operating all over the country.

These range from national radio stations, others are confined within the region as well as community radios. The latter kind of radio station has been allowed by the government to broadcast in vernacular languages to enlighten the majority of listeners and change their traditional and social lifestyles in a particular segment of a community notably the Maasai ethnic groups.

In Tanzania, community radio stations play an important role in the information ecosystem, as they are often the only source of formal media dissemination for a community.

In rural areas, such radio stations may be the only source to bridge the gap of language barriers among community members. This is one such biggest achievement the broadcasting sector industry in the country is proud of bearing in mind the fact that, Tanzania has signed a convention with a United Nations for International Telecommunications Union (ITU) based in Geneva- Switzerland.

Apart from radio stations, the nation is also proud to have registered several online radios although these are few than online televisions which are many but with the shortest range of frequencies, the government is optimistic that later on, it expects to receive as many applications as possible to match with the ongoing technological convergence.

Among the rules that the government has imposed to would-be owners of these operating radio stations is that, they abide by the ethical conduct governing the broadcasting laws and that whatever media which tend to violate the rules, is dealt with by the stipulated laws.

According to Semu, hate speeches that may lead to incitements and public violence in whatever ways are strictly forbidden in the country. Mishandling of such information if found guilty leads to the indefinite closure of the broadcasting station.

The proliferation of the media industry in Tanzania has culminated in the opening of various radio outlets which to a greater extent have also enabled the employ emerging young journalists in the country.

In other ways, despite having many radio stations in the country, TRCA is optional after having found owners have tampered with their frequency modules, accepts to provide them, and settle the matter amicably.

“Our task is to promote communication services so we ask them to undertake registration and becomes legalized after fulfilling registration procedures”, he said.

When asked about radio short waves, he clarified that they are prone to interference as currently are encouraged to apply Frequency Modulation (FM) as this is the modern technology being applied on radio transmission.

In the past 60 years, Radio transmission has had a bigger impact in Tanzania. “Some people argue that the visual appeal makes the television more impactful than the radio broadcasts, but researches have indicated that even digital technologies have not dislodged the power of the radio in Tanzania.

Despite challenges in terms of little investment, inadequate radio transmission technologies and shortage of qualified radio staff broadcasting dominated the Tanzanian media industry during the one-party system era and after the liberalization of the economy which opened up its paths at present when the country is ruled under multiparty policies.

The reasons are obvious. Radio waves travel magnetically and instantly, which enables live coverage.

Unlike newspapers which have to be transported from the printing press to the audience and might be inconvenienced by infrastructural hurdles and consequently cause severe distribution system. Therefore, for both of these major challenges, the solution was the radio. During the one-party system, the Tanzania government adopted socialist

policies that put more emphasis on socio-economic development. The focus on development goals entirely depended on the radio because of its effectiveness in reaching the audience in periphery areas.

According to the reinforced policies, mass media were supposed to support government policies and so development journalism was found to be more suitable to the young nation.

“It was unfortunate that there were few radio experts to match with the competition since the national radio was government-owned.

Radio communication is an essential tool for mass media, and having known this the British colonial government established the first radio transmitter in the then Tanganyika territory in 1951 to work as an experimental station known as ‘Sauti ya Dar es Salaam.

In the beginning, the broadcasts were only one hour per week in Swahili, but five years later in 1955, Sauti ya Dar es Salaam was transformed into a governmental department named Tanganyika Broadcasting Service (TBS).

It was at this time that the station’s studios moved to the current location along Nyerere Road. And in 1956 the Radio Station was renamed Tanganyika Broadcasting Corporation (TBC).

On July 1, 1965, the government took total control of TBC and placed it under the department of the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting, and Tourism, and renamed it Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam (RTD).

Media experts in the country say that after the taking over of the radio after independence, the government was driven by the discovery that the radio could be much more effective in helping to propagate its policies and foster the development of the new nation.

This fact is evidenced by the fact that the radio allocated enough of its time on various educational programs initiated by the government to help cherish the socialist goals which were among the main ideological bases of the Republic.

In the area of development, RTD played well its role in various national campaigns and general education of the masses in collaboration with development agencies. To effectively use the radio as a sole means of communication to the masses, the government expanded the transmission of the radio.

The move also tried to solve the problem of shortage and unaffordability of receivers by building radio factories in Dar es Salaam and Arusha respectively. Low-cost radio sets were also imported from Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, and The Netherlands. These factors enabled the radio to cement its place as the dominant mass media in Tanzania. It was helped by the decision of the government not to open a television station in Tanzania.

The government resisted the use of television in Tanzania after having realized that, this form of electronic medium was too expensive by then and that it would merely serve the rich in the society who consisted of the minority group than the majority poor citizens. It was after the liberalization of the media following the enactment of the Broadcasting Services Act of 1993 that the real radio revolution was ushered in Tanzania. The introduction of television in Tanzania around the same time failed to dent the new excitement for the radio, according to experts.

Digital technologies, which have enabled the embedding of radio technological functions in the mobile phone device, have made the radio an all-powerful mass communication medium in Tanzania. The multitude of radio stations in Tanzania can help to explain this fact. By 1990 just before private, commercial radios were allowed and Tanzania still had practically only one operating radio station the RTD. But by December last year 2021, the number of registered radio stations had plummeted and reached 210 countrywide according to statistics made available by Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA).

In addition to making the mobile phone a perfect ‘Walkman’ digital media technologies have facilitated online radio and simulcasting radio communication links.

According to TCRA, by August 2021 Tanzania had 21 registered online radios and 25 simulcasting radios. The nature of digital technology means these radios have a global outreach and could be accessed even on computers and other digital devices.

This article was first published in the East African on 12th February, 2022, in celebrating World Radio Day.