Public broadcasting in Seychelles dates from 1945
with a daily one hour broadcast run by the Department of Education,
using the facilities of the Cable and Wireless telecommunications
company. On 10th July 1965 Radio Seychelles proper first came
on the air from a studio at
Union Vale.
In 1966
Eric Passmore
was appointed as Manager of Radio Seychelles.
An announcer,
Gilbert Confait,
and a technician, Dawson Sinon,
were employed on a full time basis, while two other persons were
employed on a part time basis, Emmy Etienne as announcer and Davidson
Chang-Him as technician.
The appointment of a
manager brought additional development. Broadcasting time was increased
to four and a half hours on weekdays. Local news items and announcements were broadcast in English and Creole. New
programmes were also introduced, such as local advertising in both
languages, a programme of lunch time music and another focusing on
items of interest to the Creole-speaking listeners which was broadcast
late in the evening.
Outside broadcasts started in September 1966 on the occasion of the
opening of the National Show by the Governor. Religious services, choral
singing and sports commentaries were also broadcasted.
With the installation of a new Marconi transmitter, Radio
Seychelles operated in a medium wave band on a 1 kilowatt power output,
transmitting for four and a half hours daily in the three languages,
English, French and Creole. The new equipment resulted in an improvement
in both range and quality. Most of the programmes continued to be
provided by the BBC Transcription Service. Other programmes were produced locally or sent by international broadcasting
organisations. The staff consisted of a British manager/engineer on
I.V.S. Volunteer and six full-time and six part-time local staff.
On Sunday 30th May 1971 at 1.15 a.m an explosion occurred at
Radio Seychelles at Union Vale which totally destroyed the
transmitters. Damage was estimated at half a million Seychelles
rupees. The explosion was caused by a demolition charge placed on the
premises.
In 1977 Radio Seychelles received its
first outside broadcasting van which made it possible to introduced
live programmes such as tea time music. The programmes were hosted by
different announcers like Douglas
Cedras, Jeris Moses and Marie-Cécile
Medor, from various places around Mahé. That same year the hours of
broadcasting were extended to 65 hours per week. A survey was also
conducted to inquire about the listening habits and opinions of the
listeners of Radio Seychelles.
In 1980 a television
unit was set up at Bel Eau to produce video programmes for the Ministry
of Education. On January 1st 1983, public television was
launched with Radio Television Seychelles (RTS) broadcasting from
Hermitage every weekend (Friday to Sunday).
By 1986 television programmes were available to some 98% of the population. In 1989 RTS
television began broadcasting seven evenings a week. With the
installation of a new satellite dish at the TV station at Hermitage two
years later, viewers were able to watch CNN relayed by RTS.
On May 1st
1992 following the re-introduction of multiparty politics, RTS (a
government station run by the Ministry of Information) became the
Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), a public broadcasting
service. Paradise FM, the FM radio service of the SBC, was launched on
30th May 1997 to complement the AM radio service.
AM RADIO
The AM channel,
which is for a general domestic audience, offers largely spoken word
programming. It aims is to provide a community service and there is a
big demand for the reading of private announcements, notices and
messages. It broadcasts in mono on 219 metres, 1368 kHz.
It broadcast all kinds
of programmes in the three national languages (Creole, English and
French): music, news, documentaries, panel games, drama and children’s
programmes. The are both local and international productions. 40% of
the programmes aired are local and 60% are foreign.
The main news
bulletins in Creole consist of 50% local news, 33% international news
and 17% sports.
PARADISE FM
Paradise FM
broadcasts 24 hours a day. It is a predominantly music service which
also offers sports, advertisements and talk shows.
TELEVISION
On March 2010, the SBC TV revamped its programming
with a stronger focus on locally produced programmes. This saw the
introduction of its seasons based
local production programming and its 24 hour service due to coming on
line of its Automated On-Air Playout system.
The Seychellois audience now wakes up
to Bonzour Sesel,
the morning show which is 100 percent local content, comprising of news,
sports, music, weather, flight movement and local productions with a
strong focus on the archives.
Television system: PAL/B 625/50
Estimated no. of TV sets in the country: 14,000
The SBC has the
responsibility of relaying two foreign radio stations, Radio France
International (RFI) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
We also broadcast
foreign television services; BBC News, CNN World, CCTV News, France 24,
Russia Today as well as Korean broadcasting System’s KBS World.