CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Broadcasting started in Nigeria as a relay of the British Empire services with the radio Broadcasting in 1936. Before the fourth decade of the 20th Century, the British colonialists had depended on the print media for publicity and propaganda and they later added radio to their arsenal of information dissemination (Raufu, 2011).
The pattern of operation was not indigenous, and on this the Station began operations with the establishment of a relay station in Victoria Island, Lagos which disseminated broadcast information to major towns in Nigeria via the wired wireless otherwise known as Rediffussion (Owuamalam, 2006). In 1956 with the establishment of what came to be known as Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), broadcasting was incorporated under law and operated under the policies of the Federal Ministry of information.
The provisions of this law, called 1956 Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation Ordinance stated that the corporation could carry on all such activities as may appear requisite, advantageous or convenient” and could erect, maintain wire distribution services. This law thus became the first in the nation’s history to provide the legal platform for the establishment of broadcast media in Nigeria (Udoakah, 2006).
It was not until a hundred years after the first newspaper- “Iwe Irohin Fun Awon Egba “ was read on the streets of Abeokuta, that Nigerians began to view motion pictures on tube with the establishment of the first Television station in Nigeria, and black Africa Known as Western Nigeria Television (NNTV).
This station beamed the first signals on the 31st of October 1959; thereby buttressing the allusion of Otunba et al (2005) that print media is a century older than Nigerian TV, just as it is 70 years ahead of Radio. Since Western government of Obafemi Awolowo established the WNTV in 1959, broadcasting has continued to grow in leaps and bounds.
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