Beach FM back on air after NCA shutdown, no staff was laid off

• Posted on October 23, 2019
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

In May 2019, Beach FM, a subsidiary the Focus One Media Group was amongst over 20 radio stations that were shut down by the National Communications Authority (NCA).

Since May 13, the English speaking radio station has been off air for operating with an expired authorization, according to the NCA.

According to the CEO of Focus One Media, Kwame Adu-Mante, the closure affected them immensely but that did not compel him to lay off any employee.

“Thankfully we’ve received our final authorization which was just last week. When we were given the letter to shutdown, it also gave us an opportunity to reapply for a fresh authorization which we did, so our provisional authorization came in August this year, which we needed to fulfill some obligations before the final authorization was given to us”

“The impact on the business has been huge. But fortunately or unfortunately we did not lay any staff off. Because we’re a group and have other stations and subsidiaries we were able to cushion it up. It is instructive to note that when we acquired interest in the radio station, the authorization had expired. It was something we knew we could renew, and we were in the process, but unfortunately we could not make the deadline and the NCA directive came, and so we were affected” Mr. Adu-Mante said.

Transmitting on 105.5 MHz, Beach FM was originally owned by Gray Express Media, before Focus 1 Media acquired it in 2014. As of the time of the acquisition, the station’s authorization had expired.