system with loudspeakers at the listening end.
The service was called Radio Diffusion System, RDS.
From the RDS emerged the Nigeria Broadcasting Service, NBS in April 1950. Prior to the NBS, the Colonial Government had commissioned the Nigeria Broadcasting Survey undertaken by Messrs Byron and Turner which recommended the establishment of stations in Lagos, Kaduna, Enugu, lbadan and Kano. Mr. T.W. Chalmers, a Briton and Controller of the BBC Light Entertainment Programme was the fist Director-General of the NBS.
The Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, NBC came into being in April 1957 through an Act of Parliament No. 39 of 1956. The Director General was Mr. J.A.C Knott OBE.
In 1978, the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation was re-organized to become the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN. The NBC was instructed to handover its stations that broadcast on Medium Wave frequencies in the States to the State Governments and it took over Short Wave Transmitters from the States. The Broadcasting Corporation of Northern Nigeria, BCNN, was merged with the NBC stations in Lagos, Ibadan and Enugu to become the present day FRCN. The Reverend Victor Badejo was the first indigenous Director-General of Radio Nigeria.
The present Management of the FRCN has transformed the Corporation to truly “Uplift the People and Unite the Nation”, a responsive radio catering for the diverse needs of Nigerians.
Today the FRCN, as a public service broadcaster, with its headquarters in Abuja, has Zonal Stations in Enugu, Ibadan, Kaduna, Gombe, Yenagoa and Gwagwalada FCT, plus a Lagos Operations Office. These Zonal Stations and Lagos Operations Office, control all the 37 FRCN FM/MW/SW stations spread across the country reaching more than 100 million listeners, broadcasting in 15 languages, catering for the diverse broadcasting needs of a multi-ethnic Nigeria, Uplifting the People and Uniting the Nation.
The Corporation also has five of its stations streaming live audio on the Internet at www.radionigeria.gov.ng thus reaching millions more in the world.