National Radio Afrikaans Radio Lozi German Radio Oshiwambo Radio Tirelo Ya Setwana
Rukavango Radio Service

National Radio

Background

Present day NBC National Radio was first established as the English Service of the then South West Africa Broadcasting (SWABC). The English Service was established mainly to provide listening pleasure to the English speaking community of then South West Africa.  At that time the English Service shared one channel (or frequency) with German Service until 04 April 1983 when the two were split with each transmitting from a separate channel. But the separation was only from 18:00 to 05:00 as the two services were continuing to transmit the same English/Germany programmes from 5:00 to 18:00. This partial separation, however, led to the emphasis being shifted from culture-oriented programming to a format, content and style aimed at attracting a wider listenership. Like Germany and Afrikaans services, the English service was on air only for 2 hours 55 minutes per day. Some of its programmes were: The Living Earth, Women’s World, and Your Kind of World.

On October 05, 1987(approximately three years) before the dawn of independence, the SWABC established a National Broadcasting Service (which became known as National Service), separate from the English Service. According to the then Deputy Director General for Programmes and News of the SWABC, Mr Antonie van der Smit National Service was meant to build bridges between communities and to contribute toward national reconciliation. Broadcasting for 11 hours in a day, National Service’s programme schedule consisted of a news programme called Nuusfront/Newsfront running on two separate channels from 21h30 to 23h00. A single channel was provided for all-night transmission from 23h00 till 06h00. These programmes could be heard on all SWABC’s language services except Silozi service (for Caprivi).

A year after independence and after SWABC was baptized Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), on 1, July 1991 the English Service and National Service were merged. It was from this merger that the name “National Radio” emerged. National Service became a 24-hour service with an all-night service between 01:00 and 06:00.

A “block time” system was introduced on September 2, 1991 to accommodate the language services which were broadcasting from 10:00 – 21:00 and 18:00 – 21:00 during weekdays while during weekends they were broadcasting from 07:00 to 21:00.

Present Day National Radio

Since then National radio has undergone fundamental changes just as the corporation and the Namibian nation have. National radio became the first station to broadcast in stereo in 1994. Another milestone was achieved in 1996 when the digitalization of studios was completed with the installation of Dalet 5.2. The benefits of the system is that all music is handled by computer, editing is done digitally and with a programme called appropriately Selector, the listener is assured of a balanced variety of music within each hour. The “auto-pilot” feature in the system allows the studio to “fly itself” or to remain on air without being manned. Block times for language services, i.e the 06:00 to 07:15 and  17:00 to 17:30 as well as the 21:00 to 22:00 blocks when they used to link up with National Radio have since 2003 been phased out. 
National Radio prides itself of not only being the voice of the nation but also as a player in the process of nation building. Through programmes such as the popular “Open Line”, a phone-in programme where listeners call in with their concerns and opinions about any issue, National Radio has played a key role in promoting democratic principles, i.e freedom of speech and expression. Apart from programmes on reconciliation and nation building, National Radio carries live broadcasts of national events such as opening of Parliament, State of the Nation Address and tabling of the Appropriation Bill.
Presently National Radio’s exiting programme lineup is from 06hrs to 24 hrs and stays on air with all-night music till 06:00.