On Thursday, Hinds revealed that just before he left office, former President Jagdeo farmed out the airwaves to his friends, those close to the government and a few others.
Hinds revealed that apart from the five radio frequencies, Dr Ramroop has Channel 28 and three other links to that station, which could effectively allow him to broadcast across the country.
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Apart from those, in the month before he left office, Jagdeo gave one radio frequency each to other persons. These are NTN Radio (Anand Persaud), Rudy Grant, Wireless Connections (Maxwell Thom), Hits and Jams Entertainment (Rawle Ferguson), Alfro Alphonso and Sons Enterprise (Alfro Alphonso), Haslyn Graham, and Little Rock Television Station (Rockliffe Christie).
In December, 2010, Jagdeo also granted two close associates of the PPP permission to broadcast television signals on the 2.5 GHz band, which allows for cable TV operations and internet-related services.
These persons were Vishok Persaud, the son of longstanding PPP stalwart Reepu Daman Persaud, and Brian Yong, who mounted the PPP platform in 1996.
Regarding television stations, the Prime Minister said that only six more television stations can be assigned using current formats for television broadcast in Guyana.
Hinds said that determining the availability of channels for broadcasting depends on many factors. These include transmitter power and specifications, height of antenna, and location of proposed transmitters.
The Prime Minister said that in the Georgetown area (the area with the highest demand), at least 10 more channels can be assigned in the VHF band (FM sound broadcasting).
However, he said that countless other radio and television channels could be made available when there is a change in broadcasting formats.
According to the Prime Minister, if Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting (DTTB) is introduced here, there is the potential for “hundreds of televisionand sound feed programmes/channels.â€