Establishing Radio in Guyana

Radio broadcasting is said to have been introduced  in what was then British Guiana, by the dissemination of mainly international news and information through a wired service that relayed BBC radio content over the Georgetown telephone system for paying subscribers.
Radio broadcast in Guyana is reported to have had its founding in the late 1920s when experimental shortwave broadcasts received from Daventry, England were initiated, not long after the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was itself established in 1922.
After broadcasting for a few hours each week, the shortwave service ended suddenly in 1931 due to economic constraints, and it wasn’t until 1935 that radio resumed when the Marylebone Cricket Club visited the colony, and local demand for cricket commentary prompted the establishment of radio stations VP3BG and later VP3MR.
The two stations are said to have been the first two radio stations established in the English- speaking Caribbean, and became popular for their cricket commentaries, music and religious programmes.
VP3BG, originally located at lot 1 Wellington Street, Georgetown, came on air in 1935. According to the book, “Broadcasting On The Short Waves, 1945 To Today” by Jerome S. Berg, the shortwave station ZFY The Voice of Guyana was earlier known as VP3MR, which came on air in 1936 and which, according to other sources, merged with VP3BG in May 1938 to form the British Guiana United Broadcasting Co. Ltd. which operated ZFY.
The establishment of the British Guiana United Broadcasting Co. Ltd was led by a team headed by Trinidad radio pioneer, the late Edward “Teddy” Mc Dowell, who was also chief engineer of Rediffusion (the trading name of a British business called Broadcast Relay Service Ltd, formed in 1928) and later manager of Radio Trinidad (inaugurated Sept 1947).
ZFY initially broadcasted from the Post Office building which was subsequently destroyed in the Feb 1945 Great Fire of Georgetown. It went back on air from a new location at North Road and New Garden Street in Bourda. In July 1950, Overseas Rediffusion Ltd. purchased controlling interest of ZFY, and in 1951, after securing a medium wave transmitter, and some upgrading, Station ZFY became Radio Demerara.
ZFY, now Radio Demerara, was relocated once more in 1955 from its residential premises to new professional studios at a place called Broadcasting House on High Street in Georgetown.
In Dec 1958, the British Guiana United Broadcasting Co. Ltd. introduced a new station, also located at Broadcasting

House; it was named the British Guiana Broadcasting Service (BGBS) until Oct 1, 1968 when it was taken over by the Guyana government of the time and renamed the Guyana Broadcasting Service. (GBS)
The takeover also included the BGBS High Street facilities, and in due course led to government’s acquisition of Radio Demerara, after which the Guyana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) was inaugurated May 1, 1979.
The GBC entity then on July 1, 1980, formed Channel 1 and Channel 2 from the former Radio Demerara and GBS stations respectively. Later, though still government-owned, Channel 1 became Radio Roraima and Channel 2 Voice of Guyana; 98.1 Hot FM, a third station also owned by government and under the GBC umbrella, came on air Oct 1998.
In March 2004, the GBC and its long history merged with the relatively recent Guyana Television Broadcasting Company Limited (GTV) to form the government-owned NCN (National Communications Network), and the historic Broadcasting House was abandoned for more modern facilities on Homestretch Avenue, Georgetown.
With the advent of the Internet, both private and government Guyanese radio can now be found online.