Mr. Baffoe Bonnie, the founder, and CEO of Radio Gold has died of Covid-19, according to a publication by Awake News.
The said news occurred today, February 1, 2021. Mr. Bonnie has joined the list of prominent Ghanaians who succumbed to the deadly virus.
Radio Gold was among the pioneer radio stations in the country has given opportunities to a number of broadcasters in the country to develop their talent.
The opposition-aligned station was controversially shut down by the Akufo-Addo government in May 2019 over nonpayment of regulatory changes.
The National Communications Authority (NCA) explained it shut down Radio Gold and Radio XYZ because they failed to comply with the ruling of the Electronic Communications Tribunal (ECT).
According to the NCA, the “Radio stations operating without valid authorizations as determined by the 2017 FM Broadcasting Audit are being shut down with immediate effect as an enforcement action in view of the decision of the Electronic Communications Tribunal.”
In a statement, it said “Following the FM Spectrum Audit in 2017, some stations were found to be in default and were fined by the Authority. However, some of the stations in default were not satisfied and proceeded to the various courts; Electronic Communications Tribunal (ECT) and the High Court to appeal against the NCA’s decision.
“This resulted in a decision by the ECT in 2018 which reviewed the status of expired FM Radio Broadcasting Authorisations and which ruled among others that Companies whose authorizations had expired reverted to the same position as a fresh applicant. While some stations shut down following this decision, others did not.”
