Abstract

The deregulation of the Nigerian broadcast industry in 1992 ushered in private radio stations ownership, thus ending government monopoly and enabling professional, religious and institutions of learning to open their own radio stations. Today, there are tens and hundreds of Frequency Modulation (FM) stations owned by Government, Private Investors, Institutions and Community or Professional Organisations. In the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, there are over 30 FM radio stations cutting across the aforementioned ownership. Recent additions to the ownership nomenclature are radio stations owned by security agencies (military and para-military) for the purpose of “telling their stories”. This study seeks to interrogate audience perception of selected security agencies’ owned stations (Nigeria Police 99.1FM and EFCC Radio 97.3FM), as well as to understand their assessment of news broadcasts emanating from them. Mixed method is used as questionnaire through survey and in-depth interview was deployed to collect data for the research. The Uses and Gratifications theory is adopted to support the study. The research establishes that audiences perceive the stations as another extension of “government stations” established to give “official” perspectives of the respective agencies. They find them less “professional” and incapable of giving broad and independent angles to news stories in addition to saturating them with “security” stories that become monotonous and boring. The paper recommends that radio stations owned by security agencies need to hire professionals, carry out proper audience surveys and adopt editorial policies that embrace all angles (including critical views) even if the security agencies are involved.

Key Words: Audience, Perception, News, Security Agencies, Radio

About the Authors

* Macham Simon Makut, Ph.D., is with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA, Hqtrs) Abuja, Nigeria.

** Sarah Gambo, Ph.D., is with the Department of Broadcasting and Multimedia, University of Abuja, Nigeria.

^JCMR Journal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 18, No. 1, Special Issue 4, January 2026, pp. 98-110.

© Association of Media and Communication Researchers of Nigeria (AMCRON).

Article Citation

Makut, M. S. & Gambo, S. (2026). Audience perception and appraisal of news on security agencies’ owned radio stations: A survey of Police Radio 99.1 FM and EFCC Radio 97.3 FM listeners in Nigeria. Journal of Communication and Media Research, 18 (1, SP.4): 98-110.

Full Article

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