Myanmar Radio National Service ( my, မြန်မာ့အသံ; formerly, Burma Broadcasting Service (BBS)), is the national radio service of

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

. It has its broadcasting headquarters in both the administrative capital of

Naypyidaw Naypyidaw, officially spelled Nay Pyi Taw (; ), is the capital and third-largest city of Myanmar. The city is located at the centre of the Naypyidaw Union Territory. It is unusual among Myanmar's cities, as it is an entirely planned city outs ...

and

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

, Myanmar's largest city. The service runs Myanmar Radio and Myanmar Radio Minorities Service. Like all legally operating radio stations in Myanmar, such as

Yangon City FM Yangon City FM is a radio station that serves the Yangon metropolitan area, broadcasting on the FM band at a frequency of 89.0 MHz and on the Internet. Operated by the city government, Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC), City FM is one of tw ...

and

Mandalay City FM Mandalay FM is a radio station that serves the Mandalay metropolitan area (90 miles around Mandalay), broadcasting on the FM band at a frequency of 87.9 MHz and on the Internet. Now the radio station is also serving around Taungoo and around Ya ...

, Myanmar Radio is under state management. MRNS, alongside all other state-controlled media, is the mouthpiece of successive Burmese governments. However, due to a recent revamp in giving greater air time to music and

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' (G ...

topics, the state-affiliated radio services are, despite their affiliation with the government, popular with the populace. However, in terms of audience for news programmes, MRNS is least popular (and perceived as least credible). Most Burmese listen to foreign based pro-opposition radio services.

History

Radio service in Myanmar first came on air in 1936 during the British colonial era. Regular programming by Bama Athan ( my, ဗမာ့အသံ; "Voice of Burma") began in 1946 when the British established Burma Broadcasting Service (BBS), carrying Burmese language national and foreign news and musical entertainment, knowledge reply and school lessons and English language news and music programming. After independence in 1948, it was named Myanma Athan ( my, မြန်မာ့အသံ; also meaning Voice of Burma, but with the more formal term "Myanmar"). The service was renamed Myanmar Radio by the

military government A military government is generally any form of government that is administered by military forces, whether or not this government is legal under the laws of the jurisdiction at issue, and whether this government is formed by natives or by an occup ...

which came to power in 1988. The radio service's parent, the Burmese Broadcasting Service was also renamed as Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) in 1997. Until the launch of Yangon City FM in 2001, BBS/Myanmar Radio was the only radio station in the country. For years, its main broadcast center is at 426 Pyay Road in Kamayut in

. Since late 2007, the main broadcast station has moved to Naypyidaw. Yangon Station now mostly relays Naypyidaw Station's programming.

Broadcast service

Since the first

high frequency High frequency (HF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) between 3 and 30 megahertz (MHz). It is also known as the decameter band or decameter wave as its wavelengths range from one to ten ...

(HF) installations back in the 1950s, the service's HF transmitter capacity has not had a major upgrade. However, there have been some minor frequency adjustments, with 4725 replacing the former 4795 and 5040, 7185 replacing 7125 and 7120, and 9730 replacing 9725 and 6035.

Station

References

{{Radio in Myanmar Radio stations in Myanmar Radio stations established in 1946 Mass media in Yangon Mass media in Naypyidaw 1946 establishments in Burma