ZNS-1 (branded as ''Radio Bahamas'') is the oldest broadcast station in

the Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the a ...

. It has a

News News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different media: word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to event ...

/ Talk format, and broadcasts on 1540 kHz and 104.5 MHz in Nassau, with a repeater in Freeport on 107.7 MHz. It is under ownership of the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas. The AM station has a Class A clear-channel allocation under NARBA and its

night Night (also described as night time, unconventionally spelled as "nite") is the period of ambient darkness from sunset to sunrise during each 24-hour day, when the Sun is below the horizon. The exact time when night begins and ends depends ...

time signal can be heard throughout

, most of

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...

, and southeastern

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

History

The Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas (BCB) was created as a state-owned radio broadcast service in 1936, out of a primary concern of providing accurate hurricane warnings to all of the islands of the Bahamas. A callsign of ZNS (standing for "Zephyr Nassau Sunshine) was chosen and the first broadcast was held for the coronation of Britain's

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...

on May 12, 1936. In the early days, ZNS broadcast for only two hours per day using a 500 watt transmitter. Programming included global news from the BBC, local news and musical recordings (from the BBC). All programming from 1936-1950 was aired on a non-commercial basis by the colonial government, but advertising sponsors began to appear in the early 1950's and since that time the station has functioned as a government-owned but commercially funded station.

Today

Radio Bahamas(ZNS-1) operates from its premises on Third Terrace, Centreville in Nassau (the station's home since 1959). Today programming is a mix of news, cultural affairs,Brown, Susan Love ''This is the Real Bahamas: Solidarity and Identity in Cat Island'' (Univ. of California-San Diego 1992), p. 120. and music, and is described as being "the national voice of the Bahamas."

References

External links

Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas

FCC information for ZNS-1
Radio stations in the Bahamas Clear-channel radio stations Radio stations established in 1937 News and talk radio stations {{Bahamas-stub