The former Finance Minister read a company registry certificate on air and accused the regulator of hostility toward the opposition-aligned station. The NTRC and Telecommunications Minister Phillip Jackson say it is simply a license that expired in April.
Former Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves has accused the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (NTRC) of acting outside the law in ordering Star Radio off the FM band, telling listeners the station’s parent company is in good standing with the country’s company registry and has met every demand the regulator placed on it.
“What is the continued hostility towards the radio station about?” Gonsalves asked during a broadcast in which he read from a certificate he said Star Broadcasting Corporation Limited had submitted to the NTRC.
The dispute follows a letter dated October 8, 2026, in which NTRC Secretary/Director Apollo Knights told the company, through its Secretary Julian Francis, that it does not hold a valid FM Radio Broadcast License and Frequency Authorization. The letter directed the station to stop transmitting on 98.3 MHz and 104.7 MHz until it receives approval from the Minister responsible for Telecommunications.
The station has not gone off the air. On October 10, ULP Communications Director Augustine Ferdinand told Vincypowa News on the station’s behalf that Star continues operating as normal on both frequencies and online, as VPN reported.
What Gonsalves told listeners about the CIPO certificate
At the center of the regulator’s case is a Certificate of Good Standing from the Commerce and Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), the registry that keeps the Register of Companies. The NTRC said the station failed to obtain the document in time.
Gonsalves said that hurdle has now been cleared. Reading from what he described as a certificate signed by Deputy Registrar of Companies Charlene Douglas, he said it states that Star Broadcasting Corporation is a validly existing domestic company, is not in liquidation, has no receiver over its property, and faces no action to strike it off the register or dissolve it.
“According to [CIPO], Star is fine,” he said.
He also questioned whether the regulator was entitled to make CIPO’s view a condition of renewal in the first place, saying nothing in the governing Act requires the NTRC to seek the registry’s opinion. “But we ain’t fighting that,” he said. “You say you want a [CIPO] certificate. We have given you the [CIPO] certificate.”
Gonsalves was careful to say he is not a director of Star Radio and was not speaking for the company as an officer. He spoke, he said, as a lawyer.
Vincypowa News has not independently seen the certificate or confirmed the date on which it was issued. St Vincent Times has separately reported that it understands the station has since obtained a Certificate of Good Standing.
Was the NTRC letter a cease and desist order?
Gonsalves said the NTRC’s letter functions as a cease and desist order even though it does not use those words, and argued the regulator skipped the steps the law requires before issuing one.
Under the regulations that accompany the Act, he said, the NTRC must first open an investigation, notify the station in writing that it is under investigation, and set out the reasons. He said none of that happened in Star Radio’s case.
In separate comments reported by St Vincent Times, Gonsalves called the order “unethical, unjust, and illegal” and argued that the power to suspend, revoke, or refuse a broadcast license rests with the Minister, not the commission.
Vincypowa News has not yet reviewed the text of the regulations Gonsalves cited. The NTRC has not publicly responded to his specific argument about the investigation procedure.
The Star Radio renewal timeline
Gonsalves said Star Radio has held a broadcast license since 2007, renewed every five years, and that the company filed its renewal application in November 2025, months before the license ran out, paid the prescribed fees, and attached the documents requested.
The NTRC’s letter confirms that filing date but sets it inside a longer timeline:
- February 14, 2025: The NTRC reminded Star Broadcasting to file its renewal applications by April 14, 2025, a year ahead of expiry.
- November 13, 2025: The company submitted its relicensing applications, seven months after the date the NTRC had set.
- April 14, 2026: The FM license and frequency authorization expired.
- May 6 to October 6, 2026: The company sent five requests for more time to file corporate documents, the last through attorney G. Grahame Bollers.
- September 21, 2026: The NTRC’s deadline for the outstanding documents.
- October 1 and 5, 2026: The company’s documents were lodged with CIPO, after the deadline.
- October 7, 2026: NTRC commissioners noted the station had been operating for five months and 23 days without completing relicensing.
- October 8, 2026: The letter ordering transmissions to stop.
Gonsalves has said the CIPO questions concerned formatting and signature details in company filings from 2007 to 2009, which he argues have no bearing on a license for 2026 to 2031. He has also said that, by long-standing practice at the NTRC, a station that files for renewal before its license expires is allowed to stay on the air while the application is processed.
Jackson: “There’s nothing political”
Minister of Telecommunications Phillip Jackson has defended the regulator. According to St Vincent Times, he said the NTRC was carrying out its statutory duty, that the station had been warned as early as 2025, and that the law cannot treat one broadcaster differently from another.
“There’s nothing political,” Jackson said, adding that he became involved only at the final stage because of the political sensitivity of the matter, and that the NTRC’s technical team handles licensing without ministerial direction at each step. He said he was confident the Unity Labour Party, which Star Radio supports, would respect the rule of law.
Why the Star Radio case matters
Star Radio is widely regarded as the main broadcast voice of the Unity Labour Party, now in opposition after nearly 25 years in government. The case has drawn criticism beyond the party. Hot97 FM owner Luke Boyea called the order “anti-democratic” and said the NTRC had not taken similar action when other stations let their licenses lapse.
Gonsalves, who said his former portfolio included responsibility for the NTRC, has made a similar argument from the other direction, saying that while the ULP was in office several stations critical of it were allowed to broadcast for long periods without valid licenses or while behind on fees.
Supporters of the NTRC’s position counter that licensing rules must be applied the same way to every broadcaster, whichever party it backs, and that the station had more than a year of notice.
Gonsalves has warned that Star Radio will pursue legal remedies if the NTRC does not reverse course.
Vincypowa News emailed the NTRC on October 10 with questions about the order, its legal basis, and the CIPO certificate. The commission had not responded by publication time. This story will be updated with any response.
Sources: Camillo Gonsalves, broadcast remarks; NTRC letter dated October 8, 2026; statement from ULP Communications Director Augustine Ferdinand to Vincypowa News, October 10, 2026; St Vincent Times.
Leave a Reply