Financial Constraints
The financial constraints facing RVOG is one of the major threats which as a result, has made it difficult for RVOG to purchase modern equipment. The situation also makes it difficult for RVOG to employ people with modern skills. For that matter, RVOG ends up being a training ground for others thus cannot compete with other radios. The other threat is the high and unpredictable taxation system involved in licences and other related government revenues. This problem is certainly evident when it comes to commercial programmes.
Poor salaries and benefits have led to potential staff to leave the organization.
RVOG is rather stagnant in many aspects. For example, the geographical and programme coverage is very small compared to the public needs and the coverage of other radio stations. Low coverage directly means less customers and income.
External environment analysis
In analyzing the external analysis of RVOG, the main tool used was PEST (Political Economic Social and Technological Analysis).
Political Analysis
The Government is responsible for locating radio geographical coverage areas. So far the area provided to RVOG to cover is limited to three regions - Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Manyara. Therefore, nationally out of 26 regions of Tanzania mainland only three regions are covered (12% national coverage excluding Zanzibar and Pemba) The taxation procedures accompanied by delays in granting licenses, permits and tight control by the Government on radio technology is a problem in terms of expansion, adoption of new technologies etc. However, it is expected that the 1993 Government Act will help to address some of the above issues. The Act allows private radios to operate locally, regionally and nationally.
Economic Analysis
Some of the national and international economic policies have direct or indirect implications to RVOG. For example, the national taxation policy exposes an individual or institution to many taxes, which at the end of the day becomes a heavy financial burden, thus a setback to institutional or individual development. The same applies to Government policy on salary scale increases. It is important to note that salary increase has to go hand in hand with the institutional income increase. The main customers of RVOG are Christian groups and evangelists. Most of the customers in this group are economically weak. Therefore, they cannot afford to pay high fees for the radio services provided by RVOG. The other reason is that they prefer using the services of other radios, which currently are of high quality compared to those provided by RVOG.
Modern equipment is expensive; therefore, with the current income it is not easy for RVOG to purchase machinery and facilities abroad. At the same time, the amount of donor grants is declining all the time. Therefore, it is not easy to import radio facilities and imports using donor grants.
So far RVOG has not been able to sell effectively its products and services due to a number of reasons explained above i.e. unskilled personnel, lack of promotion unit, old equipments, inability to compete in a liberalized market, unmotivated staff etc.
Social Analysis
Historically, RVOG has a good image and popular in the society. It addresses day-to-day common spiritual, moral and social issues. It provides spiritual answers and alternatives to people of all classes, categories and peer groups. The RVOG brings together people at family and community levels and people from all sorts of backgrounds. RVOG has proved to be a good tool for providing education to as many people as possible at one given time. However, the opportunity has not been fully exploited.
Technological Analysis
Currently RVOG uses FM signal. This technology is limited and expensive. For radios that use FM, signal system to expand its geographical coverage it has to construct many boosters. Therefore, any time the radio wants to expand, it has to construct more boosters.
The other technological option is using the satellite technology, which is very expensive and difficult to control. However, it is possible for RVOG to have satellite adventure through TWR.