Tag Archives: Voice of Greece Cuts

The Voice of Greece is no longer on shortwave

I suppose I’ve been holding out hope that the Voice of Greece would magically reappear on 9,420 kHz, but they’ve been off the air for 45 days now and we must assume this time it’s for good.

Over the past decade the Voice of Greece seems to have weathered every storm it encountered; even broadcasting for weeks without a license.

We learned in February 2022 that VOG was on the chopping block, then they were given an additional two months on the air, and according to numerous DXers here and on Twitter, the last broadcast seems to have taken place on June 15, 2022.

I certainly haven’t heard them on shortwave since then.

VOG was one of my favorite, reliable sources of music on shortwave and you’ll notice that in many of my radio photos, the dial is tuned to 9,420 kHz because they were such an easy catch here in eastern North America regardless of propagation.

If you miss hearing VOG on shortwave you can, of course, still listen to them online.

I’ve well over one hundred hours of Voice of Greece recordings in my spectrum archives, at the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive, and here on the SWLing Post.

In fact, I’m reminded of one of my favorite VOG listening sessions which I’ll share here from the SWLing Post archives. This post was originally published on November 15, 2013:

Voice of Greece: walking in on a party

This Voice of Greece broadcast begins with a piece by Burhan Öcal, with the Istanbul Oriental Ensemble (Photo: National Geographic)

I never know what to expect when I tune around on one of my shortwave radios. Perhaps that’s one of the things I find captivating about the medium; there’s no playlist, no app, no content controls, other than the tuning knob.

Sometimes, I tune to a station, and it’s as though I’ve just opened a door and walked in on a party–one in full swing, with dancing and incredible live music.

That’s exactly what I felt when I tuned to the Voice of Greece last night. I walked in on a party. And I needed no invitation; I was welcomed there.

Hear it, just as I did, starting right in the middle of this party:

Listen above, or click here to download three hours and 31 minutes of musical bliss (until they turned the transmitter off).

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Voice of Greece closure delayed two months

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(Source: Greek City Times via Alokesh Gupta)

Voice of Greece granted a reprieve – still broadcasting for 2 more months (Greek City Times)

The closure of the analog broadcast of the Voice of Greece has been delayed, even temporarily. With a decision taken last Wednesday and signed by ERT CEO George Gabritsos, the public radio and television announced that at the request of the Ministry of Defense, the Avlida shortwave broadcast centre will remain active until May 31, when re-evaluating the conditions for further continuation or not of its operation.

In an earlier decision, ERT had stated that its broadcast on shortwave would end yesterday, March 31, and had addressed the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense “to decide whether they want the continuation of the shortwave broadcasts, as well as the acquisition of ownership and the operation of the shortwave operation at their own risk “.

Voice of Greece
Shortwave Frequencies

9420 kHz for Europe & North America,

11645 kHz for Central & South Africa,

9935 kHz for Europe Central America.

Read the full article at the Greek City Times.

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Voice of Greece faces an uncertain future & possible closure

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The Bulgarian DX blog posted the the following item:

GREECE Possible end of an ERT Voice of Greece transmitting on shortwave 9420 kHz via Avlis. The ERT CEO Giorgos Gambritsos, has signed a decree to close down the shortwave transmitting facility at Avlis from March 31, 2022. The news release by ERT is leaving the possibility of shortwave broadcasts to continue only if the Ministry of Defense and Foreign Ministry decide to oversee the continuation of broadcasts on shortwave.

Current schedule of Voice of Greece:
v1800-0805 on 9420 AVL 150 kW / 323 deg to WeEu Greek, BUT not daily & 0805-1200 very rarely

If the VOG on shortwave is closed permanently, it would be a sad day for me at least. Selfishly, they’ve become one of my staple stations for music and even a benchmark when checking out band conditions. I’ve listened to the Voice of Greece from so many different countries as I’ve travelled over the years; it’s been a constant companion.

With that said, I’m not at all surprised. It must cost a fortune to maintain the Avlis transmitting station and I’m not sure how large their audience is these days.

VOG has weathered many a shut-downs already though–even once broadcasting for weeks without a license.

We’ll post updates as they become available. If any of our readers in Greece learn more from listening to ERT news, please contact me.

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ERT reopens under direction of Dionysis Tsaknis

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(Photo source: AP / Petros Giannakouris)

SWLing Post contributor, Ayar, confirms that ERT employees did indeed returned to work yesterday after having been laid off nearly two years ago. Ayar shares this link to GreekReporter.com which has full details.

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In theory, ERT workers go back to work today

Shortwave Radio Recordings: the Voice of Greece, one year on

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Last night, while learning the ropes of the new Elad FDM-S2, I noticed some great music on 9,420 kHz, the former Voice of Greece frequency.

GREECE-ECONOMY-MEDIA It was then that I realized yesterday (June 11) marked the one year anniversary of the day that the Greek government shut down ERT and the Voice of Greece. If interested, click here for some audio I recorded that very night.

Amazingly, one year later, 9,420 kHz is still active out of the Avlis transmitter site and last night, the Radio Station of Macedonia (a.k.a., ERT 3) was playing an excellent mix of Greek music and jazz.

Click here to listen to the 51 minute recording, made with the Elad FDM-S2 software defined receiver, starting at 00:50 UTC:

You’ll note great audio fidelity and a low noise floor despite the numerous static crashes present from area thunderstorms. (Note that I did not have DSP noise reduction nor the noise blanker engaged.) I started the recording in standard AM mode, then changed it to AM synchronous detection between songs in the first half of the recording.

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Voice of Greece has become a relay of Radio Station of Macedonia, ERT 3

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In response to my post and recording yesterday, TheGreekRadio.com commented on the current state of the Voice of Greece:

“After the forceful eviction of the redundant ERT employees from the Radio House in Athens, the shortwave frequencies no longer transmit the normal program of Voice of Greece as there is no such service produced in Athens. This happened on the 7th of November, when you probably noticed the station ID change.

Mediumwave and shortwave frequencies have been now set to relay the radio program of “Radio Station of Macedonia” by the redundant employees of ERT3, from Thessaloniki. (This used to be the independent program relayed for a few hours before midnight on 7,450 until June’s ERT switch-off, when phone lines were cut and the “guerilla” program started). They keep doing a full program during the day, but being unemployed, it seems that they cannot carry on overnight.

The official interim public radio (one single service for entire Greece) so far does not care for [the take] over [of] the shortwave and mediumwave resources in Athens. Probably they do not have the staff to operate them, as only the necessary personnel was hired to keep the single radio service running on FM.”

Many thanks to TheGreekRadio.com for this informative explanation.

Thus it looks like VOG’s shortwave service might be easily cut–and without warning. We already know that the Greek government is considering dismantling the Avlis transmitting site.

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