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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Tilford, who shares the following press release:
WBCQ’s Radio Angela, which began broadcasting a little over a year ago, was a bold experiment in quality programming. It carried world music (including the last Greek music on shortwave after Greece itself stopped broadcasting on the SW bands), great literature read aloud, new music releases by independent artists, some of the best vintage music on any radio band, science and comedy. It avoided the political and religious programming about which so many shortwave listeners love to complain but which are also the bread and butter that keep most private shortwave stations alive. The production standards were frequently nearly public radio quality even when not sourced from public radio. We also brought several new voices from around the world onto the shortwave bands who had never been there before.
It was known from day one that its long term success would depend upon attracting an adequate amount of both listener contributions and program buyers outside of regular core hours.
Critically and artistically, Radio Angela was a great success, and many thanks to all who gave us public and/or private support of any kind. Financially, however, this has not proven to be viable. The airtime buyers didn’t come, and neither did enough donors. Consequently, Radio Angela’s last transmission as Radio Angela will be May 31 (June 1 0200-0412 UTC).
Some individual programs are likely to continue in some form on the WBCQ grid, my own individual flagship programs (From the Isle of Music and Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot) will be going on hiatus for a least a month, possibly longer, on both 5130 and 7490, and my other shows will be discontinued altogether. This is a purely financial matter, and if we could find a nice wealthy philanthropist who loves shortwave, perhaps this wouldn’t need to happen.
This is hardly the first quality venture on radio or TV to end this way – Radio Angela had more weekly broadcasts than the original Outer Limits television series to name but one example, and the roads of radio generally are littered with the corpses of worthy broadcasting concepts and stillborn projects. My thanks to Angela and Allan Weiner for going out on a limb and backing the project, to all the content providers for their hard work and excellence, to the technical staff, some of whom are no longer with us, and to those of you who cared that we were on the air.
Those who lament the religious and political programming that keep private shortwave stations alive are welcome to consider us a case study in what is likely to happen without those dollars. I obviously lack the right answer, but I have learned a great deal about the right questions.
73,
William “Bill” Tilford, Owner/Producer
Tilford Productions, LLC
809 S. 20th ST
Lafayette, IN 47905-1551
email: [email protected]
phone: 773.267.6548
website: www.tilfordproductions.com
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following video posted on the WFFJ-TV YouTube channel:
Description:
“Sit down interview with Allan and Angela Weiner, owners of WBCQ radio – 9.330 AM. Technical discussion about station construction, its electronics and the importance, and relevance, of short-wave radio in the modern world.”
GBT-VLBA radar image of the region where Apollo 15 landed in 1971. The snake-like feature is Hadley Rille, a remnant of ancient volcanic activity, probably a collapsed lava tube. The crater at top, alongside the rille, is called Hadley C and is about 6 kilometers in diameter. This image shows objects as small as 5 meters across. (Credit: NRAO/GBO/Raytheon/NSF/AUI)
Radio Waves: Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio
Because I keep my ear to the waves, as well as receive many tips from others who do the same, I find myself privy to radio-related stories that might interest SWLing Post readers. To that end: Welcome to the SWLing Post’sRadio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!
The National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Observatory (GBO) and National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), and Raytheon Intelligence & Space conducted a test in November to prove that a new radio telescope system can capture high-resolution images in near-Earth space.
GBO’s Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia — the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope — was outfitted with a new transmitter developed by Raytheon Intelligence & Space, allowing it to transmit a radar signal into space. The NRAO’s continent-wide Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) received the reflected signal and produced images of the Apollo 15 moon landing site.
The proof-of-concept test, culminating a two-year effort, paves the way for designing a more powerful transmitter for the telescope. More power will allow enhanced detection and imaging of small objects passing by the Earth, moons orbiting around other planets and other debris in the Solar System.
The technology was developed as part of a cooperative research and development agreement between NRAO, GBO, and Raytheon.
“This project opens a whole new range of capabilities for both NRAO and GBO,” said Tony Beasley, director of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and vice president for Radio Astronomy at Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI). “We’ve participated before in important radar studies of the Solar System, but turning the GBT into a steerable planetary radar transmitter will greatly expand our ability to pursue intriguing new lines of research.”
Using the information collected with this latest test, the participants will finalize a plan to develop a 500-kilowatt, high-power radar system that can image objects in the Solar System with unprecedented detail and sensitivity. The increased performance also will allow astronomers to use radar signals as far away as the orbits of Uranus and Neptune, increasing our understanding of the Solar System.
“The planned system will be a leap forward in radar science, allowing access to never before seen features of the Solar System from right here on Earth,” said Karen O’Neil, the Green Bank Observatory site director.
“Raytheon’s radar techniques could ultimately improve our ability to explore the Solar System,” said Steven Wilkinson, Principal Engineering Fellow at Raytheon Intelligence & Space. “Working with the astronomy community allows us to apply decades of radar know-how to a project that provides high-resolution images of near-Earth objects.”
“We are excited to be partnering with Raytheon and applying their radar expertise to transform our observatories’ telescopes in new science areas,” said AUI President Adam Cohen.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory and the Green Bank Observatory are facilities of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.[…]
WBCQ Radio is seeking radio transmitter engineers to work at our 500KW shortwave station. Come to northern Maine and get away from it all. Nice working environment, good pay, great people, fun work with BIG transmitting and antenna equipment. Contact Allan and Angela Weiner at 207-538-9180. Please send resumes to [email protected].
NASA’s Deep Space Network, commonly referred to as the DSN, has welcomed a new dish, Deep Space Station 56, to its family of powerful ground listening stations around the world.
The now-operational 34-meter antenna joins the network’s Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex located 60 kilometers west of Madrid, Spain while other dishes within the network undergo critical upgrades.
The new dish is part of an ongoing series of enhancements to the DSN, which traces its roots back to January 1958 when the U.S. Army’s Jet Propulsion Lab was tasked with standing up a series of communications stations in Nigeria, Singapore, and the U.S. state of California to support orbital telemetry operations for the Explorer 1 mission.
This precursor to the Deep Space Network was transferred to NASA along with the Jet Propulsion Lab on 3 December 1958. The DSN was then formally commissioned by the U.S. space agency as a way to consolidate the pending deep space communication needs through centralized locations to avoid each mission having to create its own ground listening station(s).
The three Deep Space Network ground locations are spaced roughly 120 degrees from each other in Canberra, Australia; Goldstone, California; and Madrid, Spain. The location of the three facilities ensures deep space missions with a line of sight to Earth can communicate with at least one of the locations at any time.
Updates throughout the decades have increased the network’s capabilities, most notably for the two Voyager probes that continue to operate and send back science data having both long-passed out of the heliosphere and into the interstellar medium.
The network, nonetheless, is showing its age, with upgrades and refurbishments needed to ensure continuous operations. Part of this initiative is the recent addition of the new dish, Deep Space Station 56 (DSS-56), at the Madrid complex.
“After the lengthy process of commissioning, the DSN’s most-capable 34-meter antenna is now talking with our spacecraft,” said Bradford Arnold, DSN project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.[…]
YouTube recordings and PDF files from the 2021 Propagation Summit hosted on January 23 by Contest University are available. More than 1,000 logged in for the sessions. Each presentation begins approximately on the hour. You can advance the video to the presentation you wish to view.
11 AM – “Update on the Personal Space Weather Station Project and HamSCI Activities for 2021” by Dr. Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF
12 Noon – “Solar Cycle 25 Predictions and Progress” by Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA
1 PM – “Maximizing Performance of HF Antennas with Irregular Terrain” by Jim Breakall, WA3FET
2 PM – “HF Propagation: What to Expect During the Rising Years of Solar Cycle 25,” by Frank Donovan, W3LPL.
WBCQ’s Ampegon antenna at the Monticello transmitting site.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Benjamin, who shares the following news tip via Radio Insight:
Family Broadcasting Corporation is selling shortwave Christian “World Harvest Radio” WHRI Furman SC to Allan Weiner for $1.25 million. Weiner also owns shortwave Talk “The Planet” WBCQ Monticello ME as well as Talk/Rock 780 WXME/98.3 W252DW and Classic Country “Kixx 94.7” WBCQ-FM Monticello. The seller owns multiple Christian television stations as well as Christian AC “Pulse-FM” 103.1 WHME South Bend IN, 96.9 WHPZ Bremen IN, and 92.1 WHPD Dowagiac MI.
Radio Waves: Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio
Because I keep my ear to the waves, as well as receive many tips from others who do the same, I find myself privy to radio-related stories that might interest SWLing Post readers. To that end: Welcome to the SWLing Post’sRadio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Ulis (K3LU), Michael Bird, and Trevor Dailey for the following tips:
The FCC is scheduled to vote on controversial new rules that would potentially end a prohibition on low-power FM stations using directional antennas, among other things. At its April Open Commission Meeting, the agency will vote on a Report and Order to update its technical rules for LPFM stations.
Since the Local Community Radio Act of 2010 was passed nearly a decade ago, the number of LPFMs has grown to more than 2,100 stations. The LPFM service has “matured since engineering requirements were first established in 2000,” FCC Chair Ajit Pai said in a blog post announcing the April meeting agenda. “This maturation means that LPFM stations should be able to take advantage of additional engineering options to improve reception.”
In addition to improving reception, the proposed new rules would “increase flexibility while maintaining interference protection and the core LPFM goals of diversity and localism,” Pai said.
Along with expanded LPFM use of directional antennas, the proposal would allow LPFM stations to use FM booster stations.[…]
The ABC could have to look at closing a channel if the government remains committed to the funding cuts announced in the 2018 federal budget, according to managing director David Anderson.
“We don’t think we can bridge the gap purely from efficiency alone,” said Mr Anderson on Thursday, as the broadcaster revealed a suite of programming that it hopes will help Australians through the next three months of social isolation.
“That’s where you start to look at what it is you’re providing on what service. At the moment we have no plans to turn off a channel or a network, but I have to say that in the foreseeable future turning off a channel will happen one day. It’s just not right now.”
The ABC is in the second year of its current triennial funding round, in which the government declined to index its base funding, effectively meaning its budget has been cut by $84 million over the three years to 30 June, 2022.[…]
Michael Heitz, the developer of the Hara Arena property, said Monday that sometime in the next two to three months, demolition of about two-thirds of the tornado-damaged property should begin.
Heitz said he is putting together a legal description of the recently rezoned former entertainment property, with an environmental report and surveys, for JobsOhio. He expects JobsOhio, the state’s private jobs creation arm, to put its marketing muscle behind the 130-acre site, to help him find a future user.
“This is one of their biggest tracts in the state of Ohio, under one piece of land,” Heitz said in an interview. […]
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Van Hoy, who shares a link to this YouTuber who stumbled upon shortwave station, WBCQ, while driving through rural Maine in 2018. He obviously didn’t understand what the site was at the time–nor the fact that the owner loves collecting vintage equipment.
The video gives the impression of WBCQ being a place of mystery and intrigue. If he only knew that he would have likely been welcomed with open arms and gotten a detailed tour had he only contacted the station!
Thank you for sharing this, Brice. I’ll certainly tune into your new show as I’m a massive fan of music over shortwave and, as you say, there are few outlets these days for classical music. Good luck with the new show!
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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Tilford, who shares the following press release:
