Greece shuts down their state broadcasting arm, ERT

15 Replies

vogI cannot confirm whether this will have an impact on The Voice of Greece, but I strongly suspect so.

We will know after midnight in Greece (21:00 UTC) today:

(Source: BBC News)

The Greek government has announced that it will shut down the radio and TV services of the state broadcaster ERT.

A government spokesman said transmissions would cease early on Wednesday.

More than 2,000 employees will be suspended until the company reopens “as soon as possible.”

[…]An engineer at the broadcaster’s multimedia department who gave his name as Yannis said: “The government announced that channels will shut down at midnight – after that the screens will go black.

“According to the government, from tonight I will be unemployed. It is a complete shock. In four hours’ time I will not have a job.”

ERT is funded by a direct payment by of 4.3 euros added monthly to electricity bills.

Many thanks to Mike and Andrea Borgnino for the tip!

Update (18:00 UTC): RT has a report worth checking out.  Many other news sources are picking up the story.

Spread the radio love

15 thoughts on “Greece shuts down their state broadcasting arm, ERT”

  4. Rob Wagner

    Thomas, this response from the EBU:

    http://www3.ebu.ch/cms/en/sites/ebu/contents/news/2013/06/ebu-urges-greek-government-to-re.html

    As I understand it, the employees of ERT have not been sacked as is being incorrectly reported in some press – they have been “suspended”. I don’t think the broadcaster will be off air for too long….but who knows! Here in Australia, we have a large expat Greek population, and ERT is still regularly heard in homes and Greek coffee shops. They would be missed if permanently taken from the air.
    Cheers
    Rob VK3BVW
    http://www.medxr [at] blogspot.com.au

    Reply ↓
    1. Thomas Post author

      Thanks, Rob! Yes, and there’s a large Greek diaspora here in the US and throughout the world. Like you, I doubt this is permanent. I do worry though that when under financial scrutiny, shortwave might get cut. Let’s hope not, at least not yet.
      Cheers,
      Thomas

      Reply ↓
  5. Christos_Athens

    At 23:15, about an hour ago the audio has ceased, although the carrier is on. Since the government announced the new plan concerning ERT, the programme of all ERT media changed, broadcasting protests of the stuff and the opposition. The issue is very important and the case of resignation of the government and new elections cannot be excluded.

    Reply ↓
    1. Thomas Post author

      Thank you for your comment, Christos and please keep us up-to-date! I am hearing the same thing. The carrier is still very much on 9,420 kHz, but no regular audio. I have heard some odd sounds, though. Not sure what they’re connected to. I am recording now.
      Thanks,
      Thomas

      Reply ↓

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.