People gather outside the Greece’s public TV ERT headquarters in Athens on June 12, 2013, in support of the broadcaster’s staff and unions. AFP Photo (Source: RT)

SWLing Post reader, Christos, visited the protests at the ERT Radio House yesterday.  Here are his comments:

This evening, I visited the Radio House of ERT (Radiomegeron) in Aghia Paraskevi suburb of Athens. I estimate that about three thousand people had been gathered to protest against the government’s decision of shutting down the radio and television channels. I cannot predict the reaction of authorities but I think that the popular support is limited.

At this time I checked two transmissions. A television one, through EBU internet video stream:
http://www3.ebu.ch/cms/en/sites/ebu/contents/news/2013/06/monitor-ert-online.html

And a radio one, relayed by some local FM stations and two classic ERT frequencies: 9420 KHz on short waves from Avlis and 1260 KHz on medium waves from Rhodes island. I receive both with my eton E5 portable radio right now.

Thank you for the report, Christos!

Also, Mauno Ritola recorded this English statement from the Voice of Greece (9,420 kHz) around 19:45 UTC yesterday:

Mauno believes they’ve been repeating this same statement in English and French throughout the day. He mentioned that he can also hear their 1260 kHz station in Finland. He said, “in the early evening they had regional programming, but around midnight joined the SW feed, which apparently was TV audio [with this feed]”

For more updates on the ERT protests, please follow this tag.

Thousands of protesters gathered outside ERT’s headquarters in Athens (Source: BBC News)

If you listened to the Voice Of Greece in the wake of the Greek National TV & Radio (ERT) shut down last night, you were in for a bit of radio history.

I published several posts yesterday as the story developed; I knew if ERT was being silenced, the Voice of Greece would as well. But that’s not what happened.

The Voice of Greece went off the air, like its national radio and TV counterparts, well before the announced midnight deadline. But around 22:44 UTC, the VoG came back on the air–at first with a few audio/technical glitches–and broadcast ERT protest coverage throughout the night.

This morning, I searched for news sources and could only find one–BBC News–who noticed that the Greek broadcaster was live online and on shortwave radio.

In case you missed it hearing it live, you can listen to a short off-air recording of the moment the Voice of Greece was taken off the air, (on 15.65 MHz).  I believe this happened around 18:56 UTC (11 June 2013):

Then later, on 9.42 MHz, around 22:44 UTC, the Voice of Greece began transmitting audio again. Here’s a recording beginning only a few seconds beforehand:

Follow the tag ERT Cuts for further updates.

Check out the comments in our previous post regarding the Voice of Greece–Ron and Kevin share informative links, including this live stream of the protests.

Marty Delfin, from Madrid, Spain, also shares this message with us:

We are hearing the ERT (Voice of Greece) right now at 2340 UTC June 11 in Spain packing in a powerful signal. There is a lot of commentary — the little Greek that I can understand — trashing the conservative government for the shutdown. Hopefully, they say, the shortwave service will continue until further notice. Lots of reaction from listeners being broadcast. You are right— went on the air at 2100 UTC with just a carrier— came on the air about 45 minutes later—

Here’s the latest from the English language version of the Kathimerini daily from Athens— PM gambles on ERT closure and EBU expresses dismay on closure —

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_11/06/2013_503960

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_12/06/2013_503982

Such a stark contrast: the Voice of Greece (who “should” be off the air) covering ERT protests live, while the Voice of Turkey has barely mentioned the wide-spread Gezi Park demonstrations taking place throughout Turkey.

Screenshot of my WinRadio Excalibur receiver with frequency centered on the Voice of Greece.

The Voice of Greece did go off the air earlier today in conjunction with the closure of ERT, (Greek State TV and Radio).

As we monitored Voice of Greece frequencies, we noticed that their AM carrier was still present well past 21:00 UTC (midnight in Greece), though we heard no audio.

It’s currently 23:10 UTC and I’ve been hearing Greek commentary on 9,420 kHz for almost thirty minutes. I’ll post the recording later.

I know this: I wish I understood Greek right about now…

I 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.