Clandestine station, Radio Free Sarawak, offers an alternative voice in Malaysia ahead of elections next week. For those living in remote jungle communities–places where the Internet is not readily available–Radio Free Sarawak can be heard on shortwave radio.
Al Jazeera’s Florence Looi reports from a village in Sarawak:
Added to other posts tagged: Why Shortwave Radio?
For your listening pleasure: four hours of music, and a little Greek commentary, from the Voice of Greece.
I recorded this broadcast on Sunday, April 21st March 8th, 2013 on 9.42 MHz at 18:30 UTC. While recording, I piped the shortwave audio through our home hi-fi system–it sounded absolutely amazing. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.
Click here to download the full recording, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
The host of Switzerland in Sound, Bob Zanotti.
For any of you who listened to Swiss Radio International (SRI) on shortwave radio, you’ll no doubt know the name of long-time radio presenter Bob Zanotti. For me, his deep, rich voice was synonymous with SRI.
What you may not know is that Zanotti hosts his own website called Switzerland In Sound. It is chock-full of up-to-date Swiss information, news (Tina Turner became Swiss?), interviews, thoughts, musings and a wealth of vintage recordings from SRI.
If you were a fan of The Swiss Shortwave Merry-Go-Round, you’ll be pleased to discover the many recordings he has of The Two Bobs (Bob Zanotti and Bob Thomann).
Bob also manages a Facebook page for Switzerland in Sound. If you’re on Facebook, I encourage you to join his group.
Check out Switzerland In Sound:
http://www.switzerlandinsound.com
Victory Avenue (Calea Victoriei), a major avenue in central Bucharest (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Today at 20:30 UTC, Radio Romania International’s signal on 11,745 kHz was quite strong, as it so often is. RRI is one of the few broadcasters that still target Europe and the eastern US on shortwave.
RRI is a treasure of a station, too, with true local flavor–Romanian news, music, and mini cultural documentaries. This Sunday broadcast features the program Inside Romania, Romanian Without Tears (a language program which always reminds me of the similarities between French and Romanian), DX Mailbag, and Roots.
Click here to download the full broadcast as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below. This recording features their interval signal before and after the broadcast:
If you enjoy Radio Romania International, I encourage you to send an accurate and descriptive reception report to: [email protected] Maybe your letter will be featured on their DX Mailbag!
Mount Tavurvur in Papua New Guinea (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Monday morning, I was up earlier than usual and caught Radio Australia’s Tok Pisin (Pacific Pidgin Language Service) on 9,475 kHz.
I doubt many English-speaking SWLing Post readers will understand Tok Pisin if you’re hearing it for the first time, but as with other Pidgin languages throughout the world, Tok Pisin is a mixture of several languages: English, German, Malay, Portuguese and Austronesian languages. It has a comparatively simple structure and you might be surprised what you can understand if the topic shifts to something familiar. I’ve certainly enjoyed listening to it in the background as I work on other projects.
I recorded a full 90 minutes of the Tok Pisin service; you can download it directly by clicking here, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
(Source: BBC News)
Uncertainty about the BBC World Service budget as the corporation prepares to take on full funding of the service is “unacceptable”, MPs have warned.
Foreign Office funding for the service will stop in April 2014 when it will be paid for out of the licence fee.
The Foreign Affairs Committee said the World Service could not “plan properly” because the BBC had yet to issue an operating licence to define its budget.
[…]A World Service spokesman said the change in funding next April, when it will be integrated with the BBC’s domestic news services, “provides certainty and stability”.
But the committee of MPs said it did not see how the World Service could prepare when it would not know “either the priorities, targets or characteristics which have been set for it, or its budget” until a few months before the change came into force.
[…]The committee also warned that, while it was logical to withdraw shortwave radio in dwindling markets where audiences had access to the internet and TV, such services still had a place.
“The World Service must continue to take into account significant audiences in certain parts of the world, such as rural India and Africa, who currently rely on shortwave radio,” it added.
The committee’s report, which also covers the work of the Foreign Office and the British Council, also warns that the UK risks losing credibility if more senior diplomats are not fluent in a range of languages.
Read the full article at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22208426
Thanks for the tip, Andy.
