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’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!

Many thanks to the SWLing Post contributors who share the following tips:

---

Ukraine’s radio station of national resistance (The New Yorker)

High up in the Carpathian Mountains, two Kyiv broadcasters keep the signal alive.

Recently, at a closed ski resort in Ukraine’s Carpathian Mountains, Roman Davydov leaned into a microphone and announced the latest news from the war. Kryvyi Rih, in southern Ukraine, was being attacked; a U.S. journalist had been shot; and the British Foreign Secretary had announced new sanctions on Russian oligarchs in London. Davydov, who is forty-three, with dark hair and an oft-furrowed brow, is the voice of Kraina FM, an independent radio station that, after Russian bombing began in Kyiv, relocated to an undisclosed location. (The staff of Kraina FM asked me not to identify the village, for security reasons.) Outside Davydov’s improvised booth, a corner office lent to Kraina FM by a local accountant, an odd sense of normalcy reigned. Beyond the ski-rental shop, where a cluster of sandbags had been piled, a man in a blue jacket and ski goggles operated a small lift for a children’s slope in the bright sunshine.

The area, which is several hours south of Lviv, has become a shelter for displaced people, Bogdan Bolkhovetsky, Davydov’s colleague, told me. Bolkhovetsky, Kraina FM’s station general manager, said that he and Davydov had arrived in the village “by pure chance.” The west of the country is full of refugees, and there are few places for families to stay as they make their way toward the borders of Europe. “We found this place because it was the only place vacant,” Bolkhovetsky said. They arrived in the evening on February 27th; just days later they were setting up the station in a sloped-ceilinged, wood-panelled space that barely fit their two desks. They acquired laptops and a mixer from the supply of aid making its way from the rest of Europe to Ukraine. “We called our friends in Austria and they were so quick,” Bolkhovetsky said. “Guys we’ve never met just sent us the equipment, and a friend of ours brought this equipment in. I mean, they brought us these German laptops and the mixing console and we’ve never seen these people before.” [Continue reading…]

Russia and Belarus suspended from CEPT membership (CEPT via Southgate ARC)

On March 17 the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications (CEPT) announced the indefinite suspension of Russia and Belarus following the invasion of Ukraine

The CEPT announcement said:

Outcome of the written procedure with the CEPT Assembly regarding suspension of the Russian Federation and Belarus from CEPT Membership.

Based on a request from a number of CEPT members, the CEPT Presidency carried out a written procedure, in accordance with the CEPT Arrangement, on the proposal to suspend indefinitely and with immediate effect the memberships of the Russian Federation and Belarus in the CEPT.

Thirty-four responses were received to the CEPT Assembly letter in support of the proposal and one abstention.

Based on the above, the CEPT Assembly has therefore decided:

1. to suspend indefinitely memberships of the Russian Federation and Belarus in the CEPT.
2. that the suspension of the said CEPT members will take effect as from 00:00 (CET), 18 March 2022.
3. that any future readmission to the CEPT would follow the usual rules established in the CEPT Arrangement, notably the need for a two-thirds majority of members of the CEPT to endorse such a decision.

Moreover, the CEPT Presidency requested the Office to take all necessary measures in order to set in place the above-mentioned decisions.

The CEPT Presidency

Source CEPT
https://cept.org/cept/news/suspension-of-the-russian-federation-and-belarus-from-cept-membership/

ABC wants more journalists, expansion of radio into Pacific region (The Sydney Morning Herald)

The ABC is planning to employ more journalists in the Pacific region and re-establish satellite feeds for its international service under a $12 million request for funding submitted to government last year.

Expansion of ABC Radio Australia across the Pacific into different time zones and creating specialised content focused on the region that can air on ABC television and radio in Australia are among a series of detailed proposals to boost coverage in the region.

ABC managing director David Anderson flagged the plans to increase the broadcaster’s presence in the region last year, but did not go into detail on what the investment would look like. He was still waiting for the government to confirm the next round of triennium funding. The expansion plans were made public in answers to questions asked by the Senate in February.

The ABC said a $12 million submission to government for boosting its presence in the region included the expansion of ABC Radio Australia’s FM footprint across the Pacific and the re-establishment of three satellite feeds for the ABC’s international TV service ABC Australia. [Continue reading…]

Live Ukrainian TV Channel stream

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jonathan Marks, who passes along this note sent to him by a colleague:

Live Ukrainian TV channels translated into English. Several Polish journalist colleagues have passed on this link. It is a live 24/7 broadcast by several Ukrainian TV channels translated simultaneously by a team of Ukrainian conference interpreters. What a brilliant initiative. I hope they get financial and technical support from the #EBU. I see frequent references to Deutsche Welle.

Click here to view the live stream.

Mali bans local broadcasts by leading French radio and TV news outlets (Reporters Without Borders)

The announcement by Mali’s military junta that it plans to suspend local radio and TV news broadcasts by Radio France Internationale (RFI) and France 24 for reporting abuses by the Malian army and its Russian mercenary allies constitutes an attack on press freedom that will hurt the Malian public and all journalists and media in Mali, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says.

Journalists in Mali have been warned. Reporting that annoys Mali’s military government will result in threats, expulsions and broadcasting bans.

In a communiqué signed by Col. Abdoulaye Maïga, the minister for territorial administration and decentralisation, the junta said it was suspending RFI and France 24 following a report that RFI broadcast in two parts on 14 and 15 March about summary executions and looting by Malian soldiers and the Russian security personnel now accompanying them on their operations against terrorists in Mali.

The abuses were widely substantiated in around a dozen statements obtained by RFI and in a report by the NGO Human Rights Watch on Malian army executions of civilians that was released at the same time.

The junta describes the claims as “media hype” aimed at “destabilising the transition” and “discrediting” Mali’s security forces. And in a dangerous and completely baseless attempt at justification, the junta has even gone so far as to compare the reporting by RFI and France 24 to the “actions” of Radio Mille Collines, the radio station that contributed to the Rwandan genocide by broadcasting massacre calls in 1994.

The suspension announced by the junta also concerns the social media accounts of RFI and France 24, while Malian media outlets are also banned from relaying their content. RFI and France 24 are French public broadcasters that are funded by the French state. [Continue reading…]

---

Do you enjoy the SWLing Post?

Please consider supporting us via Patreon or our Coffee Fund!

Your support makes articles like this one possible. Thank you!