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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), who shares information about a new survey via Radio Romania International:
PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR 2015 ON RRI
2015-11-14 16:21:00
Dear friends, RRI continues its traditional polling of listeners on short wave, the Internet and social media, with a new challenge.
We would like to ask you which person you think left their imprint on the world in a positive way in 2015. We are preparing to designate, based on your options, “The Personality of the Year 2015 on RRI”.
We also want to ask you why you picked that particular person. It could be a politician, a trendsetter, a businessman, an athlete, an artist, a scientist, or even a regular person with a special story. It’s up to you!
You can send your answers, as usual, by commenting on our website, at rri.ro, by e-mail at [email protected], on our Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles, by fax at 00.40.21.319.05.62, or by post, at 60-64, General Berthelot street, sector 1, Bucharest, zip code 010165 (PO Box 111), Romania.
The “Personality of the year 2014 on RRI” was the young Pakistani human rights militant Malala Yousafzai, a co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
“The Personality of the year 2015 on RRI” will be announced on January 1st 2016.
Peter Donaldson (23 August 1945 – 2 November 2015) Image source: BBC
If you live in the UK and listen to the radio, you’ve probably heard that long-time announcer/broadcaster Peter Donaldson died earlier this week. For years–decades actually–Donaldson was a prominent voice on Radio 4.
Donaldson was also well-loved by his listeners, and his colleagues at the BBC (read this touching tribute).
Donaldson had a familiar, calming voice; perhaps that’s why he was asked by the BBC to record a series of informational messages in the event of a nuclear war.
“BBC newsreader Peter Donaldson, who has died aged 70, was to have been the voice of radio bulletins in the event of a nuclear attack. What would have gone out on the UK’s airwaves if the Cold War had turned hot?
“This is the Wartime Broadcasting Service. This country has been attacked with nuclear weapons. Communications have been severely disrupted, and the number of casualties and the extent of the damage are not yet known.”
So began the script, read by Peter Donaldson, which was to go out on British airwaves in the event of nuclear war.”
Here’s an audio clip from Peter Donaldson’s pre-recorded announcement:
While I’m an avid radio listener, I should hope I never hear a similar message over the air (even though Donaldson’s voice is indeed quite calming).
If you’re curious, here is the full Wartime Broadcasting Service official post-attack statement, courtesy of Wikipedia:
This is the Wartime Broadcasting Service. This country has been attacked with nuclear weapons. Communications have been severely disrupted, and the number of casualties and the extent of the damage are not yet known. We shall bring you further information as soon as possible. Meanwhile, stay tuned to this wavelength, stay calm and stay in your own homes.
Remember there is nothing to be gained by trying to get away. By leaving your homes you could be exposing yourselves to greater danger. If you leave, you may find yourself without food, without water, without accommodation and without protection. Radioactive fall-out, which follows a nuclear explosion, is many times more dangerous if you are directly exposed to it in the open. Roofs and walls offer substantial protection. The safest place is indoors.
Make sure gas and other fuel supplies are turned off and that all fires are extinguished. If mains water is available, this can be used for fire-fighting. You should also refill all your containers for drinking water after the fires have been put out, because the mains water supply may not be available for very long.
Water must not be used for flushing lavatories: until you are told that lavatories may be used again, other toilet arrangements must be made. Use your water only for essential drinking and cooking purposes. Water means life. Don’t waste it.
Make your food stocks last: ration your supply, because it may have to last for fourteen days or more. If you have fresh food in the house, use this first to avoid wasting it: food in tins will keep.
If you live in an area where a fall-out warning has been given, stay in your fall-out room until you are told it is safe to come out. When the immediate danger has passed the sirens will sound a steady note. The “all clear” message will also be given on this wavelength. If you leave the fall-out room to go to the lavatory or replenish food or water supplies, do not remain outside the room for a minute longer than is necessary.
Do not, in any circumstances, go outside the house. Radioactive fall-out can kill. You cannot see it or feel it, but it is there. If you go outside, you will bring danger to your family and you may die. Stay in your fall-out room until you are told it is safe to come out or you hear the “all clear” on the sirens.
Here are the main points again:
Stay in your own homes, and if you live in an area where a fall-out warning has been given stay in your fall-out room, until you are told it is safe to come out. The message that the immediate danger has passed will be given by the sirens and repeated on this wavelength. Make sure that the gas and all fuel supplies are turned off and that all fires are extinguished.
Water must be rationed, and used only for essential drinking and cooking purposes. It must not be used for flushing lavatories. Ration your food supply: it may have to last for fourteen days or more.
We shall repeat this broadcast in two hours’ time. Stay tuned to this wavelength, but switch your radios off now to save your batteries until we come on the air again. That is the end of this broadcast.
PRI’s The World featured a story about Peter Donaldson as well, and it was mentioned that perhaps the US has a similar “official” post-attack statement. I’m willing to bet we do, but I’m not sure how it would be disseminated over radio. Unlike the UK, we don’t have local relays of a government broadcaster. We do have the Emergency Alert Service which is directly tied to local and national broadcasting outlets–assuming satellite feeds are still functioning, that is.
The Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department are investigating a California firm whose U.S. radio broadcasts are backed by a subsidiary of the Chinese government, officials said.
Both investigations come in response to a Reuters report published on Monday that revealed the existence of the covert radio network, which broadcasts in more than a dozen American cities, including Washington, Philadelphia, Boston, Houston and San Francisco. (reut.rs/1Wrflt4)
“Based on reports, the FCC will initiate an inquiry into the facts surrounding the foreign ownership issues raised in the stories, including whether the Commission’s statutory foreign ownership rules have been violated,” FCC spokesman Neil Grace said.
The California firm is owned by James Su, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Shanghai. Reuters reported Monday that Su’s company, G&E Studio Inc, is 60 percent owned by a subsidiary of Chinese state-run radio broadcaster China Radio International (CRI).
The FCC doesn’t restrict content on U.S. radio stations, except for rules covering indecency, political advertising and children’s programming.
But under U.S. law, the FCC prohibits foreign governments or their representatives from holding a radio license for a U.S. broadcast station. Foreign individuals, governments and corporations are permitted to hold up to 20 percent ownership directly in a station and up to 25 percent in the U.S. parent corporation of a station.
G&E does not own any U.S. stations, but it leases two 50,000-watt stations: WCRW in Washington for more than $720,000 a year, and WNWR in Philadelphia for more than $600,000 a year.
Through a different set of limited liability companies, Su owns, co-owns or leases virtually all the air time on at least a dozen other U.S. stations. Those stations carry G&E content, which is produced largely by his West Covina, California studios or by state-run CRI in Beijing….
In August, foreign ministers from 10 nations blasted China for building artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea. As media around the world covered the diplomatic clash, a radio station that serves the most powerful city in America had a distinctive take on the news.
Located outside Washington, D.C., WCRW radio made no mention of China’s provocative island project. Instead, an analyst explained that tensions in the region were due to unnamed “external forces” trying “to insert themselves into this part of the world using false claims.”
Behind WCRW’s coverage is a fact that’s never broadcast: The Chinese government controls much of what airs on the station, which can be heard on Capitol Hill and at the White House.
[…]A typical hour on most stations begins with a short newscast that can toggle between China news and stories about violent crimes in the United States. Besides the overtly political coverage, topics range from global currency fluctuations and Chinese trade missions to celebrity wardrobe analysis and modern parenting challenges.
[G&E president and CEO James Su] declined to describe how he makes money when most of the U.S. stations air virtually no commercials. He also declined to say how he got the money to finance his radio leases and acquisitions.
His stations, Su said, offer the American public an alternative viewpoint on Chinese culture and politics. He has “no way to control” what CRI broadcasts on the stations, he said, nor is he part of any plan to spread Chinese propaganda.
“We are only telling the unfiltered real news to our audience,” he said.
On Oct. 29, WCRW carried a program called “The Hourly News.” Among the top stories: Senior Chinese and U.S. naval commanders planned to speak by video after a U.S. Navy ship passed close by China’s new artificial islands in the South China Sea.
Washington and its allies see the island-building program as a ploy to grab control of strategic sea lanes, and the Navy sail-by was meant to counter China’s territorial claims.
WCRW omitted that side of the story.
The admirals are holding the talks, the announcer said, “amid the tension the U.S. created this week.”
Beginning November 14th, 2015. PCJ Radio International will offer a series of special broadcasts before the end of the year for listeners in Europe and Southeast Asia.
Time: 0900 to 1000 UTC
Frequency: 17825khz
November 14th – Say It With Music
November 21st – Call it Ukraine
November 28th – Rockin’ with Raoul
December 5th – Classics with David Monson
December 12th – Special Jazz For The Asking
December 19th – European radio during WW2 (documentary)
December 26th – Special listeners programs
Each of these special transmissions will have a special E-QSL.
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, David LW4DAF, who shares this link from RCI news:
After seven days of walking, a group of supporters of Canada’s public broadcaster, has reached its goal on Parliament Hill in the national capital, Ottawa.
The group calling itself “Tous Amis de Radio-Canada” is protesting the severe budgte cutbacks to the institution. They, and the English equivalent “Friends of the CBC” say the funding reductions from the federal government have resulted in severe staff reductions in the past couple of years, along with an inability to properly fulfill its role.
The group of marchers and supporters stood on Parliament Hill today after walking about 200 km to arrive in the capital on this National thanksgiving holiday to deliver a message to politicians now in the final stretch of a close federal election campaign.
The group says that Radio-Canada/CBC has always been a vital national cultural institution, and critical source of Canadian viewpoints on world affairs. It notes however, that role is increasingly more important in the light of a globalized digital world, where the voice of Canada as a producer, distributor, and aggregator of domestic and world news from a Canadian perspective, current affairs, and Canadian entertainment, is often swamped by the vastly bigger content from foreign sources.
“The objective of this monitoring programme is to identify stations whose emissions in bands between 2 850 kHz and 28 000 kHz are not in conformity with the RR and to provide administrations that do not have monitoring facilities with information for frequency management purposes.
?The Bureau prepares a publication containing spectrum monitoring information in the frequency bands between 2 850 kHz and 28 000 kHz submitted by administrations in accordance with BR Circular-letter CR/159 of 9 May 2001.”
The data can be downloaded in spreadsheet format, organized by monitoring date. It’s an amazing amount of information–a decent survey of what can be found on the bands.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), who shares information about a new survey via Radio Romania International:
