Category Archives: Broadcasters

John follows Radio Australia schedule changes

SX-99-Dial

Yesterday, John Figliozzi (editor of The Worldwide Listening Guide) followed Radio Australia schedule changes as he heard them online and over the air:

“Listening in now (1415 GMT/UTC) on 12065 kHz. and via the internet, the scheduled program (up to now) “Late Night Live” is missing with alternative rock music from Triple J taking its place at this time. On the RA web page, there is a notice stating:

“Schedule update
We are in the process of updating our radio schedule. We’re introducing some new shows and some existing ones have moved to new time slots. Please stay tuned, we’ll be publishing the full new schedule soon.”

LNL is a Radio National-sourced program, so I gather this means it’s either being moved to a new time slot or (hopefully not) dropped altogether. No doubt a bit of confusion wrought by the thoroughly precipitous manner in which the ABC has had to adjust to the government budget cut that prompted that all this, a budget cut the Coalition had claimed prior to its election that it was in no way contemplating.”

Three hours later:

“At this point, it appears that Radio Australia shortwave frequencies and online is just relaying Triple J Unearthed, one of the ABC’s all digital networks, that plays new Australian music 24/7 with occasional IDs but no DJ commentary.

Then four hours later:

“A more normalized schedule appears back in place as “Pacific Beat” was heard via the RA internet stream from just past 1900 until 2100 GMT.  This is the two hour morning edition of the program which carried a very nice tribute to the “retiring” Sean Dorney, the ABC’s and RA’s Pacific correspondent, after 40 years with the organization.  There was a reminder at the end of the program for listeners to tune into the afternoon edition of the program later in the day, which if memory serves is a shortened compilation of some of the morning content.  Perhaps the earlier relay of Triple J Unearthed is just a temporary placeholder or is intended as overnight programming (Australian time)?

Listening now (2100) via shortwave.  17860 putting in a steady listenable signal peaking at S8 albeit with the usual local late afternoon QRN.  “ABC News for Radio Australia” followed by “AM”, morning news program at 2110.”

Be sure to check out John Figliozzi’s book, The Worldwide Listening Guide online–click here for my most recent review.

Thanks for sharing this, John! 

Radio World: International Broadcasters Reconsider Shortwave

Sackville-radio-towers-li

Check out this article from Radio World which addresses the state of shortwave radio broadcasting.

Jeff White of WRMI and Kim Elliott of the VOA are both interviewed. Elliott even speaks about the virtues of the VOA Radiogram experiments which have had success circumventing shortwave radio jamming (broadcasts which were completely omitted from the BBG Special Committee report on the efficacy of shortwave radio).

Click here to read the full article at Radio World.

BBC Radio 4 Extra: The First Pirate

RadioNormandy

The First Pirate is the title of a Radio 4 Extra–an interview with Les Woodland who tells the story of Captain Plugge, founder of Radio Normandy, the first station to take on the BBC.

(Source: Southgate ARC)

Capt Leonard Plugge was the driving force behind Radio Normandy in the early 1930s. He created the International Broadcasting Company in 1931 as a commercial rival to the British Broadcasting Corporation by buying airtime from radio stations such as Normandy, Toulouse, Ljubljana, Juan les Pins, Paris, Poste Parisien, Athlone, Barcelona, Madrid and Rome. IBC worked indirectly with Radio Luxembourg until 1936. World War II silenced most of Plugge’s stations between 1939 and 1945.

Click here to listen to The First Pirate which will be broadcast on Thursday, August 21st 2014 at 05:30, 12:30, and 19:30 UTC and Friday August 22 at 1:30 UTC. 

Shortwave Radio Recordings: All India Radio

"India (orthographic projection)" by Ssolbergj (talk) - Own work,This vector image was created with Inkscape.Aquarius.geomar.deThe map has been created with the Generic Mapping Tools: http://gmt.soest.hawaii.edu/ using one or more of these public domain datasets for the relief:ETOPO2 (topography/bathymetry): http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/global.htmlGLOBE (topography): http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/topo/gltiles.htmlSRTM (topography): http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/English | italiano | ?????????? | ??? | +/?Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:India_(orthographic_projection).svg#mediaviewer/File:India_(orthographic_projection).svg

One of my favorite shortwave stations for music, besides ERT Open (former Voice of Greece), is All India Radio (AIR).

Since their broadcasts originate on the other side of the planet (from my North American location), their signal bounces off the ionosphere many times before I ever hear it. I actually like the result of this; the static of space makes their already beautiful music sound even more textured, enhancing the distance of its source, and heightening the music’s sense of mystery and nostalgia.

I recorded this AIR broadcast on August 14th, 2014–around 20:45 UTC–on 9,445 kHz. You can download the MP3 by clicking here, or simply listen in the embedded player below. Enjoy!

Snow on the Dial – The Voice of Denendeh Falls Silent

Garth-MullinsIf you enjoyed Garth Mullins’ radio documentary “End of the Dial” you might also enjoy his  follow up, “Snow on the Dial-The Voice of Denendeh Falls Silent.” 

Mullins also produces the podcast, East Van Calling, which focuses on radio and various social justice issues in Canada. Subscribe to East Van Calling via SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/garthmullins/sets/east-van-calling-podcast

Radio: “a rare dimension to our human experience”

SX-99-DialRegarding Garth Mullins’ radio documentary, SWLing Post reader, David Korchin, comments:

“I got my start in a small FM station in Saskatoon—CFMC, doing overnights, then drive, then mornings.

Kind of a loose format, and with such a small staff that we were all doing each others’ jobs. When the news guy went on vacation, I got to rip-and-read.

Later I moved to another market, with a bigger transmitter and more audience, a tighter format and rules about what you could say and play—but the lone magic of talking into the mic and being in the ears of a complete stranger never left.

It’s why I’m a Ham, I suppose. It’s already depressing that the biggies like Netherlands and Canada and others have tuned out. I hate to ponder the End of Radio—it’s like losing an untouchable, rare dimension to our human experience.”

David Korchin (K2WNW) is also a talented photographer; check out his website–One Camera One Lens–and especially his photography project, The Hamateur. Amazing images…

Many thanks for sharing your thoughts, David!