Category Archives: Broadcasters

The BBC World Service has a new theme

For 70 years, far-flung listeners knew they had found the BBC on their radio dial when they heard the jaunty notes of the Irish jig Lillibulero. Its brassy, old-fashioned sound spoke of men in dinner jackets and vintage radio microphones, and there was a minor public outcry when it was formally dropped more than a decade ago.

Since then the World Service, which has an audience of 79 million, has used a musical motif which, according to controller Mary Hockaday “changed every now and then in rather an ad hoc way”.

But from tomorrow morning, the English-language station will have a new jingle, letting listeners across the world know unquestionably that London is calling. The signature tune is a nod to the station’s long traditions, with even a beat or two of the BBC’s famous pips to send a message about values in an age of “fake news”.[…]

Click here to read the full story at The Guardian.

Spread the radio love

FCC Audio Programming Inquiry: Implications for HF Broadcasting

2 Replies

Many thanks to Bennett Z. Kobb, Kim Andrew Elliott, and Christopher Rumbaugh for authoring “Comments of the High Frequency Parties” that is now filed with the FCC.

Update: please also check out this FAQ.

Here’s the introduction:

The Public Notice in MB Docket 18-227 requests comment on “whether laws, regulations,
regulatory practices or demonstrated marketplace practices pose a barrier to competitive
entry into the marketplace for the delivery of audio programming … [and] concerning the
extent to which any such laws, regulations or marketplace practices affect entry barriers for
entrepreneurs and other small businesses in the marketplace for the delivery of audio
programming.”

The Commission’s Rules do pose barriers to entry and unnecessarily restrict the licensing
and delivery of programming by International Broadcast Stations.

These rules originated in a period when the government utilized or countenanced privately owned, high-frequency (HF, 3-30 MHz) broadcasters as voices against foreign adversaries.
The rules prohibit stations directed primarily to U.S. audiences. They impose detailed
language, announcement, advertising and record keeping practices, require monitoring of
foreign market particulars, and mandate a minimum DSB transmission power level that is
excessive for domestic service and textual and image content.

These and certain other obsolete restrictions are overdue for review and revision or deletion.[…]

Click here to download and read the full document as a PDF.

Click here to check out the FAQ regarding the HF Broadcasting Filing.

Spread the radio love

New Zealand invests in free-to-air broadcasts to Pacific

Photos from CBC/Radio-Canada broadcast house in Québec City

2 Replies

So as many of you now know, I’m in Québec, Canada, at the moment, and was here when Scott Simon with NPR’s Weeked Edition called.

The show’s senior producer, Ned Wharton, asked if I would mind stepping into the Radio Canada/CBC broadcast house in Québec City for a studio-to-studio interview. It’s perhaps a thirty minute drive from where I’m staying. I don’t think Ned wanted to inconvenience me, but little did he know that this radio geek has been itching to poke my head in that building for the past decade or more…Way cool!

So, I stepped in. And it was a great experience. Want to see what the studio looks like?

The interview took place in a small recording studio.

My recording booth at Radio-Canada/CBC Québec City

Everything (the board) was controlled by NPR at the other end of the connection. All I had to do was adjust my monitor level. Not the best photo–the front-facing camera on my old iPhone 5 can’t handle low light–but here’s another studio shot…

After the interview, I stepped outside into the atrium and took shots of the radio studio entrance and the main atrium.

Unfortunately, there was no one available to take me on a full tour as everyone was preparing afternoon shows. That’s okay, though, as I was excited just to get a peek in the studios! Great fun.

Spread the radio love

Skelton, Penrith and the World 1943-1993

Encompass Digital Media has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Babcock’s Media Services

Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) rebranded as U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM)

3 Replies

(Source: BBG/USAGM Press Release)

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22, 2018

John Lansing (Source: BBG)

Effective immediately, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), an independent U.S. government agency that employs thousands of talented journalists, storytellers, and media professionals, is now the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).

The U.S. Agency for Global Media is a modern media organization, operating far beyond the traditional broadcast mediums of television and radio to include digital and mobile platforms. The term “broadcasting” does not accurately describe what we do. The new name reflects our modernization and forward momentum while honoring our enduring mission to inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.

We recognize the overdue need to communicate the evolving, global scope of our work as well as our renewed, urgent focus on the agency’s global priorities, which reflect U.S. national security and public diplomacy interests. USAGM is an independent federal agency that provides accurate, professional, and objective news and information around-the-globe in a time of shifting politics, challenging media landscapes, and weaponized information. Our identity and name will now address these realities.

The decision to change our name was a result of thorough research and extensive consultation with numerous internal and external stakeholders, including the BBG Board of Governors, agency staff and leadership at all levels, the five networks, Congress, the Administration, and interagency colleagues.

As with the BBG, the U.S. Agency for Global Media encompasses five networks: the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Television and Radio Martí), Radio Free Asia (RFA), and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN). These networks collectively reach an unduplicated weekly audience of 278 million people in 59 languages and in more than 100 countries. Insulated by a firewall from political influence, these networks will continue to deliver truth and professional journalism to people living in some of the world’s most closed societies.

Now more than ever, people around the world need access to the truth. USAGM continues to tell the truth, and illuminate the world like no other news organization in the world.

Video: Lansing On USAGM

Click here to view on YouTube.

Learn more about U.S. Agency for Global Media

For more information

Nasserie Carew

US Agency for Global Media Public Affairs

202-203-4400

[email protected]

Spread the radio love