(Source: WRTH Editorial Team)
A few hours later than planned, the B12 broadcast schedules update file is now available from the WRTH Website: http://www.wrth.com (and follow the links) the file is in PDF format and requires Acrobat 6 or greater to open it. The file contains updates to the International and Clandestine/Target broadcast schedules published in WRTH2013. We hope you find this a useful accompaniment to the printed book.
Best wishes / 73 from WRTH Editorial team.
(Image: New Zealand Herald)
(Source: Radio Australia)
The Fiji Freedom and Democracy Movement in Australia has leased half an hour a week on the World Radio Network, a shortwave broadcaster, to get its anti-government message across.
Tui Savu, from the Australia-based Fiji Freedom and Democracy Movement told Pacific Beat that they have received positive feedback about the new program’s impact.
“We have had two test broadcasts and we have had our contacts report from all over Fiji. The contacts are coming back that it is being received loud and clear,” he said.
“Fijians, the way they have been raised, is that whatever comes through the media, they take it as gospel. So we are wanting to show an alternative, the other side.”
“The reason why we went for the radio is because the internet is only limited. This is a heart and mind campaign, directed at Fijians staying in the villages and rural areas. These are the people whose only source of information is through the radio.”
At present the program is for just 30 minutes broadcast only in Fijian. But Mr Savo says there are plans to eventually increase the program to one hour and address different groups within Fiji.
“Information is power, and that is why the Government has monopolised the media in Fiji, both the print and the spoken media,” he said.
” They know very well that if people start listening to the truth and to the other versions of what is truly happening in Fiji, then the people will be able to make up their own decisions.”
Clandestine stations often use shortwave radio as a means to broadcast into countries where local radio stations are either government controlled or banned from criticizing the ruling party. Indeed, a few years ago, Radio Australia increased their shortwave offerings in Fiji after being banned from broadcasting within the country.
Tagged: Why Shortwave Radio
I just received this message from Glenn Hauser via the Hard-Core DX group:
** FIJI [non]. As first reported exclusively on WORLD OF RADIO 1617 and DXLD 12-20:
HOT NEWS: A station for Fiji named Domo I Viti should start on 4 June at 0830-0900 on 11565 via WRN from Palau. Not sure what its agenda is, clandestine or at least political? Seems there are at least two programs/stations by same name, in Auckland and Sydney by expatriates. Related to either of them, originating where? E.g.:
http://www.aucklandfiji.org.nz/community_features_view.asp?newsid=408
(Glenn Hauser, OK, May 9, WORLD OF RADIO 1617, DX LISTENING DIGEST)WRN confirms that this new clandestine starts June 4 at 0830-0900 on 11565 via PALAU, and will be weekly on Mondays only. It`s sponsored by the Fiji Freedom and Democracy Movement, based in Adelaide, South Australia.
If anyone can hear it, please note how much, if any, is in English, any contact info, and if possible record an ID. I haven`t found any Adelaide office, altho searching on ABC News stories gets some hits which aren`t very productive.
Note that HFCC has WHRI rather than T8WH registered on 11565 at 08-09. WHR schedules show Angel 4, the most likely transmitter, on 17650 at that time, and Angel 3 on 9930. 11565 was probably just a place-holder in HFCC. Searching WHR program schedules is fruitless (Glenn Hauser, June 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Click here to check out Glenn Hauser’s DX program, World of Radio.
Note that we’ve covered Fiji in the past as their ruling party routinely blocks free press. Click here to read past articles referencing Fiji.
This is a brilliant piece on the lack of press freedom in Zimbabwe and the importance of shortwave radio. It was broadcast yesterday on Weekend All Things Considered. Links to the show and audio are below.
(Source: NPR)
In Seke, a rural community 40 miles outside Harare, James Chidakwa and his father eat roasted nuts and cornmeal inside a small brick hut. They’re farmers who rely heavily on maize and chickens to survive. James Chidakwa says that like many, his family refuses to listen to government TV or radio broadcasts.
“They always lie to the people,” he says. “Everything they say is a lie.”
So at 6 p.m. most evenings, they turn on a battery-powered, short-wave radio and tune in to a “pirate radio station.” Chidakwa says Shortwave Radio Africa and Voice of America are their favorites.
“If you want to hear the truth, wait for the end of the day to listen to Shortwave Radio Africa, to listen to VOA,” he says.
The stations, which are based in the U.K. and the U.S., send their signals through radio towers in countries that border Zimbabwe. That means Zimbabwean officials — who claim these broadcasts are illegal — have little recourse. In the past, they’ve confiscated short-wave radios. Chidakwa says that forces some people to listen undercover.
“Some of them, they will take the radios into their bedrooms and, low volume, they listen to the news. But the truth is, there is fear in them,” he says.
But for Chidakwa and his father, it’s a risk they are prepared to take.
The stations, which are based in the U.K. and the U.S., send their signals through radio towers in countries that border Zimbabwe. That means Zimbabwean officials — who claim these broadcasts are illegal — have little recourse. In the past, they’ve confiscated short-wave radios. Chidakwa says that forces some people to listen undercover.
“Some of them, they will take the radios into their bedrooms and, low volume, they listen to the news. But the truth is, there is fear in them,” he says.
But for Chidakwa and his father, it’s a risk they are prepared to take.
You can listen to the full story from Weekend All Things Considered, by clicking here (mp3), or read the transcript on this page.
This is just one more story we’ll file under “Why Shortwave Radio.”
RCI, and others, I wish you were listening. Those in Zimbabwe certainly are.
In this Miami Herald Op Ed piece, Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat, the national secretary of the Cuban Democratic Directorate, defends his organization and their clandestine station, Radio Republica. It’s worth noting that in an effort to use their limited funds effectively, and to get their message into Cuba, they use shortwave radio as their medium of choice:
(Source: Miami Herald)
Radio República, the Directorate’s 24-hour, seven-day-a-week shortwave radio station, has provided a voice to Cuba’s resistance from the smallest provincial towns to the largest Havana neighborhoods. Its format has been strategically designed to enhance the natural self-defense mechanism of nonviolent struggle generated by Cuban society. Costing between $1.5 million to $2 million a year, Radio República’s budget accounts for over 50 percent of the Directorate’s annual funds from federal grants. These costs are far below the annual budgets of both public and commercial shortwave radio stations.
Likewise, it is undeniable that Directorio has made a vital contribution to the changing attitudes of the international community towards the Castro regime. The Cuban pro-democracy leadership has moved from international neglect to international recognition, winning prestigious awards like the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize and nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize in the process.
[…]The truth is that the testimony of hundreds of civic resistance leaders throughout the island shows that Radio República has become an essential tool for social organization.
Though they carry a different message, the choice in shortwave radio is the same for Charles Caudill and WCB.