Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Mike, who notes this brief announcement from Radio Taiwan International:
“Starting from March 29th, RTI will terminate its transmission to Europe on 3965 KHz and to Africa on 11975 KHZ following the end of cooperation between RTI and RFI. Listeners in the two continents are encouraged to listen to our [programs] online.”
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Richard Cuff, for sharing this article from The National:
Radio wars: information battle heats up as Russia and China muscle in
For about 70 years it was the base of the BBC World Service. Bush House, with its grand marble entrance in central London, stood as a powerful symbol of the BBC, home to the short-wave radio services that delivered news to dozens of countries in more than 40 languages. But the lights went out in 2012 when the World Service moved to the more prosaic Broadcasting House; two years later it lost its annual £245 million (Dh1.341 billion) grant from the UK’s government.
Both changes are symptomatic of the BBC’s less certain place in the broadcasting world as other countries significantly ramp up recruitment and funding for their own equivalent services.
Last December, Peter Horrocks, the BBC World Service’s former director, warned that the West was losing the “information war” with Moscow as the old Cold War foe pumped out wave after wave of pro-Kremlin propaganda on its rapidly expanding radio, TV and online platforms.
Horrocks had called for a rethink on financial assistance from the UK government as, even before the grant was ended, cutbacks in 2011 forced the closure of five language services and some short-wave broadcasts.
“We are being financially outgunned by Russia and the Chinese. Medium to long term there has to be an anxiety about the spending of others compared to what the BBC are putting into it,” he said.
It is now all too clear that established broadcasters that are based in the West, such as Radio Free Asia, Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe (RFE) – funded mainly through an agency of the US government – and the BBC are facing increased competition. Last November, Moscow rebranded its international English-language radio service: Radio Sputnik replaced the Voice of Russia and funding was increased for a new state-owned global news agency, Rossiya Segodnya.
Meanwhile, Beijing’s China Radio International (CRI) is an important part of the Communist Party’s foreign policy. CRI uses internet, short wave and satellite to broadcast around the world in dozens of languages, while Radio Sputnik has ambitions to broadcast in 30 languages across more than 130 countries by the end of the year.[…]
If you enjoy listening to The Mighty KBC, you’ll want to note these frequency changes and additions:
Frequency changes for The Mighty KBC
We are delighted to announce that from the 1st June 2015, KBC will be heard daily on medium wave. We will broadcast on 1602 kHz between 07.00 – 19.00 CET from transmitters aboard the LV Jenni Baynton.
Our Sunday shortwave transmissions will continue on 6095 and we will add an extra hour onto 7375 transmission.
To facilitate these latest changes, our Saturday 6095 transmissions will end on Saturday March 28th but all regular shows will be maintained on a new KBC Internet stream which will be available online 24/7.
Also, look out later this year for KBC on DAB+
We hope you enjoy our new outlets and will join KBC on MW, SW, DAB+ and Online.Check out our website kbcradio.eu and our FB page facebook.com/TheMightyKBc for all the latest news.
DW’s relay station in Kigali (Source: Deutsche Welle)
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Mike, who writes:
“I wanted to pass on a quick (and unfortunate) word that Deutsche Welle will be closing its Kigali, Rwanda relay on March 28th. This word came from the Wavescan program on WRMI. I would highly recommend that anyone who would like a QSL response from DW should get their correspondences in as soon as possible. It seems that the site will be dismantled shortly afterward. In addition it seems that tests are ongoing at RFI’s Issoudun site by DW to replace some of the broadcasts that used to originate from their Kigali relay.
I find the closing of another landmark relay a greatly displeasing event especially due to the short time frame between the announcement of the closure and the actual closure date. I find it surprising as well due to the lack of mention of any recent budget cuts at Deutsche Welle.”
As Mike mentions, the relay is scheduled to close on March 28, 2015–if you’d like to log this site, you’ll need to do so very soon. Click here for current schedules. Kigali is Deutsche Welle’s only remaining relay station.
RadioWorld magazine also posted a short news item about the Kigali closure–click here to read.
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Bill Patalon, for sharing this article about potential reform at Italy state broadcaster, RAI:
(Source: The Economist)
“SELDOM has an organisational chart prompted a defamation trial. Yet judges in Milan recently heard a case involving a colour-coded table published by Libero, a newspaper. The chart listed 900 executives of Italy’s public television and radio network, RAI, and the political parties to which they supposedly owed their appointment. Dismissing charges of libel, the judges said it was well known that, in RAI, “even the most meritorious individuals are favoured by their acquaintanceships in political circles”.
Italian commentators call RAI the “mirror of the nation”: an institution so permeated by competing interests that it sometimes anticipates political shifts even before they surface. Once, this was not unhealthy. Instead of being in thrall to the government of the day, RAI offered contrasting viewpoints. The Christian Democrats controlled the first television channel, the Socialists the second and, from 1979, the Communists a third. All three parties disintegrated in the 1990s, but the idea that politicians were entitled to meddle in RAI survived. The number of newsrooms grew to 11, as did a spirit of fierce internal rivalry.
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Richard Cuff, for sharing this news from The Telegraph:
“The BBC is planning a new North Korea service to give the totalitarian state’s 25 million people an alternative to Kim Jong-un’s propaganda.
In a move that could plunge the corporation into confrontation with the North Korean dictator, the World Service is examining how to set up a special news channel that will get around Pyongyang’s ban on foreign media broadcasts.
The plan has echoes of Western broadcasts into the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries during the Cold War, when the BBC, Radio Free Europe and Voice of America all broadcasted to listeners behind the Iron Curtain.
However, it is likely to spark fury from Pyongyang’s volatile leadership, and could lead to the British embassy in Pyongyang being targeted for protests or being shut down altogether.
It could also put Britain in the firing line for North Korean-led cyberattacks, such as the one that targeted Sony Pictures last year over its film “The Interview”, which lampooned Kim Jong-un.”[…]
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Merkouris, who writes:
I’ve just thought that the shortwave schedule of ERT Open, published on the 28th of February, might be of interest to you and the readers of the SWLing Post.
Here is the link in Greek and below is the translation in English [by time, region, frequency, and program]:
0000-1500 UTC, Europe/North America, 9420 kHz, ERA Athens
1500-2400 UTC, Europe/North America, 9415 kHz, ERA Athens
1100-0450 UTC, Europe/Central America, 9935 kHz, ERA Athens
0500-1050 UTC, Central & South Africa, 11645 kHz, ERA Athens
0000-0550 UTC, Russia/Japan, 15630 kHz, ERA Athens
0600-1850 UTC, Europe/Central America, 15630 kHz, ERA Athens
1900-2350 UTC, Middle East – Australia, 15650 kHz, ERA Athens
(Photo source: AP / Petros Giannakouris)
Merkouris also included links to the following reports from Greek and English language news sources.
(Source: ANAmpa.gr)
ANA – MPA — A draft bill to reestablish defunct public broadcaster ERT was released to public consultation on Monday afternoon, under the title “Regulations on issues of the state radio and television agency, Hellenic Radio and Television SA, and amendment of article 48 of Law 2190-1920.”
The consultation period will end at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday.
[…]It also said it was reinstating all the ERT staff who had permanent contracts by June 11, 2013 and said a fee of 3 euros would be introduced for ERT on PPC bills and the present name of the public broadcaster (“NERIT S.A.”) be replaced by ERT S.A.
This is an interesting development for the Greek public broadcaster. Of course, even if the bill passes, it is unknown how this could affect shortwave radio relays. I must say that I’m impressed that ERT Open has been broadcasting on shortwave a good 1.5 years after they should have been closed down. (Personally, I hope they never go off the air as I love ERT Open’s weekend music programs!)
Again, many thanks Merkouris for sharing this schedule and breaking news. Please keep us informed!