Category Archives: International Broadcasting

How Tudor enjoys Radio Australia

In response to my recent Radio Australia post, SWLing Post reader, Tudor Vedeanu comments:

“I’ve also enjoyed listening to music on Radio Australia lately. “Saturday Night Country” is currently my favorite show on SW. Here is a recording I made during the weekend:
http://youtu.be/CHv1hu2OVH8“

“And indeed Triple J is very good too. I discovered some nice music from talented people I’ve never heard about in my part of the world.”

Tudor, it appears you (and your pup!) live in a very beautiful part of the world. The Romanian countryside certainly makes for a scenic radio listening backdrop. I, too, am a big fan of Saturday Night Country–great stuff!

Many thanks for sharing!

BBC World Service Director, Peter Horrocks, to resign

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BBC World Service Director, Peter Horrocks (Source: BBC)

Another hat tip to Jonathan Marks for this press release from the BBC:

(Source: BBC Media Centre)

Peter Horrocks, Director of the BBC World Service Group, today announced that he will be leaving the BBC in the new year.

Peter Horrocks has been Director of the World Service since 2009 and has worked at the BBC for 33 years.

Under Peter’s leadership weekly audiences for the BBC’s global news services – BBC World Service, BBC World News and BBC.com – have reached a record 265m.

Peter has led the World Service through some of its most challenging times, responding to funding cuts by modernising the World Service for the digital age.

He successfully oversaw one of the biggest changes in the history of the World Service as it moved from Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) funding into the licence fee, leaving its historic headquarters of Bush House for the BBC’s New Broadcasting House.

BBC World News has undergone a creative renewal that is being appreciated by audiences around the world and bbc.com/news now regularly achieves one billion page views a month. BBC News is the most retweeted news source in the world.

Peter Horrocks said: “It has been a privilege to be Director of the BBC World Service, which is loved and trusted by hundreds of millions of people around the world.

“I am hugely proud of the dedication, the creativity and the reinvention shown by my team. The World Service now has its largest ever audience, an expanding number of languages, and is modernised and transformed for a digital age.

“Having overseen this recovery and taken the World Service into the new era of licence fee funding, it is time for me to move on to my next challenge. I will miss the BBC but am confident that the BBC’s global news services are in strong shape for the future.”

Director-General of the BBC, Tony Hall, said: “Peter’s remarkable career at the BBC has spanned more than three decades. Starting as a News trainee, he established himself as the youthful editor of Public Eye before going on to lead teams that produced some of the BBC’s most important news programmes, including Newsnight and Panorama. He also edited general election programmes before running several News departments, latterly the World Service Group.

“Those who have worked with him know of his energy, drive, his passion for journalism and his innovation but they have also come to appreciate his editorial integrity and his deeply rooted sense of BBC values. He leaves us as one of our most respected leaders. He is a force of nature and we will miss him.”

Director of BBC News and Current Affairs, James Harding, said: “Peter Horrocks has been a defining figure in the modern history of the BBC World Service and global news. He has demanded the highest standards of its journalism, he has driven innovation in the ways we tell stories and deliver the news, he has opened the BBC to new voices and fresh ideas and he has presided over the extraordinary growth of the BBC’s worldwide audience.

“His sharp intellect, open-mindedness and good judgment have shaped BBC News and Current Affairs for three decades. He has recruited and inspired hundreds of people here in the UK and around the world. And, like few others, he has set his stamp on both the programmes and the personality of the BBC.

“Since I joined the BBC last year, Peter has been a constant source of good advice, organisational wisdom and personal support. Of course, I respect Peter’s decision to move on, but, both personally and as an organisation, we will miss him.”

The BBC will advertise for Peter’s successor as Director, World Service Group.

About Peter Horrocks:

Peter Horrocks has worked in a wide variety of roles across BBC News since 1981. He has been editor of Newsnight and Panorama and produced TV election results programmes in 1992 and 1997. He has been Head of Current Affairs, Head of TV News and he created the BBC’s multimedia newsroom department in 2007.

As Director of the World Service Group Peter Horrocks has responsibility for World Service English radio, multimedia services in 28 languages, BBC World News TV, BBC.com/news and BBC Monitoring. He also chairs the BBC’s international media charity BBC Media Action.

Shortwave Radio Recordings: Alcaravan Radio

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Alcaravan Radio’s antenna site and transmitter house.

Yesterday, August 8, I was able to record Alcaravan Radio out of Puerto Lleras, Columbia. Alcaravan Radio broadcasts domestically on medium wave and also on 5.91 MHZ shortwave, from 23:30-12:00 UTC.

Though typical summer conditions meant for a higher noise levels, Alcaravan’s 1 kW signal still punched through the static and made for pleasant listening. In this recording, I was using the WinRadio Excalibur, but I listened for a couple of hours on the Elad FDM-S2 as well–both did an equally good job while connected to my large sky loop antenna.

To be clear, 1 kW is low output power by international broadcasting standards. Alcaravan Radio was not audible on the Tecsun PL-660 nor the Sony ICF-SW7600GR, though I have heard them on portables in the past during the late fall and winter months. Still, you might be able to snag them on a portable when summer conditions are favorable!

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Click here to view an Alcaravan Radio QSL and transmitter site images.

VOA Greek language service to end Tuesday, August 12

End of an era: The Greek Service of the Voice of America ceases operations

The end of operation of the Greek Service of VOA (Voice of America) after 72 years was announced yesterday by the radio network. The decision was taken due to cuts in the budget allocated for the operation of the news organization, but also due to the effort to use the broadcaster for the diplomatic needs of the United States. The last show will be aired Tuesday morning via satellite and it will be relayed to Greece by Skai Radio and City 106,1 in Thessaloniki. The first broadcast of the Voice of America, the official foreign-language radio in the United States was the February 1, 1942 in German with the announcer WIlliam Harlan Hale. The Greek was one of the 25 languages of the first network and airs on November 1, 1942.

The history of the Greek service

The presence of the Voice of America was very evident in the Greek territory, as the giant of American propaganda during the Cold War had settled in Greece, two of the most powerful transmitters in order to broadcast to Eastern Europe.

The radio transmitters of the Voice of America settled in Greece after the civil war, as part of the implementation of the Truman Doctrine. Then, the American state sent to Greece a set of equipment, “to facilitate the Greek Institute of Radio”, but which was used extensively for broadcasts programs from Washington. The first equipment arrived in 1949, and included a medium wave transmitter WESTERN ELECTRIC 50 KW and four shortwave transmitters COLLINS 30 KW, placed by the Voice of America in Perea Thessaloniki, by providing facilities for radio broadcast abroad: ‘Voice of homeland “of E.I.R (later the 5th of ERA). Also, the Voice of America originally had a floating the radio station on the medium wave powered 150 KW, aboard a ship called Courier, which was anchored in Rhodes and had its antenna mounted on a balcony.

The almost arbitrary installations of radio transmitters legalized later by a series of agreements between the American and the Greek Government and the relocation of equipment in Rhodes (Koskinous, Sgouros, Afandou), Xanthi (Dasochori) and Kavala (Agiasma). The last two agreements in 1997 and 2002, under which the American service undertook the responsibility to provide technical assistance and equipment (transmitters medium and short) to the Greek Radio. The transmitters in the Greek area set off in 2006, as part of policy to reduce shortwave. Then it was considered that the Greek stops as well, but the reactions of Greek-American associations eventually blocked the decision and the Greek radio program continued to broadcast via satellite, internet and FM stations as relayed by the Sky and the City International.

In 2006, despite the fact that the Voice of America left behind two very powerful transmitters, which could be used by the Greek Radio, eventually due to high maintenance cost , the broadcasting sites remained inoperative. Indeed, a few months ago, the abandoned facilities of the Voice of America in Xanthi to contain dangerous materials for the environment.

Readers: please contact me if you are able to record this final broadcast as I would like to add it to the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.

Again, our thanks to TheGreekRadio.com who publishes news about all aspects of Greek radio on their site. Please check it out!

QSL cards: STF Radio International sets a benchmark

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[STF Radio QSL card front (above) back (below). Original scans by Steve Yothment]

SWLing Post reader, Steve Yothment (WD0HGB), writes:

“I received an “audio QSL” card from STF Radio International a few days ago. Have you heard about it? [The QSL] actually has grooves on the card that you can play on a phonograph. I had a friend play the audio on his phonograph and he converted the audio to MP3 format. Then, I decoded the digital info in the file.”

Click here to download or listen below:

Steve decoded the digital data from the audio QSL card and documented the contents on a PDF document. Click here to download.

Steve: this is brilliant! Thank you not only for sharing the QSL card images, but for the audio and your excellent documentation of the digital decode!

Readers: What’s the most interesting QSL card you’ve ever received?

Victor Goonetilleke: The joy of DXing

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Victor Goonetilleke has kindly shared a passage he recently posted to Facebook. Victor pretty much sums up why I still listen to the shortwaves:

“For almost four score and 5 I enjoyed shortwave radio. Yes I was a DXer, and a dedicated listener. The thousands of hours of broadcasts I listened from the BBC, VOA, RNW, DW, RFI, Swiss Radio, NHK and many more of the international broadcasters influenced me over the years. The knowledge I gathered was transferred to hundreds of homes as I taught my students in class rooms and as a lecturer too in higher Colleges, in many social gatherings, day to day conversations with important people and everyday folks, what I gathered from my radio made them realize that there was a story out there.

And as the years went by one by one those stations started to go away and I became more and more a DXer and finally I have only those signals to bring me joy.

Tonight would you blame me for being a DXer, abandoned by the international broadcasters, if I sit back and enjoy this music through the crackle of shortwave and happy that I have a radio which few seems to understand these days.”

You can listen to the recording Victor made by clicking here: https://app.box.com/s/tcryw2ymt38gz8y6zaw4

I would also encourage you to read Victor’s guest commentary on BBG Watch which was prompted by the BBG pulling the (shortwave) plug on much of Asia.

Finally, in 2003, Jonathan Marks interviewed Victor Goonetilleke; you can watch the full interview below:

Visit with Victor Goonetilleke 2003 from Jonathan Marks on Vimeo.

BBG publishes report on the efficacy and future of shortwave radio

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Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Bennett Kobb, who shares this downloadable Report of the Special Committee on the Future of Shortwave Broadcasting. If you recall, this report was produced by a Broadcasting Board of Governors committee and chaired by Matt Armstrong.

Both Bennett and I believe it’s unfortunate that the committee failed to recognize one of VOA’s most innovative shortwave products: the VOA Radiogram.

Below you can read the full press release which accompanied the report:

(Source: BBG)

WASHINGTON (August 1, 2014) — The Broadcasting Board of Governors today released “To Be Where the Audience Is,” a report that found shortwave radio to be essential to listeners in target countries, but of marginal impact in most markets. The report’s recommendations came after a comprehensive review, grounded in audience-based research, of the efficacy of shortwave as a distribution platform for U.S. international media.

“Shortwave radio continues to be an important means for large numbers of people in some countries to receive news and information,” said Matt Armstrong, who chaired the BBG’s Special Committee on the Future of Shortwave Broadcasting, which issued the report. “However, many of our networks’ target audiences have moved to newer platforms including TV, FM and digital media. This report maps a way forward for U.S. international media to remain accessible for all our audiences.”

Research-based evidence of media trends suggests that the increased availability and affordability of television, mobile devices and Internet access has led to the declining use of shortwave around the world. Still, the report finds that substantial audiences embrace shortwave in Nigeria, Burma, North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Cuba and other target markets for the BBG.

At the same time, the committee’s recommendations make clear that the BBG will need to continue to reduce or eliminate shortwave broadcasts where there is either minimal audience or that audience is not a U.S. foreign policy priority. It also ratifies reductions that were made in redundant signals in 2013 and further cuts in transmissions that were made in 2014.

Even with these recent reductions, the BBG makes programs in 35 of its 61 broadcast languages available on shortwave where there is a strategic reason to do so.

The report notes there is no evidence that shortwave usage increases during crises. At such times, audiences continue to use their preferred platforms or seek out anti-censorship tools to help them navigate to the news online, including firewall circumvention tools or offline media including thumb drives and DVDs.

The Shortwave Committee report will be discussed at the August 13 public meeting of the Broadcasting Board of Governors. The report can be found here.