Category Archives: International Broadcasting

Ed Royce to champion “new approach” to US international broadcasting

US Representative, Ed Royce

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Michael, for sharing a link to this opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal by Ed Royce (R), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Here is a short clip from the piece:

“Vladimir Putin has a secret army. It’s an army of thousands of “trolls,” TV anchors and others who work day and night spreading anti-American propaganda on the Internet, airwaves and newspapers throughout Russia and the world. Mr. Putin uses these misinformation warriors to destabilize his neighbors and control parts of Ukraine. This force may be more dangerous than any military, because no artillery can stop their lies from spreading and undermining U.S. security interests in Europe.

Neither can the U.S. international broadcasting services that performed such a valuable service during the Cold War. They have withered until they are no longer capable of meeting today’s challenges. Until this changes, Russia’s president and his propaganda will flourish.

[…]From its inception, the BBG has drawn criticism from right, left and center. A part-time board that is supposed to oversee and spend $740 million a year, it has a fundamentally flawed structure. A 2013 Inspector General report for the State Department found the BBG to be dysfunctional. The same year, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the BBG as “practically defunct.” No wonder the agency isn’t coming close to competing with Mr. Putin.

Righting this ship must be an urgent foreign-policy priority. I will soon introduce bipartisan legislation to do just that. The bill would charge one U.S. broadcasting organization (VOA) with reporting U.S. policy and other global news, and another, including RFE/RL and similar services, to act as the free press in repressive societies like Russia. Each organization will have its own CEO and its own board, with accountability that is clear to all[…]”

Read Ed Royce’s full Op Ed piece in the Wall Street Journal online.

Update: Dan Robinson also points out this piece, by Ron Nixon, published in the NY Times.

Spread the radio love

Can the VOA justify its funding?

Leave a reply

Jonathan Marks followed up his last post with two more pieces from the Media Network Vintage Vault, again, on the topic of US international broadcasting.

Jonathan writes:

Interesting to see there was opposition to RFE/RL expansion in 1992. http://jonathanmarks.libsyn.com/mn06081992radio-free-asia

And Bill Whitacre is good in this edition: http://jonathanmarks.libsyn.com/mn07051992voakorea

My question remains: can VOA still justify the funding it has? It has spent billions over the last few decades, but has little to show for it.

No doubt, with the recent loss of CEO Andy Lack and the announcement that VOA Director, David Ensor, is stepping down, the VOA is struggling to remain viable. I don’t believe this is due to a lack of good reporters or internal innovators, rather, a lack of proper management.

Jonathan also found this recently published report titled, “Reassessing US International Broadcasting” by S. Enders Wimbush and Elizabeth M. Portale. Click here to download the full report as a PDF.

Spread the radio love

VOA director David Ensor steps down

2 Replies

(Source: NY Times)

David Ensor (Source: BBG)

David Ensor, who as director of the Voice of America has presided over significant growth in the news agency’s audience despite budget cuts, announced Tuesday that he was stepping down.

Mr. Ensor, who joined the Voice of America in June 2011, said he would leave the government-funded broadcaster at the end of next month. He did not explain his decision or discuss his plans.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the Voice of America, credited Mr. Ensor with creating new television programming in Russian, Ukrainian, Persian, Mandarin, Burmese and Creole, among other languages. It also said he had led a digital transformation of the agency’s newsroom and expanded media programs in Africa.

[…]His time at the news agency has not been without controversy. Dan Robinson, the former chief White House correspondent for the Voice of America, said its central news operation had been devastated by staffing cuts, and he and other former employees said a number of veteran correspondents had resigned or retired in frustration. [Continue reading…]

Spread the radio love

Media Network Vingate Vault: 1988 VOA Relay Stations Feature

Leave a reply

Jonathan Marks writes:

I published a few more old programmes which I think are relevant to the ongoing discussions in Washington about US International Broadcasting. One programme in particular from 1988 no less, shows me that not a lot has changed in over 25 years.

http://jonathanmarks.libsyn.com/mn04111998voafeature

Indeed, not much has changed in so many respects. Many thanks for sharing this recording, Jonathan!

Readers: I encourage you to bookmark Jonathan Mark’s Media Network Vintage Vault–a true treasure trove of international broadcasting history.

Spread the radio love

Recording Deutsche Welle Kigali’s final broadcast and remembering its early days

Leave a reply

DW’s relay station in Kigali (Source: Deutsche Welle)

Yesterday, Deutsche Welle transmitted its final broadcast from the Kigali, Rwanda relay station. Since I’ve only had moderate luck hearing the Kigali site the past few days–especially on 31 meters–I fired up the TitanSDR Pro (which is still currently under review) and set it to record all three final afternoon broadcasts from Kigali on 12,005, 15,275 and 17,800 kHz.

As you can see from the screenshot above, Kigali produced a very strong signal on 17,800 kHz. The TitanSDR recorded the full broadcast, starting with one minute of the transmitter tuning, then one hour of DW’s French language service, followed by one hour of DW’s Hausa language service…then the transmitter went silent.

The recording begins around 1659 UTC on March 28, 2015 on 17,800 kHz:

Kigali’s early days

Last week, SWLing Post reader Bob LaRose (W6ACU) sent me the following message and scans:

“Here’s some nostalgia from [when the Kigali relay] opened, 50 years ago!”

Bob then followed this with another email:

“I dug into the “vault” and I found [the] 1964 Third Quarter issue of “Hallo, Friends” from Deutsche Welle that talks about the “new” Kigali station as it was being built. The 1965 issues did not cover the actual inauguration.”

Click here to download this page as a PDF.

Many thanks for digging through your archives and sharing this wonderful DW nostalgia, Bob! It’s simply brilliant!

Readers: If you have shortwave nostalgia you would like to share on the SWLing Post, please contact me.

Spread the radio love

Radio Taiwan International to end transmissions to Europe & Africa

6 Replies

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.”

Spread the radio love

CRI, RFA, Sputnik, and the BBC: an “information battle?”

Leave a reply

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.[…]

Continue reading on The National website…

Spread the radio love