Category Archives: Music

Shortwave Radio Recordings: Voice of Greece

The Voice of Greece is an unpredictable broadcaster these days. VOG is not on the air as much as in the past and doesn’t seem to follow a broadcast schedule. I only hear them perhaps once or twice per week now.

But I’m not complaining–after all, this is a shortwave broadcaster that basically came back from the dead.

I love VOG’s music programs and last night their Avlis transmitter was fired up and relaying some wonderful tunes.

The following recording was made on January 30, 2016 starting at 0145 UTC on 9420 kHz. I made this recording with the TitanSDR Pro receiver connected to a large skyloop antenna. Click here to download the MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

I also had the TitanSDR simultaneously recording pirate radio spectrum just below the 40 meter ham band. I’m saving that bit of spectrum for a rainy day!

Anyone else tune to VOG last night?

Alan Roe’s guide to music on shortwave

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Richard Langley, for sharing Alan Roe’s excellent guide to music broadcasts on shortwave radio.

Alan Roe (who happens to be an avid SWLing Post reader!) has generously given me permission to post his guide here as a free (PDF) download. Thank you so much, Alan! I’ve already printed this guide and placed it with my WRTH and WWLG.

Click here to download Alan Roe’s guide to music on shortwave (PDF).

From the Isle of Music: a new music program on shortwave

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Havana, Cuba (Photo: Wikimedia)

Many thanks to Bill Tilford, Owner/Producer at Tilford Productions, who writes:

Beginning Monday, February 1, I will be hosting a weekly, hour-long music program, From the Isle of Music, dedicated to the music of Cuba, on WBCQ, 7.490 MHz, every Monday night from 8-9pm EST (currently 0100-0200 UTC).

I began listening to shortwave in childhood and now want to give something back to the medium.

This will be a cultural panorama of multiple genres from Classical to traditional music to Timba to Jazz to Funk, including a lot of things that people outside of Cuba might not know are played there. There will also be interviews. It will be partly in English, partly in Spanish. I hope to do this in the spirit of some of the best cultural programming of the golden years of shortwave.

There is a Facebook page, also titled From the Isle of Music, with more information.

Many thanks, Bill! I will certainly tune in and look forward to your music selections and commentary. Please keep us informed if you have any updates!

Today: CBC Christmas Euroradio Special

UNT Archives publish Willis Conover interview with Louis Armstrong

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(Photo source: Inside VOA)

Thanks to the endeavors of Maristella Feustle at the UNT Music Library, five hours of recently-restored Louis Armstrong interviews with Willis Conover are now online and free to download/listen.

Kudos to the UNT archives for making these amazing recordings so accessible! What a treasure trove.

Click here to view links to all five hours of recordings at the UNT Archives’ website.

Shortwave Radio Recordings: Radio Spaceshuttle International

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SWLing Post and SRAA contributor, Jim Clary (ND9M/VQ9JC), recorded the following final broadcast of Radio Spaceshuttle International while on board a US Navy ship off the coast of Rota, Spain. Jim notes:

I was packing up to leave my ship and return to the USA this week when the latest SWLing Post e-mail showed up with info about SSR’s final broadcast literally seven minutes before he was to come on the air. I’d already broken down the receiving gear, but it came back together in record time, and I was able to get the recorder going with a minute before the transmission started.

Click here to download Jim’s recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below. Note that Jim’s recording starts a few minutes before the broadcast begins:

Jim, thanks so much for putting all of your receiver and recording kit back together to make this recording!

The UNT Willis Conover Archive is now online

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Regular SWLing Post readers know that I’m a huge fan of the late Willis Conover. I just learned, via the Arts Journal blog, about an amazing collection of Conover audio archives that are now being shared online:

“The music program at the University of North Texas has graduated hundreds of jazz artists who went on to successful careers as professionals.[…]

Under Maristella Feustle of the university’s library, there is an archive devoted to the late Willis Conover of the Voice of America[…]. Conover’s VOA programs sent jazz around the world. For a quarter of a century he was one of the nation’s most valuable cultural diplomats. As of today, parts of the Conover archive are online and open to the public, thanks to a grant from the Grammy Foundation.[…]”

Click here to read the full Arts Journal article.

Many thanks, Maristella, for championing and finding funds for the Willis Conover archive!

Click here to browse the list of recordings and listen to the tapes via the UNT Digital Library.