Wojtek’s final appearance on the Link in RCI’s remaining studio, with Lynn and Marc on Friday May 1, 2015 © Leo G- RCI (Source: RCI)
My friend, Wojtek Gwiazda, who has been a host and journalist for Radio Canada International–and an integral part of the RCI Action Committee–has retired.
Click here to listen to an exit interview with Wojtek on RCI’s The Link.
Also, check out this page and audio from the RCI website.
Wojtek: here’s wishing you the best in your retirement!
Many thanks to Sean Gilbert, International Editor at the World Radio TV Handbook, who is kindly sharing some international broadcasting statistics with us again. These statistics were originally posted on the WRTH Facebook group:
[F]or the top 19 languages used in international (and Domestic SW) broadcasting. There are 10 seasons worth of data to compare. In those 10 seasons, we have seen an overall drop of 33%, the biggest casualties being Farsi, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, English & Indonesian. Tibetan is usually fairly stable with it’s output being pretty constant over the past 9 seasons – this season, however sees a huge increase in output (+69%), mainly due to the USA hiking output of the language this season. In sheer numbers of data lines (which is how this table has always been generated), English is the biggest casualty, dropping 104 transmission periods per week.
Click to enlarge.
A transmission period is based on the following data structure:
Shown below are 2 “transmission periods” for WWCR and 1 for WWRB. 2 in English and 1 in Spanish. These transmission periods cover a weeks worth of output on that frequency at that time for that broadcaster.
WWCR 1630-2100 English wcr 100 NAm,Eu,NAf daily 15825
WWCR 2100-2200 Spanish wcr 100 NAm,Eu,NAf daily 15825
WWRB 0100-0400 English wrb 100 NAm daily 3195
So a transmission period could, in reality, be from 5 minutes on a single day to 24 hours, daily, depending on the broadcaster. There are nearly 5000 of these entries in our database for this season (When I started at WRTH back in 2000, there were over 10000 entries). Of these 5000 entries, over 3600 are taken up by just 19 languages. The other 1400 entries share somewhere in the region of 200 languages/dialects and combinations! Although this doesn’t show how many hours a particular language has decreased by, it does show the ongoing trend in International broadcasting by radio.
A15 International Broadcasting Season FactsThere are 191 schedules listed in the International Radio and COTB (Clandestine & Other Targeted Broadcasts) section of the WRTH A15 schedules file.
Who uses the most frequencies? CRI, with a whopping 279 frequencies in use. The next largest station, by frequency use is (probably quite surprising to many of you) Voice of the Iranian Republic of Iran (VOIRI) with 140 (that is half the amount of CRI!). Next is VOA with 126; then RFA at 112; BBC at 110 then Sound of Hope Radio International with 84 and All India Radio at 67.
Below is a list of the ‘Top 20’ broadcasters in terms of frequency usage. If you were to do a study of actual transmitted time, the list would look rather different. I will shortly post a table showing the top languages, by use, and what has changed over the past 10 broadcasting seasons.
63 broadcasters, or so, use just a single frequency.
Last year at the W4DXCC conference in Sevierville, Tennessee, I spent some quality time with Bob Heil (K9EID). Bob is the mastermind behind Heil Sound as well as the host of HamNation, a show devoted to all aspects of amateur radio––yet this job description only scratches the surface of Bob’s fascinating career.
Bob Heil (K9EID, left) and yours truly (right) at the 2014 W4DXX conference in Sevierville, TN
One thing is for sure, however: there are few people in the radio industry who truly understand audio as profoundly as Bob Heil, so when he announced that he would host a forum at the W4DXCC to assist amateur radio operators in improving their received (and transmitted) audio, we were all ears, and signed right up.
Early in the forum, Bob described a set of self-powered and relatively affordable JBL monitor speakers that he highly recommended for amateur radio use. Everyone in the room noted the model number of the speakers, myself included. So imagine my dismay after the convention when I simply couldn’t find my notes…
Thankfully, my buddy Gary Wise (W8EEY) recently jogged my memory. Gary purchased a set of JBL monitors and matching wall-mount brackets from Amazon, and has them hooked up to his Flex Radio FLEX-6700 SDR. Gary tells me he’s very pleased with the set-up. Here are the links:
Bob also suggests adding a small mixer to system, something like this Behringer Xenyx 802 or the XENYX502 (both of which are on my current wishlist).
Bob invited me to speak on HamNation about shortwave radio. I may take him up on the offer…well, as soon as I overcome my videophobia, that is. At any rate, if you’ve not seen it, HamNation is certainly worth checking out. And in all things radio, Bob Heil’s is a name to know; click here to visit Heil Sound.
A few days ago, SWLing Post reader LondonShortwave posted a playlist on his blog; it’s a great playlist of music he’s been exposed to via shortwave radio broadcasters over the years. I was quite inspired by this playlist (of all absolutely brilliant songs, by the way), not to mention, by the clever concept.
So this morning I jotted down a few artists and songs I’ve also discovered via shortwave radio. Here are a just a few I could find on YouTube:
Ariane Moffatt’s “Montreal,” via former CBC North Quebec Service:
Istanbul Oriental Ensemble’s “Burhan Öçal” via Voice of Greece:
Ania’s cover of “Strawberry Fields Forever” via the Polish Radio External Service:
Novika’s “I Depend on You” also via the Polish Radio External Service:
Shiny Toy Guns’ cover of “Major Tom” via the pirate radio station All Along The Watchtower Radio (note this video is actually a car commercial featuring the song by STG; a strange combo):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGultrg7l0I
Boards of Canada album “Tomorrow’s Harvest” via the pirate radio station BOCHF:
Have you made any music discovery via shortwave radio? If so, please feel free to comment.
(Source: WRTH Facebook group via Sean Gilbert)
***ANNOUNCEMENT***
WRTH has released their A15 International Radio & COTB schedules file. The A15 schedules file is available for free download (whilst donations are appreciated, they are by no means mandatory).
Use the following link, and click on “International Updates”:
www.wrth.com/_shop/?page_id=444
This file is in PDF format and you will need a PDF viewing program (such as the free Adobe Acrobat Reader) in order to open this file. The pdf id 2.3MB in size and contains 78 pages, consisting of: Summer (A season) 2015 LW/MW & SW schedules for International broadcasters and Clandestine & Other Targeted (COTB) Broadcasts; International DRM broadcasts; a ‘By Frequency’ listing of the broadcasters; Selected language broadcasts (English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese); and finally a list of sites used in the schedules, together with name, location, co-ordinates and type (LW/MW &/or SW).
Despite the doom and gloom surrounding shortwave and international broadcasting, please be assured there is still a lot to listen to, broadcast in many, many languages to all parts of the world. There are even new SW stations popping up from time to time. There are at least 6 new entries in this file, that have come on air since WRTH2015 was published. That has to be encouraging!If you haven’t already got your copy of WRTH2015, you can still order on-line direct from our website or from Amazon.com (At last Amazon seems to have sorted out whatever issue they had, which caused unacceptable delays and annoyance for our valued readership). Using the A schedules together with the printed WRTH gives you powerful tools to help you get the most from your listening.
The American Radio History website has just announced the addition of 75 issues of the late Monitoring Times magazine to their free downloads archive. These issues span 1983-1993, making a nice stroll down memory lane for many of us.
If you’re a fan of the iconic Willis Conover, you might consider signing this petition supporting a postage stamp in his honor.
Marie Lamb writes:
Those of us at the Willis Conover Facebook page are trying to get support for a postage stamp in honor of the great Voice of America jazz broadcaster, one of the great voices of shortwave. The recognition for this fine broadcaster and supporter of America’s music is long overdue. Please sign! Thank you–Marie Lamb.
If you’re looking for a little inspiration, listen to this superb interview with Willis Conover circa 1987 on NPR’s Weekend Edition with Scott Simon:
As you’ll hear in this interview, Willis Conover actually supported a stamp in honor of the late and great Duke Ellington. Perhaps it’s time we support a stamp honoring Willis Conover. Click here to sign the petition.