Tag Archives: Clandestine Radio

Radio Free Sarawak is back on the air!

Thanks to Rob Wagner’s blog, The Mount Evelyn DX Report, I just learned that the clandestine station, Radio Free Sarawak, is back on the air after declaring a break on May 8, 2013 (see our previous post).

Radio Free Sarawak will broadcast daily from 11:00-12:30 UTC on 15,420 kHz.

The following is the press release from Radio Free Sarawak‘s website (via their Facebook page):

AUGUST 11, 2013: Press release, Radio Free Sarawak back on air from Monday

Sarawak’s independent radio station Radio Free Sarawak is back on air Monday 12th August following its holiday recess.

The rural radio station, which broadcasts mainly in Iban, but also in Malay has received numerous enquiries from listeners eager for information about pressing issues in the state, including the on-going plans to dam key rivers and evict thousands of native people from their lands.

“The state government has moved swiftly to try and take advantage of its dubious election wins by tripling Ministers’ own salaries (back-dating the increase by a whole year and a half) and pushing through further land grabs in native territories, including the proposed Baram Dam region” points out the UK based station head, Clare Rewcastle Brown. “Ordinary folk want to be heard on these issues and it seems their opinions may often be different from the propaganda put out on the state controlled licensed media, which only promotes the narrow interests of the super-wealthy and politically powerful”.

Radio Free Sarawak is the 2013 winner of the prestigious Pioneer of Free Media Award by the International Press Institute, which applauded the station’s efforts to bring freedom of information and freedom of speech to the isolated communities in Malaysia’s Borneo rainforest state.

The station’s call-in facility also provides an opportunity for longhouse dwellers to express their own views and concerns about the effects of deforestation, oil palm plantation, rural poverty and endemic political corruption. The radio station is linked to the online portal, Sarawak Report, which shares the same agenda to shine light on these and related issues.

Radio Free Sarawak is transmitted from London and its familiar team of DJs will be broadcasting from Monday on Short Wave 15420kHz from 7pm-8.30pm local time Monday-Saturday.

It is also available via podcast online www.radiofreesarawak.org , from where it can be downloaded via smart phone for mobile listeners or onto UBS sticks for car radio.

The local call-in line is 082-237191 and listeners are invited to get in touch with their comments and issues.

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Radio Free Sarawak takes a break

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The clandestine station Radio Free Sarawak—who we most recently mentioned in connection with the Malaysian elections–has announced that they are going off the air. There is a note of finality in their announcement (below), yet they do leave some ambiguity by declaring, “We will be taking a break until further notice.”

[UPDATE: Radio Free Sarawak back on the air 12 August 2013]

Listen to their final broadcast (studio copy) embedded below:

(Source: Radio Free Sarawak)

While most PR supporters are still reeling from the results of the GE13 amidst widespread rigging that are essentially acts of treason, activists and ordinary people alike are not giving up on booting out the BN government The have set their sights on the 11th state election that will have to be conducted latest by early 2016.

Meanwhile, take a listen to the analysis of Dr Mohd Faisal Syam Abdol Hazis from the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak of the results in the state.

Last but not least, we hear the sadness, anger, frustration and nevertheless, determination of RFS and PR supporters to realise the dream of changing the government in the near future.

p/s Today’s show will be our last. We will be taking a break until further notice. Thank you for your support. It will be a memorable 18 months! We hope you had enjoyed the experience as much as we did.

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Al Jazeera: Radio Free Sarawak offers alternative voice ahead of elections

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Clandestine station, Radio Free Sarawak, offers an alternative voice in Malaysia ahead of elections next week. For those living in remote jungle communities–places where the Internet is not readily available–Radio Free Sarawak can be heard on shortwave radio.

Al Jazeera’s Florence Looi reports from a village in Sarawak:

Added to other posts tagged: Why Shortwave Radio?

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Domo I Viti: New Fiji clandestine station

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I just received this message from Glenn Hauser via the Hard-Core DX group:

** FIJI [non]. As first reported exclusively on WORLD OF RADIO 1617 and DXLD 12-20:

HOT NEWS: A station for Fiji named Domo I Viti should start on 4 June at 0830-0900 on 11565 via WRN from Palau. Not sure what its agenda is, clandestine or at least political? Seems there are at least two programs/stations by same name, in Auckland and Sydney by expatriates. Related to either of them, originating where? E.g.:
http://www.aucklandfiji.org.nz/community_features_view.asp?newsid=408
(Glenn Hauser, OK, May 9, WORLD OF RADIO 1617, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

WRN confirms that this new clandestine starts June 4 at 0830-0900 on 11565 via PALAU, and will be weekly on Mondays only. It`s sponsored by the Fiji Freedom and Democracy Movement, based in Adelaide, South Australia.

If anyone can hear it, please note how much, if any, is in English, any contact info, and if possible record an ID. I haven`t found any Adelaide office, altho searching on ABC News stories gets some hits which aren`t very productive.

Note that HFCC has WHRI rather than T8WH registered on 11565 at 08-09. WHR schedules show Angel 4, the most likely transmitter, on 17650 at that time, and Angel 3 on 9930. 11565 was probably just a place-holder in HFCC. Searching WHR program schedules is fruitless (Glenn Hauser, June 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Click here to check out Glenn Hauser’s DX program, World of Radio.

Note that we’ve covered Fiji in the past as their ruling party routinely blocks free press. Click here to read past articles referencing Fiji.

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Radio República: shortwave broadcasting 24/7 on a budget

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In this Miami Herald Op Ed piece, Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat, the national secretary of the Cuban Democratic Directorate, defends his organization and their clandestine station, Radio Republica. It’s worth noting that in an effort to use their limited funds effectively, and to get their message into Cuba, they use shortwave radio as their medium of choice:

(Source: Miami Herald)

Radio República, the Directorate’s 24-hour, seven-day-a-week shortwave radio station, has provided a voice to Cuba’s resistance from the smallest provincial towns to the largest Havana neighborhoods. Its format has been strategically designed to enhance the natural self-defense mechanism of nonviolent struggle generated by Cuban society. Costing between $1.5 million to $2 million a year, Radio República’s budget accounts for over 50 percent of the Directorate’s annual funds from federal grants. These costs are far below the annual budgets of both public and commercial shortwave radio stations.

Likewise, it is undeniable that Directorio has made a vital contribution to the changing attitudes of the international community towards the Castro regime. The Cuban pro-democracy leadership has moved from international neglect to international recognition, winning prestigious awards like the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize and nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize in the process.

[…]The truth is that the testimony of hundreds of civic resistance leaders throughout the island shows that Radio República has become an essential tool for social organization.

Read the full Op Ed article on the Miami Herald website.

Though they carry a different message, the choice in shortwave radio is the same for Charles Caudill and WCB.

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