(Source: BBC via Mike Terry on the WRTH Facebook Page)
Bulgaria’s public radio broadcaster has been banned from playing millions of contemporary songs because of a row over copyright payments.
Since 1 January, state-funded Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) has been filling its airwaves with classical pieces, jazz and traditional folk music instead, the Novinite news agency reports. It’s locked in a dispute with the non-profit Musicautor organisation, which manages the rights to work by both local and international artists – 14 million pieces of music in total.
Even the traditional version of the national anthem is off-limits. Listeners tuning in on New Year’s Eve instead heard the BNR symphony orchestra and choir’s take on the tune, Balkan Insight reports, adding that the copyright row means only music made before 1945 can be played. BNR itself says it cannot play “95% of today’s modern music repertoire”.
Musicautor wants BNR to pay more in royalties – triple the amount it pays at the moment – to bring it more into line with national radio in other EU countries. But radio director Aleksander Velev says that’s impossible unless it gets more funding or drops a regional broadcast, which would “tarnish the radio’s public mission”.[…]
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Bob Heil (K9EID), who writes:
You may be interested to know about the Saturday evening Theatre Organ shows on the 100KW of WTWW:
Bob Heil at a Sacramento Wurlitzer Console
“Theatre Organ from the Ozarks” each Saturday at 8PM CST (0200 UTC Sunday) on WTWW shortwave 5.085 MHz.
Many readers might not know that Bob Heil is a man of many talents. Not only is he the founder of Heil Sound, and a host on HamNation, but Bob is an incredibly talented organist.
We look forward to hearing you on WTWW, Bob!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul Walker, who announces his next show:
The next broadcast of The Classics Experience with Paul Walker is going to be the biggest yet. It’ll all take place in late August with 2 hours of rock n roll music with maybe a few country songs thrown in for good measure. The show is ALL about the music and providing something different on the shortwave bands, so all you’ll get from the show is MUSIC. There will be NO rants, raves, personal opinions or political and religious rants. No commercials or sponsors either. I fund the broadcast out of my own pocket so I can pick whatever music I want and not have to answer to anyone but George D. Beagle!
WRMI 7570kHz Saturday August 27th 0400 to 0600UTC. Beaming at 315 degrees towards Vancouver. It should provide a good signal to the West Coast of the US and Canada and probably parts of the midwest and upper midwest along the way.
WRMI 11580kHz Friday August 26th 2100 UTC to 2300UTC., This signal target area is Eastern North America and Western Europe.
WRMI 11530kHz Saturday August 27th, 0200UTC to 0400UTC targetting South America with maybe a little spill over to extreme Western Africa.
WINB 9265kHz Saturday August 27th 0330 to 0530UTC. This should provide good coverage into the Midwest, parts of southern Canada, into Mexico along with parts of Central & Southern Europe it seemed.. It was weakly heard in Australia and New Zealand during my last broadcast.
Channel 292 6070kHz Friday August 26th 2200 to 2400UTC. This should provide good coverage of central and parts of Western Europe.
Shortwave Services 15195khz via Armenia Saturday August 27th 1200 to 1400UTC. Beaming at 65 degrees towards Japan.
I am going to suspend my request for $ to cover postage and QSL costs. I’ve been so lax in sending out QSL cards, I haven’t gotten around to any of them from previous broadcasts and have gotten a few nastygrams about it. I feel bad, so I won’t ask for any money to cover costs this time around.
Contact information for reception reports:
Paul B. Walker, Jr.
PO Box 353
Galena, Alaska 99741-0353 USA
There may be MFSK32 data and pictures during the broadcast. I will announce during the broadcast if and when that happens.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Fahey, who writes:
A few weeks ago this amazing album was released which is totally jammed packed full of shortwave weirdness wrapped into a synth concept work.
[…]Here is some info about the album…
http://www.side-line.com/electronica-project-novo-returns-with-5th-album-the-shortwaves-recommended-to-metroland-kraftwerk-duet-emmo-and-the-normal-fans/
This is so fantastic, full of numbers stations including the very weird Asian ones, interval signal inspired tunes, data bursts and general shortwave radio weirdness.
Plenty of deep mixed samples of Radio Peking, Moscow, NHK, VOA etc.
Hopefully you can listen to it on Spotify, Apple Music or somewhere though any progressive DXer won’t be disappointed if they chose to purchase the album.
https://itunes.apple.com/be/album/the-shortwaves/id1113480207
Mark actually sent this tip several weeks ago–immediately after the album release. I had problems, at first, downloading the album (probably because I was outside of the US at the time). I finally did download it, though, and I agree with Mark: it’s well-worth a listen. I’ve added it to my music collection.
Növö may not appeal to everyone, but if you’re a fan of electronic music with heavy use of samples and an “industrial” flavor, you’ll love The Shortwaves.
Here’s a video promo I discovered on YouTube:
Thanks, Mark, for the tip!
Another two hour broadcast of rock n roll music–“The Classics Experience”–will happen tonight via the transmitters of Shortwave Service in Kall, Germany.
Both broadcasts will have the MFSK32 text and picture as well. However, the picture will NOT decode properly and it isn’t a problem on your end. All it is is a rebroadcast of the WINB/WRMI, complete with WRMI/WINB mentions and no mentions of 3985/6005 kHz.
By the way, you can also expect my show on Laser Hot Hits in the 49 meter and 75 meter band sometime next month, airing on nearly a daily basis for a month or so.
QSL Information:
$2 is appreciated to cover costs
Paul B. Walker, Jr.
PO Box 353
Galena, Alaska 99741 USA
Paul Walker is located in Galena, Alaska and is a regular contributor to the SWLing Post. Be sure to check out Paul’s YouTube channel and SoundCloud channel where everything he logs is recorded and posted. Click here to read his other contributions on the SWLing Post.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the image above and the following:
How about a video [from Galena, AK]? Here’s one I shot on the evening of April 15th while DXin’g and apparently logging Radio Bandeirantes 9645 kHz in Brazil:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7fnLA9aYvA
Looks like a beautiful DX location you’ve got there, Paul. You’ve obviously found ways to mitigate receiver overload from the broadcast station with the number of loggings you’ve been posting as of late.
Indeed, Paul recently forwarded the following sample of logs from this very DXing spot. Paul writes:
Unless otherwise noted, all loggings were from a Tecsun PL-880 with an 80 foot long wire 5 feet up in a tree. My location is Galena, Alaska which is a village of 500 people about 300 miles east of Nome, Alaska and 300 miles west of Fairbanks, Alaska.
Comments questions or thoughts always welcome!
I was able to log Channel Africa broadcasting in French on 15235 kHz, two mornings last week.
This recording was made on Friday April 8, 2015 at 8:45 AM Alaska Daylight Time/1645UTC. I would rate the signal about 6 1/2 out of 10 with good audio, some light fading and no interference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAvB-s7GeG4
This recording was made on Wednesday April 6, 2015 at 8:37 AM Alaska Daylight Time/1637UTC. The signal was about a 6 out of 10 with moderate fading, a little more then the recording made on April 8th.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vylScGVsYfM
Radio Thailand 9390 kHz
This recording was made on Saturday April 9, 2015 at 10:36 AM Alaska Daylight Time/1836UTC. I would rate the signal about 7 1/2 to 8 out of 10 with good audio, some light fading and no interference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=31&v=nKwKakToMNs
Voice of Indoneisa 9526 kHz
This recording was made on Saturday April 9, 2015 at 10:36 AM Alaska Daylight Time/1836UTC. I would rate the signal about 4 1/2 out of 10 with ok audio, some light to moderate fading and some interference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06ZvqXEVhyE
Voice of Vietnam 9625 kHz
This recording was made on Saturday April 9, 2015 at 9:00AM Alaska Daylight Time/1700UTC. I would rate the signal about 4 out of 10 with fair audio, some light to moderate fading and little interference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39s2HNJmHEs
All India Radio 11620 kHz
This recording was made on Saturday April 10 , 2015 at 1:29PM Alaska Daylight Time/2129UTC. I would rate the signal about 6 out of 10 with GOOD audio, some light to moderate fading and no interference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89QJHdZyVKU
Note: This was by FAR the best reception I’ve ever had of AIR. Their audio is usually pretty piss poor with poor quality and low modulation. Plus, their signal just isn’t that good usually.
I have also logged Voice Of Korea on 2850, 3320, 6100, 6400, 12015, 7220, 11910, 11935, 11735, 15105, 15180, 13760, 13650, 7580, 9650, 9875, 9445, 9665, 9425, 6170 and 3250 kHz.
Radio Algerienne Holy Quran and Radio Saudi are fairly regular visitors here and at times, pretty strong.
6160 kHz via Vancouver is heard several times a week…sometimes just barely, and other times, like a few days ago, nearly like a local.
The upper bands, 15 and 17 MHz seem to do real well here, especially by day, even smack in the middle of the day. I’ve heard RFI and DW via Issoudun right around lunch time in the 15 MHz area of the band.
I get Zanzibar on 11735 kHz from time to time…usually at least at fair levels.
CFRX 6070 is heard just about nightly, sometimes poor and barely audible but many times at least poor to fair and listenable. Now and then it’s pretty strong and listenable.
That is an impressive number of stations you’ve logged. It appears one of your easiest catches is Voice of Korea–I’m not surprised since you’re certainly within their broadcast footprint.
New Music Show and Contest
Many of you know that Paul also hosts an occasional music show via shortwave. Paul recently set times and frequencies for the next show–he notes:
I will be on WRMI, 7570 kHz from 0400-0600UTC Saturday June 2nd, Which is 12 midnight to 2 AM Eastern/9 PM to 11pm Pacific on Friday June 1st.
More oldies and rock n roll music with some country thrown in. I’m working on a CONTEST with some cool radio prizes and even bigger…. I am ironing out the technical details and going to try and do the 2 hot show live from my studio in Galena, Alaska.
My target audience this time with be the West Coast of the US and Canada. I expected the Midwestern US to get a good signal from the 315 degree beam towards Vancouver, Canada as it has to pass over the Midwest to get to the West Coast.
Contest details and QSL information to be released before the show!
I’ll plan to re-post this announcement, with any updates, closer to the broadcast date of June 2, 2016.
Thanks again, Paul, for sharing some of your radio world!
