Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Tom Ally, who shares this note from WRMI:
The January 29 edition of Wavescan (which will begin to air on January 29 and will be repeated several times over the following week) will be a special program about Radio Australia, which will be ending its shortwave broadcasts on January 31.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Troy Riedel, who shares the following announcement from a Tecsun Radios Australia email newsletter:
Tecsun Radios Australia owner Garry Cratt was interviewed by ABC Rural this week about the ABC’s decision to end their shortwave radio transmission after almost 80 years.
Click here to listen via YouTube.
The ABC have decided that as shortwave technology is now nearly a century old, it is outdated and serves a very limited audience. They are planning on moving towards a digital focused service instead.
Garry discussed this in his interview with ABC Rural:
“A lot of the places that do receive Radio Australia, there is no power for a start, so they’re relying on batteries and solar panels. The people that are listening, that will be affected, are those people who are maybe still back in the last century, but that’s not their fault.”Tecsun Radios Australia recently sent a shipment of 500 radios to the Solomon Islands to be given out to remote villages. Shortwave radio is often the only way to communicate in rural villages like these, this is especially important during times of natural disaster such as the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, and as recently as cyclones Yasi (2011), and Pam (2015).
The ABC are planning on building a stronger FM transmitter network to use instead of the shortwave transmission – but what will happen to the people who are out of range of FM radio?
There are many people without this equipment living in places like the Pacific Islands, where Radio Australia is one the few news and entertainment resources. Due to the sparse population and wide geographic dispersion it is extremely difficult to correctly measure the effect that turning off the shortwave transmission will have.
Here at Tecsun Radios Australia, we are asking you to help us let the ABC know that shortwave radio is a much valued service. You can do this by tweeting a photo of your shortwave radio tuned into Radio Australia, making sure you tag @ABCAustralia and @TecsunRadios and using the hashtag #saveshortwave
Additionally, we are calling on the Australian Government to restore funding to the ABC, (previously provided via the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) to support the ABC’s international television and radio broadcasts. We acknowledge that the ABC has continued to provide international radio and television broadcasts by internally funding these programs, and now we ask the Australian Government to support our rural and Pacific Islands communities by giving the ABC the appropriate funding they require.
We are talking about $1.9 million in funding after all, which we think the Prime Minister could find if he checked under the Chesterfield seat cushions in his office…
To read the full article and listen to Garry’s radio interview, click here:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-18/abc-shortwave-cuts- tourists-operator-pacific- island/8191374
Photo: Lisa Herbert via Twitter
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, London Shortwave, who shares this tweet from Northern Territory resident, Lisa Herbert.
ABC ad re cutting #shortwave services telling peeps to include an EPIRB and sat phone to their emergency kit. pic.twitter.com/NrKQqNbQjK
— Lisa Herbert (@MsLisaHerbert) December 28, 2016
Is the irony of this really lost on the ABC management? Replace shortwave radio (~$20) with a sat phone (~$700+subscription) @Malarndirri19 https://t.co/kzWRDbvQ7d
— London Shortwave (@LondonShortwave) January 3, 2017
Read about the cuts to the ABC NT service and Radio Australia by clicking here.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Phil Brennan, who shares the following press release from ABC Friends.
ABC Friends represents the community’s interest in independent national public broadcasting:
MEDIA RELEASE
5/1/2017NEW THREAT TO LIVES IN OUTBACK
PLEA FOR URGENT MINISTERIAL ACTIONAn urgent call for ministerial action to protect short wave services in Northern and Central Australia has been made by ABC Friends National.
“It is the responsibility of both the Minister for Communications Senator Fifield and the Foreign Minister Julie Bishop to respond to this very real need with urgency,’” said ABC Friends National President Margaret Reynolds today.
ABC Friends National sent a letter in December to Communications Minister Mitch Fifield, urging him to intervene so as to guarantee the ABC had sufficient funding to maintain the short wave service – which is so essential in rural and remote areas.
“Furthermore a number of Pacific Island states also rely on this service especially in the current cyclone season,” Margaret Reynolds said, “Pacific leaders have expressed concern about a loss of this service.”
”It is unacceptable to simply blame the ABC when government funding has been reduced so severely in recent years.”
“The ABC cannot provide adequate communication services for all Australians in isolated regions as well as support our Pacific neighbours if it is constantly facing funding cutbacks.”
“The Australian Government must accept that, ultimately, short wave services can provide early warning and be an important preventative disaster measure,” she said.
Further Information:
Margaret Reynolds
National President ABC Friends
(Source: ABC News via Trevor R)
The ABC has defended the axing of its Northern Territory’s long-distance radio service, despite calls from federal representatives to reverse the decision.
This month the broadcaster announced its HF shortwave radio transmitters at Katherine, Tennant Creek and Roe Creek (Alice Springs) would be switched off on January 31, ceasing ABC Radio coverage across the long distance radio transmission platform.
The decision has attracted criticism from cattle station owners, Indigenous ranger groups and fishermen, who argue it was done without community consultation and would deprive people in remote areas of vital emergency warnings.
On Monday Senator Malarndirri McCarthy and Lingiari MP Warren Snowdon met with ABC management in a bid to have the decision reversed.
“The result of that meeting is that they still stand by that decision. We did find the meeting quite disappointing really,” Senator McCarthy told 105.7 ABC Darwin on Monday.
“There really hasn’t been any decency in terms of respect and consideration for the usage of shortwave, which has been a vital service and is a vital service across the Northern Territory.
Cutting NT shortwave service saves $1.2m
On Tuesday ABC spokesman Ian Mannix told 105.7 ABC Darwin the decision to axe shortwave services “will only affect a very, very small amount of people”.
However, he conceded a formal survey had not been done about how many people would be impacted.[…]
It costs $1.2 million to run the shortwave service, which Mr Mannix said would now be reinvested in the ABC’s expansion of its digital radio services in Darwin and Hobart.
ABC unlikely to reinvest in expanded AM service
Listeners to 105.7 ABC Darwin said Mr Mannix underestimated the remote realities of the Territory, a place six times the size of Britain with a population of 240,000.
“There’s about 150 boats in the cyclone season across the Top End of Australia. Every one of those is listening to shortwave,” a North East Arnhem-based fisherman said.
“The local radio is much more comprehensive than what BOM does.”
Mark Crocombe from the Thamarrurr Rangers in Wadeye has previously said his group’s VAST service did not work during cloudy weather, especially during monsoons and cyclones.
He said he had previously found out about cyclone warnings through the ABC shortwave radio, without which he would have had no notice.
On Tuesday Mr Crocombe added that apart from his ongoing emergency weather concerns, the decision would also further isolate people working remotely out bush.
“We’ve used shortwave to listen to the Olympic Games, the AFL grand final, rugby union World Cup. We’ve listened to it all on shortwave.”[…]
This is a reasonably in-depth article and I would encourage you to read it in its entirety at the ABC News website.
(Source: Pasifik via SWLing Post contributor Trevor R)
[The] Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) is concerned with the decision of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) to shut down its Shortwave Radio Services to the Pacific by the end of January next year.
PINA joins the growing voices opposed to the ABC’s plan to close this ‘valuable and vital source of information’ to people and communities in the Pacific that have relied on Radio Australia for almost eight decades.
More so now with most Pacific Island Countries in the middle of their cyclone season, said PINA President Moses Stevens, who laments the impact of the service will have on the peoples in the Pacific who rely on the service after it is closed in January.
“PINA is concerned because it would mean the end of an era in regional broadcasting and a service that Pacific people have been reliant on for news, information and entertainment for over many years to date,” he said.
“Given the geographical landscape of the Pacific region, radio is still the most effective and efficient means of communication and source for information.
“The fact that most islands in the region are under resourced with regards to sustaining their broadcast stations, most of our people rely on Radio Australia and Radio New Zealand to acquire news and information, including cyclone warnings.”
Mr Stevens said for almost 80 years, Radio Australia’s Shortwave Service has been the lifeline for many rural communities in the Pacific who rely on it for vital emergency service information.
Continue reading the full article on the Pasifik news site….
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ian P, who comments with this link to an article in News.com.au:
Shortwave radio cuts risk NT lives: Labor
Two federal Labor MPs have demanded the national broadcaster reverse a decision to switch off its radio shortwave service in the Northern Territory, which they say could be life threatening.
Senator Malarndirri McCarthy and member for Lingiari Warren Snowdon have expressed “deep disappointment” about the ABC’s plan to cut the transmitters from the end of January.
They insist it is a crucial platform which allows listeners in indigenous communities, pastoral stations and other remote areas to access radio during emergencies.
“In times of natural disaster – such as flood, cyclones or fire – it can quite literally mean the difference between life and death,” they said in a joint statement on Monday.
“ABC management must stop treating Territorians in remote areas like second-class citizens.”
The ABC will still broadcast via FM and AM frequencies, the viewer access satellite television (VAST) service and online.
“To claim VAST satellite and mobile phone technology will fill the gap created is simply not true because these services are not mobile. As we were told today, they are only now trialling mobile antennas,” Ms McCarthy and Mr Snowdon said.