{"id":24801,"date":"2017-03-24T21:45:45","date_gmt":"2017-03-25T01:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=24801"},"modified":"2017-03-24T21:46:28","modified_gmt":"2017-03-25T01:46:28","slug":"vatican-radios-english-shortwave-service-to-asia-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/vatican-radios-english-shortwave-service-to-asia-ends\/","title":{"rendered":"Vatican Radio\u2019s English shortwave service to Asia ends"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(Source: Vatican Radio<\/a>\u00a0via London Shortwave<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\n

Vatican Radio\u2019s English SW broadcast to Asia come to an end<\/h3>\n

Vatican Radio\u2019s English shortwave broadcast for Asia has come to an end, with its last transmission going out Friday evening, after nearly 60 years of service.\u00a0 However this does not mean it has disappeared altogether. What ultimately closed on March 24 as Vatican Radio\u2019s English Service for Asia, is however very much alive online on Vatican Radio\u2019s website<\/a>. \u00a0The gradual phasing out of Vatican Radio\u2019s shortwave frequencies is seen as part of the reform of the Roman Curia or the central administration of the Catholic Church here in the Vatican, called for by Pope Francis.\u00a0 The Pope established the new dicastery or office of the Secretariat for Communications on June 27, 2015, ?bringing 9 media bodies of the Vatican, including Vatican Radio, under the Secretariat\u2019s direction, with the purpose of overhauling, streamlining and ultimately merging them as a cohesive unit.<\/p>\n

What ended on March 24 as Vatican Radio\u2019s English Service for Asia began way back in 1958. The only ?English programme of Vatican Radio then, headed by Jesuit Father Thomas O\u2019Donnell, was repeated a number of times in different directions, ?including towards Africa and South Asia.\u00a0\u00a0 It was a weekly 10-minute news broadcast\u00a0 for India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.\u00a0\u00a0 However, the need for special programmes adapted to the ?distinctive cultural needs and tastes of Africa and South Asia gave way to independent programmes for ?these two regions.\u00a0\u00a0 ?In 1964 South Asia got a boost when Pope Paul VI visited Bombay (today Mumbai), India for the 38th International Eucharistic Congress from 2nd to 5th of December. \u00a0Hence in May 1965, the Indian Section officially came into being with a 10-minute broadcast twice a week each in the evening in Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam , while English went on air daily Monday through Saturday.\u00a0\u00a0 In 1982, all the four languages began re-broadcasting their evening programmes the following morning.\u00a0\u00a0 Three years later \u2013 on May 12, 1985, the Malayalam programme got extra airing time, broadcasting for 15 minutes in the morning, whereas the rest continued broadcasting for 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

In 1986, Pope John Paul II visited India from January 31 to February 11.\u00a0\u00a0 Just prior to this visit, on January 7th that year, Hindi, Tamil and English were given extra time, and so all the four languages began broadcasting daily for 15 minutes each, in the morning, which was a feature programme.\u00a0 The evening transmission consisted of 6 minutes of news only.\u00a0\u00a0 By the end of 1986 the evening 6-minute news increased to 10 minutes and was repeated the following morning.<\/p>\n

On March 25, 1990, Hindi, Tamil Malayalam and English began broadcasting for 15 minutes each, repeating it the following morning. \u00a0And from Sept. 23, 1993, the four languages were transmitting for nearly 20 minutes each, repeating the evening programme twice the following morning.<\/p>\n

It was on Oct 24, 1993 that the fifth language, Urdu, that is spoken mainly in Pakistan but is also widely followed in India, especially in the north, was added to the Indian Section.\u00a0 It began with a 7-minute Sunday programme, as part of the Hindi programme.\u00a0 On March 30, 2003 Urdu became a stand-alone programme, broadcasting for 15-minutes on Sundays and Wednesdays, and repeated the following mornings.\u00a0 The Urdu programme however closed down in\u00a0 September, 2013, after nearly 20 ?years of service.<\/p>\n

On May 16, 2015, Vatican Radio marked the 50th anniversary of its Indian programmes with a ?Holy ?Mass and a reception.<\/p>\n

Read this full article at Vatican Radio<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Source: Vatican Radio\u00a0via London Shortwave) Vatican Radio\u2019s English SW broadcast to Asia come to an end Vatican Radio\u2019s English shortwave broadcast for Asia has come to an end, with its last transmission going out Friday evening, after nearly 60 years of service.\u00a0 However this does not mean it has disappeared altogether. What ultimately closed on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56,960,3,43],"tags":[2504,34,1186,1187,1189,1188],"class_list":["post-24801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-broadcasters","category-international-broadcasting","category-news","category-shortwave-radio","tag-londonshortwave","tag-shortwave","tag-vatican-radio","tag-vatican-radio-cuts","tag-vatican-radio-english-service","tag-vatican-radio-shortwave"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-6s1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3766,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/06\/vatican-radio-from-short-waves-to-new-communications-strategies\/","url_meta":{"origin":24801,"position":0},"title":"Vatican Radio: “from Short Waves to new communications strategies”","author":"Thomas","date":"June 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanks to SWLing Post reader, Mike, for the tip: (Source: Vatican Radio) Announcing Vatican Radio\u2019s intention to reduce its Short and Medium Wave transmissions to most of Europe and the Americas, starting July 1st, the Director General, Fr Federico Lombardi, today spoke of what he called, \u201cA new chapter in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/radio_vaticana-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":61568,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/carlos-illustrated-radio-listening-report-and-recording-of-vatican-radio-january-6-2025\/","url_meta":{"origin":24801,"position":1},"title":"Carlos\u2019 Illustrated Radio Listening Report and Recording of Vatican Radio (January 6, 2025)","author":"Thomas","date":"January 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to\u00a0SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist Carlos Latuff, who shares an\u00a0illustrated radio listening report of a recent Vatican Radio broadcast. 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