![\"bbc_arabic\"](\"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/bbc_arabic.jpg\")
SWLing Post reader, Allen, writes:<\/p>\nSWLing Post reader, Allen, writes:<\/p>\n
BBC’s Cyprus relay station is being closed down today after more than 50 years of service. The BBC currently uses the station to broadcast its Arabic radio service to the Arab world on short wave. The BBC will still incur the cost of making its Arabic radio service in London, but it will only be available to listeners if Arab governments permit it, as the radio channel will only be available online or where governments have permitted the BBC to have an FM licence.<\/em><\/p>\n So – Saturday (today) is the last day that the ten million Arabic radio audience will be able to listen on short wave.<\/em><\/p>\n If all Arab regimes were really democratic enough to have a permanently free media and allow the BBC on, what is the point of the BBC Arabic anyway? But do we really believe that all the Arab world is free and democratic??<\/em><\/p>\n It is also another blow to the English World Service. World Service listeners lost their medium wave service to Europe on 648 two years ago. The closure of Cyprus means that the continuous World Service English medium wave service to Israel and surrounding countries on 1323 kHz also ends today.<\/em><\/p>\n For the time being, the Arabic medium wave to small parts of the East mediterranean will continue from another part of Cyprus. This will carry English for just two hours of daytime and two hours in the middle of the night on 720kHz.<\/em><\/p>\n The Cyprus relay station was taken over by the BBC as a result of the Suez Crisis.<\/em><\/p>\n It is part of the WS strategy to move from short wave and radio into television forced through against the views of World Service traditionalists by Peter Horrocks (head of Global news) and a contender to replace Helen Boaden as head of BBC news.<\/em><\/p>\n Peter Horrocks has no radio background, as former editor of Newsnight.<\/em><\/p>\n Peter Horrocks has diverted much of the 200 million pound annual World Service budget into making television programmes given free to local stations in Africa, and India. The flaw in that is that the BBC has no guarantee that the programmes will get through local consorship.<\/em><\/p>\n This is also the last Saturday that rural areas in Africa will get the Saturday afternoon Premier league live soccer commentary and other sports coverage from World Service. English short wave is being cut by 60 per cent from this weekend, with only 6 hours a day left – and no live sport on Saturday. It will be available if you are in a big city with an FM BBC relay, but most listeners still rely on short wave in Africa.<\/em><\/p>\n The only upside is that – at least this six hours a day in English seems to be guaranteed for another 10 years, as that’s the length of the BBC contract with the transmitting firm, Babcock.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SWLing Post reader, Allen, writes: BBC’s Cyprus relay station is being closed down today after more than 50 years of service. The BBC currently uses the station to broadcast its Arabic radio service to the Arab world on short wave. The BBC will still incur the cost of making its Arabic radio service in London, […]<\/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":false,"_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":[8,56,3],"tags":[421,1446,1445,1831,352,420,556],"class_list":["post-6108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-broadcasters","category-news","tag-bbc-arabic","tag-bbc-arabic-cuts","tag-bbc-cyprus-cuts","tag-bbc-cyprus-relay","tag-bbc-world-service-cuts","tag-bbc-ws","tag-bbc-ws-cuts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-1Aw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4739,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/bbc-shortwave-hit-by-world-service-cuts\/","url_meta":{"origin":6108,"position":0},"title":"BBC: Shortwave hit by World Service cuts","author":"Thomas","date":"October 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"As we mentioned last week\u00a0in our post with the\u00a0internal memo from the BBC World Service, the BBC has now formally\u00a0announced\u00a0that World Service shortwave broadcasts in Arabic are to close by next April and the Cyprus shortwave relay station will close as well. (Source: BBC) Short wave broadcasts of World Service\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\/10\/medium_bbcarab_en.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6645,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/after-listener-feedback-bbc-world-service-restores-mw-service-to-israel-and-middle-east\/","url_meta":{"origin":6108,"position":1},"title":"After listener feedback, BBC World Service restores MW service to Israel and Middle East","author":"Thomas","date":"June 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"SWLing Post reader David\u00a0commented on June 8 that he heard the return of the BBC World Service on\u00a01,323 khz BBC Zygi, Cyprus relay. The BBC Media Centre confirms: The BBC World Service has confirmed that MW transmissions to Israel and other parts of the Middle East will resume for 10hrs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Antennas-001","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Antennas-001-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1200,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/bbc-world-service-additional-funding\/","url_meta":{"origin":6108,"position":2},"title":"BBC World Service to be allocated additional funding","author":"Thomas","date":"June 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In the midst of many international broadcasting budget cuts, very good news for the BBC World Service (Source: BBC): BBC World Service is to receive an extra \u00a32.2m per year over the next three years from the government. The funding boost will be used to maintain BBC Arabic Service's \"valuable\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\/2011\/01\/BBC-World-Service-Bush-Ho-007-300x180.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4716,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/bbc-internal-memo-outlines-year-three-cuts-and-changes-to-the-bbc-world-service\/","url_meta":{"origin":6108,"position":3},"title":"BBC internal memo outlines year three cuts and changes to the BBC World Service","author":"Thomas","date":"October 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This BBC internal memo, sent to employees by World Service Director,\u00a0Peter Horrocks, outlines the unfortunate pending cuts and changes in much greater detail than those presented by the press. Here is the memo in its entirety--it concludes with further comments from internal sources: Dear colleagues\u00a0 Today we are announcing Year\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\/10\/BBC-World-Service-007-300x180.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6061,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/bbc-world-service-to-simplify-and-reduce-global-english-schedule\/","url_meta":{"origin":6108,"position":4},"title":"BBC World Service to “simplify” English and cut Arabic on shortwave","author":"Thomas","date":"March 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Sadly, the BBC World Service is going forward with cuts that had been announced in 2012. Global English service is being reduced, but Arabic services are being cut\u00a0altogether. The BBC expect to lose 1.5 million listeners to Global English cuts, 800,000 listeners to Arabic cuts. Fortunately, they will maintain all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"BBC-WorldService","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/BBC-WorldService.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7974,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/bbc-announces-closure-of-seychelles-relay-station\/","url_meta":{"origin":6108,"position":5},"title":"BBC announces closure of Seychelles relay station","author":"Thomas","date":"November 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"(Source: BBC Media Centre\u00a0via Rob Wagner) The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) announced today that the Indian Ocean Relay Station (IORS) transmitter site at Grand Anse, Mah\u00e9, will cease all shortwave transmissions on 29 March 2014. The site was established in 1988 and has been in continuous service since then, relaying\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"BBC Seychelles Relay Station (Photo: Vijay.sc)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/BBC-Seychelles.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/BBC-Seychelles.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/BBC-Seychelles.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6108\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}