{"id":6960,"date":"2013-08-01T13:40:46","date_gmt":"2013-08-01T17:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=6960"},"modified":"2013-08-02T08:22:25","modified_gmt":"2013-08-02T12:22:25","slug":"you-are-listening-to-the-free-hellenic-radio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/you-are-listening-to-the-free-hellenic-radio\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;You are listening to the Free Hellenic Radio&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/TheParthenonAthens.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5408\" alt=\"TheParthenonAthens\" src=\"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/TheParthenonAthens-300x210.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/TheParthenonAthens-300x210.jpg 300w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/TheParthenonAthens-100x70.jpg 100w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/TheParthenonAthens.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Yesterday was the first day in nearly a month that I had turned on my SDR to record broadcasts. Between my travel schedule, getting the PC fixed, and near-constant summer thunderstorms, my SWLing has been limited to portables and sporadic travel listening. It felt <em>so great<\/em> yesterday to turn on the <a title=\"A review of the WiNRADiO WR-G31DDC \u201cExcalibur\u201d software defined radio (SDR)\" href=\"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/a-review-of-the-winradio-wr-g31ddc-excalibur-software-defined-radio-sdr\/\">WinRadio Excalibur<\/a> and do a little band-scanning. As I skimmed across the bands, I checked in with my good friend, the Voice of Greece, on 9,420 kHz. And, as I listened, I flipped on the &#8220;record&#8221; switch.<\/p>\n<p>What I recorded was more than three hours of <em>uninterrupted<\/em> Greek music. <a title=\"MP3 version\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/download\/VoiceOfGreece9.42MHz30JUL132011Z\/VoiceOfGreece-9.42MHz-30JUL13-2011Z.mp3\" target=\"_blank\">Click hear to download the full recording<\/a>, or listen via the embedded player below:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/archive.org\/embed\/VoiceOfGreece9.42MHz30JUL132011Z\" height=\"30\" width=\"500\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Three hours of music <em>with no commentary <\/em>(save a little dead air) is certainly <em>not<\/em> a typical format for the Voice of Greece, so I took note.\u00a0<a title=\"ERT news\" href=\"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/tag\/ert-cuts\/\" target=\"_blank\">If you&#8217;ve been reading<em> The SWLing Post<\/em> for long<\/a>\u00a0you&#8217;ll know that the Voice of Greece and its domestic broadcasting counterparts have been going through a major shake-up. In the wake of the <a title=\"Greece shuts down their state broadcasting arm, ERT\" href=\"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/greece-shuts-down-their-state-broadcasting-arm-ert\/\">government closure of ERT<\/a> on June 11th, within hours, former ERT journalists<a title=\"Read about this\" href=\"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/voice-of-greece-on-shortwave-throughout-the-night-despite-ert-shut-down\/\" target=\"_blank\"> defiantly got back on the air<\/a>. Until <a title=\"Read about this\" href=\"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/court-orders-greek-national-tv-and-radio-ert-to-reopen\/\" target=\"_blank\">courts ordered the immediate re-opening of the Greek national broadcaster<\/a>, the Voice of Greece was, in a sense, a very powerful pirate radio broadcaster. Interestingly, since the shakeup in June, I learned that the Voice of Greece has barely been off-air.<\/p>\n<p>Since I don&#8217;t speak or understand Greek, and since they&#8217;ve only made <a title=\"ERT statement in English\" href=\"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/christos-report-on-ert-shutdown-english-statement-from-broadcaster\/\" target=\"_blank\">a few public statements in English<\/a>, I turned to my friend and <em>SWLing Post<\/em> reader\/contributor, Christos, for details.\u00a0 He writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I will try to describe&#8230;the current situation regarding the ERT issue, I hope in an objective way.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;[I]n front of the Radio House in Aghia Paraskevi suburb&#8230;all the fence[s] and part of the building [are] covered by banners. Almost every [evening], concerts take place in the yard. The participant artists express their solidarity [with] those who run the ERT since\u00a011 of June, when the government fired 2,650 employees in order to recruit some 2000 again.<\/p>\n<p>The so-called occupiers of the Radio House demonstrate signs of [fatigue] as less producers and known journalists appear in the programmes. Their programme is transmitted from medium waves 729, 1008, 1260 1404 and 1512 KHz&#8230;enough to cover the whole country during night time. I checked the short wave frequency of 9420 KHz; they [host] a different musical programme&#8230;the one you receive in [the US] <strong>[hear this above]<\/strong>. I think that this is a dead end for those who continue, as 3,000 people in the media business have applied for job[s] in the new ERT. The vice minister responsible&#8230;will recruit only 500 of them&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Two days ago, we had a night of tension as some protesters appeared on the mountain where the antennas are located&#8230;[P]olice arrested some of them.<\/p>\n<p>You can get an idea of this incident [by] watching the following two videos:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/65Lxn4ECgP8\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/I0XlSrDPWrg\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Another source of [information about] the ERT occupiers is:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ertopen.com\/news-in-4-languges\/english\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.ertopen.com\/news-in-4-languges\/english<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8230;[T]here have not been announcements about the future of the Voice of Greece. Think that some 10 million&#8230;Greeks live in the country, and some 10 [million] more [live] abroad.<\/p>\n<p>[The pace of] Greek summer&#8230;[is] slow. People go to the beaches or to their native villages. Everybody looks exhausted as the last two days the temperature reached 39 degrees Celsius which is 102.2 degrees Fahrenheit. Today the SKAI, one of the biggest private radio stations, fired 10 journalists add[ing] to [the] 50 [previously fired]. Now they repeat older programmes and there [is] no news broadcasted.<\/p>\n<p>Remaining journalists in ERT refer to [the broadcasting service] as:\u00a0<strong>Hellenic Radio \u2013 The Voice of Freedom<\/strong>, and often announce, &#8220;You are listening to the Free Hellenic Radio.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Once again&#8230;giving you an idea [of the political] climate here&#8230;this morning the government announced the names of 2,122 teachers \u2013 public servants from technical education [\u2013] who lost their job[s].<\/p>\n<p>I hope this will be of&#8230;interest.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Christos, we <em>thank you so much<\/em> for your insight and opinions about the state of Greek national and international broadcasting!\u00a0<\/strong> We at <em>The SWLing Post<\/em> support freedom of press in Greece, and commiserate with those who have lost their jobs, especially in such an oppressively hot summer. Please do continue to keep us informed.<\/p>\n<p>I have sincere doubts about the longevity of the Voice of Greece (or Free Hellenic Radio) on shortwave. With the serious budget cuts the new ERT must be built on, I doubt they&#8217;ll consider funding shortwave radio in Greece. I feel like it may only be a matter of time before we lose yet another shortwave broadcaster.\u00a0 I certainly hope I&#8217;m wrong&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, I&#8217;ll be dedicating more hard drive space to spectrum <a href=\"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/tag\/voice-of-greece\">recordings of VOG<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday was the first day in nearly a month that I had turned on my SDR to record broadcasts. Between my travel schedule, getting the PC fixed, and near-constant summer thunderstorms, my SWLing has been limited to portables and sporadic travel listening. It felt so great yesterday to turn on the WinRadio Excalibur and do [&hellip;]<\/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":[56,3,746,43,1167],"tags":[2056,1974,1976,801,800,1975],"class_list":["post-6960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-broadcasters","category-news","category-recordings","category-shortwave-radio","category-whats-on-shortwave","tag-ert","tag-ert-cuts","tag-ert-greece","tag-vog","tag-voice-of-greece","tag-voice-of-greece-cuts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-1Og","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6668,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/voice-of-greece-on-shortwave-throughout-the-night-despite-ert-shut-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":6960,"position":0},"title":"Voice of Greece on shortwave throughout the night, despite ERT shut down","author":"Thomas","date":"June 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"If you listened to the Voice Of Greece in the wake of the Greek National TV & Radio (ERT) shut down last night, you were in for a bit of radio history. I published several posts yesterday as the story developed; I knew if ERT was being silenced, the Voice\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Broadcasters&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Thousands of protesters gathered outside ERT's headquarters in Athens (Source: BBC News)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/GreekProtestsBBCNews-300x168.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8034,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/voice-of-greece-has-become-a-relay-of-radio-station-of-macedonia-ert-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":6960,"position":1},"title":"Voice of Greece has become a relay of Radio Station of Macedonia, ERT 3","author":"Thomas","date":"November 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In response to my post and recording yesterday,\u00a0TheGreekRadio.com commented on the current state of the Voice of Greece: \"After the forceful eviction of the redundant ERT employees from the Radio House in Athens, the shortwave frequencies no longer transmit the normal program of Voice of Greece as there is no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Broadcasters&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ERT3","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/ERT3-300x92.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13554,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/shortwave-listeners-hear-the-voice-of-greece-once-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":6960,"position":2},"title":"Shortwave listeners hear the Voice of Greece once again","author":"Thomas","date":"June 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"SWLing Post\u00a0contributor, Moshe, writes with some good news from the Voice of Greece: I'm listening to VOG at 9420kHz, At 11:27 local time 08:27UTC, 11\/06\/2015 the station identified itself as \"Ezo Athina, I Foni Dis Elladas\": \"This Is Athens, The Voice Of Greece\". Immediately after receiving Moshe's message, another Post\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Broadcasters&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"greece","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/greece.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/greece.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/greece.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/greece.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7332,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/the-voice-of-greece-avlis-shortwave-transmitter-may-be-scrapped\/","url_meta":{"origin":6960,"position":3},"title":"The Voice of Greece Avlis shortwave transmitter site may be scrapped","author":"Thomas","date":"September 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"According to TheGreekRadio.com, 39 shortwave antennas located at the Voice of Greece Avlis transmitter site may soon be sold as scrap metal. It seems this information is based on a statement by ERT employees from Monday (September 16, 2013): \"in the shortwave broadcasting center of Avlis, a representative of a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Broadcasters&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"GREECE-ECONOMY-MEDIA","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/greece-ert-replacement-protest-300x168.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13211,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2015\/05\/ert-reopens\/","url_meta":{"origin":6960,"position":4},"title":"ERT reopens under direction of Dionysis Tsaknis","author":"Thomas","date":"May 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"SWLing Post contributor, Ayar, confirms that ERT employees\u00a0did indeed returned to work yesterday after having been laid off nearly two years ago. Ayar shares this link to\u00a0GreekReporter.com\u00a0which has full details.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Broadcasters&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"(Photo source: AP \/ Petros Giannakouris)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/ERT-HQ.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11180,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/ert-open-voice-of-greece-moves-back-to-9420-khz\/","url_meta":{"origin":6960,"position":5},"title":"ERT Open (Voice of Greece) moves back to 9420 kHz","author":"Thomas","date":"October 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"If you were listening to the 31 meter band last night in North America, you would have heard a very strong ERT Open (Voice of Greece) back on their long-established frequency of 9420 kHz. Only yesterday, I posted a note about ERT's\u00a0apparent move to 9415 kHz to avoid interference with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Broadcasters&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ERT_Digital","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ERT_Digital-300x242.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6960","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=6960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}