{"id":7974,"date":"2013-11-23T07:23:53","date_gmt":"2013-11-23T11:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=7974"},"modified":"2013-11-23T07:24:53","modified_gmt":"2013-11-23T11:24:53","slug":"bbc-announces-closure-of-seychelles-relay-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/bbc-announces-closure-of-seychelles-relay-station\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC announces closure of Seychelles relay station"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"BBC<\/a>

BBC Seychelles Relay Station (Photo: Vijay.sc)<\/p><\/div>\n

(Source: BBC Media Centre<\/a>\u00a0via Rob Wagner)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The site was established in 1988 and has been in continuous service since then, relaying BBC broadcasts to audiences in East Africa primarily in English and Somali.<\/p>\n

The closure will not affect the availability of BBC World Service programmes in Seychelles, which are relayed from satellite broadcasts on to local FM frequencies 106.2, 105.6 and 105.2MHz. In areas of East Africa still dependent upon shortwave broadcasts, the signal will be supplied by other relay stations. The announcement follows an earlier decision to stop all shortwave broadcasts from the BBC World Service site in Cyprus for similar commercial, technological and audience reach reasons. These ended in March of this year.<\/p>\n

The announcement will unfortunately result in 11 staff being put at risk of redundancy. The staff over the last 25 years have operated and maintained this shortwave broadcast facility with passion, expertise and professionalism. The technical ability and commitment of the team at the IORS has been applauded by the BBC World Service.<\/p>\n

The decision to close the site has been taken due to changing commercial and technological circumstances. As countries develop and their media markets open, listening and viewing habits have changed. New technology has changed the way audiences listen to BBC programmes and reduced the importance of shortwave broadcasts in much of the area currently served by the IORS, making the IORS commercially unviable.<\/p>\n

The BBC is supporting the development of new delivery platforms such as internet and mobile streaming as well as FM radio and TV broadcasts. Shortwave broadcasts continue to regions and markets where listening remains strong and BBC services can be delivered efficiently to large geographic areas.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(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 BBC broadcasts to audiences in […]<\/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],"tags":[2347,327,2346],"class_list":["post-7974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-broadcasters","category-news","tag-bbc-seychelles-relay-closure","tag-bbc-world-service","tag-bbc-world-service-seychelles-relay"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-24C","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11449,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/bbc-relay-station-handed-back-to-seychelles\/","url_meta":{"origin":7974,"position":0},"title":"BBC Relay Station handed back to Seychelles","author":"Thomas","date":"November 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"(Source: Seychelles News Agency via Andy Sennitt) Tuesday November 18 marked the closure of an iconic chapter of Seychelles\u2019 history, signalling the end of an era when information was much more difficult to come by. With much of Africa joining the internet and mobile phone revolution, the times of trying\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":[]},{"id":7978,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/jonathan-marks-remembers-the-opening-of-the-bbc-seychelles-relay-site\/","url_meta":{"origin":7974,"position":1},"title":"Jonathan Marks remembers the opening of the BBC Seychelles relay site","author":"Thomas","date":"November 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In response to the announcement of the closure of the BBC Seychelles relay, Jonathan Marks writes: \"You might like to revisit this old Media Network when we spoke about the opening of the Seychelles site. http:\/\/jonathanmarks.libsyn.com\/mn-29-09-1988-blackpool-offshore-radio-\" Jonathan, I'm glad you shared this recording as it's also chock-full of radio nostalgia:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Jonathan Marks","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/JonathanMarks1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":57213,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2023\/07\/bbc-kranji-shortwave-relay-station-to-close-july-16-2023\/","url_meta":{"origin":7974,"position":2},"title":"BBC Kranji shortwave relay station to close July 16, 2023","author":"Thomas","date":"July 11, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to a number of SWLing Post contributors who have reached out about a report on AWR Wavescan regarding the closure of the BBC Kranji relay station in Singapore. I contacted AWR Wavescan host, Jeff White at WRMI, and asked for any details he might have since I could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Broadcasting"","block_context":{"text":"International Broadcasting","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/international-broadcasting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/QSL-BBC-Kranji-1-1-1024x677.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/QSL-BBC-Kranji-1-1-1024x677.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/QSL-BBC-Kranji-1-1-1024x677.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6108,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/allens-thoughts-as-bbc-cyprus-relay-station-closes-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":7974,"position":3},"title":"Allen’s thoughts as BBC Cyprus relay station closes today","author":"Thomas","date":"March 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"bbc_arabic","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/bbc_arabic.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20848,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/august-28-bbc-atlantic-relay-station-special-drm-broadcasts\/","url_meta":{"origin":7974,"position":4},"title":"August 28: BBC Atlantic Relay station special DRM broadcasts","author":"Thomas","date":"August 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"(Source: DRM Consortium) DRM will be part of a big anniversary on a small island in the Atlantic Ocean. On 28th of August at 1155 GMT Babcock International will ensure a special BBC digital transmission on 21715 kHz from the BBC Atlantic Relay station, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Current Events"","block_context":{"text":"Current Events","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/current-events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"RNZI-DRM-2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/RNZI-DRM-2-e1472222611639.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/RNZI-DRM-2-e1472222611639.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/RNZI-DRM-2-e1472222611639.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":26849,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/bbc-atlantic-relay-station-john-receives-a-surprise-in-the-mail\/","url_meta":{"origin":7974,"position":5},"title":"BBC Atlantic Relay Station: John receives a surprise in the mail","author":"Thomas","date":"July 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, John Cooper, who shares the following: In today's mail I received a big surprise. Not one, but two QSLs verifying BBC program transmission reception reports from Ascension Island that I sent them in 2014. At that time I was working on a NASWA Dx\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_1012.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_1012.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_1012.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_1012.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7974","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=7974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7974\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}