DX LISTENING DIGEST 4-019, February 1, 2004 edited by Glenn Hauser, http://www.worldofradio.com Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only if full credit be maintained at all stages and we be provided exchange copies. DXLD may not be reposted in its entirety without permission. Materials taken from Arctic or originating from Olle Alm and not having a commercial copyright are exempt from all restrictions of noncommercial, noncopyrighted reusage except for full credits For restrixions and searchable 2004 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn NEXT AIRING OF WORLD OF RADIO 1217: Mon 0430 on WSUI, Iowa City, 910, webcast http://wsui.uiowa.edu NEXT AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1218: Mon 0515 on WBCQ 7415, webcast http://wbcq.us Tue 0400 on SIUE Web Radio http://www.siue.edu/WEBRADIO/ [may delay 24 hours if weather is bad; followed by MUNDO RADIAL at 0430] Wed 1030 on WWCR 9475 WRN ONDEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO [also for CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL]: Check http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html WORLD OF RADIO 1218 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1218h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1218h.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1218.html WORLD OF RADIO 1218 (low version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1218.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1218.rm NETS TO YOU, ham radio, new February edition with considerable revision, by John Norfolk: http://www.worldofradio.com/nets2you.html ** BAHRAIN. 9745-USB, R. Bahrain, 1207 Jan 31, very weak, catching bits of Arabic talk by man and music at 1216. Much better at 1335 retune with news read rapidly by man with fanfare playing in the background. Got a quick ID as he was wrapping up at 1344. Then another ID by woman in quick promo. Both were simply "Itha' Bahrain." (Hans Johnson, Naples FL, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. 4902.68, R. San Miguel, 1021-1033, Jan. 30, Spanish, OM talks and PSA, more talks and field reports re "policia programa". ID at 1030. Good with lite static (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R75, MLB-1, RS longwire with RBA balun, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 4901.98, Radio San Miguel, Riberalta, 1000 with excellent signal, dominant Bolivian in the sixty meter band 29 January; on 31 Jan off the air 1000 to 1030 (Bob Wilkner, FL, R75 Pompano Beach, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CAMBODIA. 11940, 0105-0119 Jan 31, Voice of Cambodia Presumed. YL talking in Vietnamese followed by an 'upbeat' song in Vietnamese. Brief commentaries with YL announcer and brief music clips interspersed. Sounds perhaps like a news broadcast. It's a full daylight path between them and me. At 0115 the 'timbre' or language changed, while still an Asian language I'm not sure I was hearing the same station. Cambodia last appears in my logbook in Sept 1996 (Phil, KO6BB, Atchley, Merced, Central California, 37.18N 120.29W, swl at qth.net via DXLD) ** CANADA. Re RCI, Vietnam frequencies missing: Or someone really screwed up at Sackville (not unusual). Maybe some farm animals walked into the low-slung aerials or something (Ricky Leong, QC, Jan 29, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. CKUT's 2nd annual homelessness marathon, overnight Feb. 12 to 13 Broadcasting from Café sur la rue. Picked up by radio stations across Canada. [also on KUNM; see USA below] All Comedy Radio coming to Toronto on Mojo Radio, 640 kHz From U.S. network, All Comedy Radio Overnight and weekends (CKUT International Radio Report Feb 1, notes by Ricky Leong, via DXLD) Same as on KMMZ ** CANADA. RADIO HOST TALKS AWAY THE DRUG AND ALCOHOL DEMONS Mark Elliot has been there, says ANTHONY REINHART By ANTHONY REINHART Thursday, January 29, 2004 - Page A3 On a night cold enough to make your lungs bleed, a handsome young couple take the edge off in the subway, passing a beer can between them. Their numbness will no doubt increase in the bars that beckon downtown, where thousands are converging for another Saturday night of partying. As they leave the Bloor-Yonge station, they can't see the man a few blocks away in the Gay Village, sober as a judge, sharpening his senses on coffee and cigarettes in a quiet café. The man is Mark Elliot -- veteran radio host, recovering addict, twice-divorced father of four and former "dead man." As the rest of the city heads out to play, Mr. Elliot is gearing up to go to work at 1010-CFRB, where he counsels addicts on the air. It's a hell of a way to spend a Saturday night, but then Mr. Elliot has spent most of his 50 years running the other way. It's only in the past 15 years that he has learned to do so without "killing" himself. "I look at it and really wonder how the hell I lived," he says, and his appearance corroborates him: dark rings under the eyes, sallow skin, wispy hair. The youngest of four, Mr. Elliot was born Nils Johanson on Christmas Eve, 1953, and grew up in a hardscrabble area of Weston. By age 5, he kept a radio under his pillow and dreamed of a career on the airwaves, a dream he never let go despite the nightmare he endured a year later: sexual abuse at the hands of "somebody close," though not a relative. Horrific as it was, Mr. Elliot says he came out tougher for it, which served him well in the "miserable, merciless" world of radio. By age 21, he had worked several disc jockey jobs under the names Nils Johanson, Rick Shannon and finally Mark Elliot, which stuck as he left Winnipeg for a wildly successful 12-year run in Ottawa. "For a long time, I would answer to any one of three names," he says, "but Mark Elliot took on a life of his own." And what a life it was. Mr. Elliot arrived in Ottawa during the last heyday of AM radio, and enjoyed all the benefits of big-time celebrity. He kept up appearances through his marriages and revelled in his public profile. But underneath, he was still Nils Johanson, the sexual-abuse survivor, the closet homosexual, the alcoholic who took his first drink at age 11, the pot-smoker who could now afford cocaine. The inevitable collision came one night in May, 1983, when Mr. Elliot swallowed a handful of pills and "died" twice on the treatment table. After floating away to meet "a really nice guy" named God, he awoke to two kicks to the chest, which were actually electric shocks from a defibrillator. But while they restored Mr. Elliot's heartbeat, they weren't enough to jolt him from his addictions. They persisted until 1987, when a boss fired him -- but also found him a residential treatment program in Windsor, Ont. He made his way back into radio and began counselling other addicts, eventually combining the two into a call-in show called People Helping People. Four years ago, Mr. Elliot brought the show to Toronto's AM 640, then jumped to CFRB, the city's premier talk station, in December, 2001. Since then, he has dispensed non-preachy advice to listeners in Toronto and Montreal each Saturday night from midnight to 3 a.m., from a dimly lit room in an office tower at Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue. A computer screen shows him the names of callers waiting and their reasons for calling. Ven, from North York, fears he's hooked on painkillers after a series of operations. "After a couple uses, I'm already addicted," he says. "I'm just waiting for the next surgery." This morphs into a discussion of drug use among medical professionals, in which Mr. Elliot decries the stigmatization of those who admit they have a problem. The stigma discourages people from seeking treatment, rewards silence and keeps users on the job, undetected, he says. In Mississauga, Nancy is worried about her 22-year-old son's pot habit. "What do I do?" she asks. "Don't talk to him when he's stoned," Mr. Elliot replies. "It's your house, your rules. Tell him, 'If you want to smoke pot, don't come home.' " During a lull in calls, he muses about the paradox of the addicted life -- the willingness to give up "the wife, the house, the car, the job" while fighting fiercely to hang on to booze and drugs. "That's what an addiction is," he says into the mike. "It's a way of thinking that's destructive to us. The booze and drugs are just a symptom." After his shift, in a downtown diner filled with well-lubed bar- hoppers, Mr. Elliot describes his life as "about as crazy as a hydrogen atom in the midst of nuclear fusion." While sobriety has allowed him to settle into a more stable life with a loving partner, he still considers himself a misfit. The difference now, after all his struggles, is that he accepts himself. Talking others through their own troubles helps him keep that perspective. "Being a recovering addict is nothing to be proud of," he says. "I'd be grateful if I never had to talk about it again as long as I lived. "But although I feel some discomfort sometimes, that's my life." (Globe & Mail via Eric Flodén, BC, DXLD) ** CHINA. CHINA TO FINE UNAUTHORIZED WEATHER BROADCASTERS | Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) Beijing, 30 January: Those who broadcast meteorological forecasts without official authorization and revise the content of weather forecasts without authorization will be fined up to 10,000 yuan (about 1,200 US dollars) in China beginning 1 Feb. The weather forecast release and broadcast management measures, which will come into effect on 1 February, include the above regulations. According to an official with the China Meteorological Administration, some individuals and units released meteorological forecasts without official authorization in recent years, bringing negative impact to the people's lives and the government's disaster relief work, and at the same time ruining the reputation of the country's meteorological stations. The management measures regulate that in the future, meteorological stations will only release weather forecasts to government-designated TV stations, radio stations, newspapers and web sites for broadcasting to the general public. Without the approval of meteorological stations, media may not revise the content of weather forecasts. Source: Xinhua news agency, Beijing, in English 1448 gmt 30 Jan 04 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** CHINA. 6185, Huayi Broadcasting Company, 1154-1218, Jan. 27, Mandarin/English, Announcers with lite banter and talks over music, ballads and English ID, "This is F.M. ??. China Huayi Broadcasting Company". Fair at tune-in, fading by tune-out. No sign of co-channel R. Educación, Mexico who apparently signed off a bit early (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R75, MLB-1, RS longwire with RBA balun, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COLOMBIA. Re: 5019.64 kHz Radio Net, Quibdó --- Hola Rafael y mil gracias por la información. Solamente he notado programas de "Radio Net" pero talvez la emisora tenga en su programación los otros servicios mencionados en tu mail durante el día? Saludos Cordiales desde Quito y (Björn Malm, Conexión Digital via DXLD) Hola Björn, Si, es durante las horas del dia que he escuchado las retransmisiones que menciono. Luego de su información, revisé mi logbook y encontré varias escuchas de finales del año pasado hacia las 18 a 20 horas UT y a pesar que retransmitían La Vallenata y Tropicana en los cortes comerciales, salía la voz del locutor dando comerciales y mensajes a pescadores en el Pacífico (Rafael Rodríguez. R., Santa Fe de Bogotá, ibid.) ** COLOMBIA. 3300.18, Em. Ideal, Planeta Rica harmonic in parallel 2200.21 harmonic from 1015 to 1045 Feb 1, ``en Cali....programa de ..." (Bob Wilkner, FL, R75, Pompano Beach, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECH REPUBLIC. I just followed the end of numerous Czech mediumwave sites, at least for the time being: CRo 6 ran still the canned announcements selling Radio Prague transmissions "each day" on these frequencies as if there would be nothing. One can only hope that not too many astonished listeners will find nothing anymore tomorrow. And the very end: Usual conclusion of Radio Prague's English programme at 1957, fill music continuing for three minutes until being faded out and this was it, only silence until the carriers on 1233 were switched off at 2003/2004 (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Jan 31, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DJIBOUTI. The new IBB MW transmitter here is now on the online schedule, and presumably on the air as of Feb 1: 1431 1600 2400 SAW MRN6 ARAB DJI A 999 --- 999 meaning non-direxional? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The new 600 kW transmitter that the IBB installed at Arta is going to start with test transmissions on 1 February, relaying Radio Sawa at 1600-0400 [Moscow Time?-BT]. (Info: Fyodor Brazhnikov, Russia in Russian open_dx mailing list, 31 Jan 2004 via Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, MWDX via DXLD) Das US-amerikanische International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) testet ab dem 1. Februar 2004 seinen neuen, 600 kW starken Mittelwellensender in Djibouti auf 1431 kHz. Abgestrahlt wird 16.00-04.00 (MEZ 17.00) Uhr eine der Programmversionen von Radio Sawa, dem arabischen Auslandsdienst des Broadcasting Board of Governors. (Dan Ferguson, IBB) Nach 20.00 (MEZ 21.00) Uhr, wenn der ebenfalls auf 1431 kHz für die Stimme Russlands aktive ukrainische Sender Nikolajew-Kopani seine täglichen Ausstrahlungen beendet, könnten die Sendungen aus Djibouti auch in Mitteleuropa hörbar werden (Kai Ludwig, 31.1.2004, ntt aktuell Feb 1 via DXLD) ** FRANCE. Durcissement du conflit `a Radio France [30/01 - 20h28] Assemblee generale du personnel greviste `a Radio France, mercredi Le conflit entre la direction et les journalistes de Radio France, qui sont en greve depuis le 27 janvier, s'est durci vendredi avec la fin de non-recevoir du ministre de la Culture et de la Communication Jean-Jacques Aillagon `a la demande des syndicats de nommer un mediateur... http://actu.dna.fr/040130182844.oh3yaphu.html (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** GREECE [non]. Been several weeks since I checked V. of Greece Sunday between 1900 and 2000 UT on 17705 via Delano, for the once- scheduled ``It`s All Greek to Me`` music show presented in English. Feb 2 at 1943: no, Greek talk, mentioning bola, so maybe stupid ballgame discussion, tho no play by play at the moment, and bits of music thrown in (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUYANA. GUYANA: NEW STATE-OWNED MEDIA ENTITY TO COME INTO BEING ON 1 MARCH | Text of report by Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) news agency on 30 January Georgetown, Guyana: The Guyana government and the Clerical and Commercial Workers Union (CCWU) have signed an agreement that would result in the formation of a new state-owned media entity. Under the accord, the Guyana Television Broadcasting Company Limited (GTV) Channel 11 and the Guyana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) will merge to create the National Communications Network Incorporated (NCN Inc), Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon said. The new government medium comes into being on 1 March. CCWU and the government ratified a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) [on] Thursday at the Office of the President in the capital. Under the terms of the agreement, some 23m Guyanese dollars (117,000 US dollars) has been set aside for ex-gratia payments for severed employees of the two companies. A Government Information Agency (Gina) statement said "persons with less than three years service will receive 10 per cent of the severance pay and those with more than three years 15 per cent". Gina said six-month temporary contracts would be offered to all GTV and GBC employees in the new government outfit. "The temporary contracts shall carry the same salary as the employees currently enjoy, and in addition will carry an 8 per cent payment in lieu of leave and other benefits," Gina said. Source: Caribbean Media Corporation news agency, Bridgetown, in English 1622 gmt 30 Jan 04 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** HAWAII [non]. G'day, just letting you know, that whilst taping 'Dxing with Cumbre' at 0800 hours UT, off air on 11565 kHz, massive jamming was noted. I have some audio of this if interested. I have previously noted a numbers station on this frequency, so my thinking is it could be this one or China, maybe, with thanks (Tim Gaynor, Qsld., Jan 31, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** HONDURAS. 4830, R. Litoral, 0441-0503*, Jan. 25, English/Spanish, Religious program "Searchlight" with Thanksgiving Day broadcast, OM at 0456 Spanish ID and s/off announcements. Fair (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R75, MLB-1, RS longwire with RBA balun, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL. World Amateur Radio Day 2004 theme designated: The theme for World Amateur Radio Day 2004 is ``Radio Amateurs: Pioneers in Bridging Barriers to World Understanding.`` Commemorating the anniversary of the founding of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU), World Amateur Radio Day takes place each year on April 18. This year, the IARU marks its 79th anniversary. The 2004 theme is intended to emphasize the IARU`s long history of bringing people together across geographic, cultural, and political barriers. Created in Paris, the IARU has been the watchdog and spokesman for the world Amateur Radio community since 1925. The worldwide federation of national Amateur Radio organizations represents some three million radio amateurs in 159 countries. For more information, visit the IARU Web site http://www.iaru.org/ (ARRL January 28 via John Norfolk, Mike Terry, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. SATELLITE RADIO COMPETITION HEATS UP Fri Jan 30 Brian Bergstein, AP Technology Writer. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040130/ap_on_hi_te/techbits_4 Leading provider XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. is making its music channels commercial-free, taking away an advantage touted by its more expensive rival, Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. Sirius executives have said their higher price was justified largely because Sirius delivers commercial-free music, though there are a few ads on its talk, news and sports stations. XM has a similar setup, though it had two minutes of commercials each hour on half of its music channels. But XM is going ad-free on its music channels as of Sunday, without raising the subscription price. XM also plans to introduce local traffic and weather channels in many markets this year. "We were already dominating this market. This will take us one step further," XM spokesman Chance Patterson said. "This will put even more pressure on Sirius." XM has 1.4 million subscribers to its $9.99-per-month service; Sirius has attracted 261,000 with its $12.95-per-month offering. Sirius spokesman Jim Collins said his company's premium price will remain attractive because Sirius has better programming, including National Public Radio and hockey, basketball and football games. But he added that there's room for both companies to thrive, with each offering 100-plus digital channels that can be heard nationwide. "It's not a race," Collins said. "It really doesn't matter who has higher subscriber numbers." (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [non]. "Pirates for Peace" project - first ship almost ready --- LAND HO! PIRATES TO SAIL IN SPRING 2004! Ahoy thar! It's been a long journey since we began refitting the 'Enterprise' in 1998, but thanks to the generous donations from people and organisations around the world, in addition to the hard work of countless volunteers over the years, the ship is scheduled to enter the Carlingford Lough this spring! Though most of the names have change since the last update, the goal and ideals remain the same, and the new names are just as strongly committed to these ideas, including people like Jesse Greenblatt, Operations Manager and 'First Mate'. A Chicagoan with charity experience and degree in conflict resolution from American University, Jesse joined us in July 2003 for only a six month stint, but has enjoyed himself so much, and believes so deeply in the ideals of the project, he has decided to stay with us past the new year! The volunteers over the time we've spent in Southampton have come from all walks of life - a musician and aspiring producer, both from Bracknell, a local Southampton carpenter, a long term volunteer and stew-making extraordinaire originally from Cork, and any number of local youths who otherwise would not get an opportunity like this. Many thanks to Woolston School, Crime Concern, Southampton Voluntary Services, and the other organisations who provided these great kids. An extra special thanks to them is most deserved. We've spent the past few years doing everything imaginable to refit the ship, as our ever-diligent crew will attest to: Jesse Greenblatt - "In one day, I updated the accounts, called Virgin Records, emptied the ship's bilge (which is NO fun), sanded and painted a loudspeaker, and helped out in a recording session. If that isn't multi-tasking, I don't know what is!" Steve Fearnley - "Wood is the word of the day. I've cut it, shaped it, sanded it, screwed it (with stainless steel AND brass fittings), painted it, etc. If it's Steve, it's wood." (Pirates for Peace does not endorse wood or anything Steve has made out of wood. The opinions expressed by Steve and his love of wood are his and his alone.) Nathan Ball - "I have painted the entire deck (all 105 feet of it), made gaskets of every size and shape, and have put forward several publicity ideas that have been taken on board by P4P. I've also lost half a stone in the process. Pirates for Peace is the best diet plan I've ever tried!" Thanks to these guys and dozens like them who've lent a hand over the years. In addition to the ship, Pirates for Peace has spent the past couple of years building strong relationships with the communities it will be serving in Northern Ireland. We have built connections in the schools, in the various ethnic communities, and with local governmental officials. It is only with all their help that Pirates for Peace can truly be a success. Also, we would like to thank those people and companies to whom we still owe, including Hythe Marine, which was very helpful in the stages of the refit, and Les Blair, who was instrumental in the acquiring of crucial equipment needed to get the ship ready to sail, including some excellent life rafts, not that we anticipate needing them! Also, we would like to thank Action for Peoples in Conflict, who have paid our moorings fees here in Southampton, in addition to several other needed services. To everyone we owe, thank you for your patience, and you are high on our list of things to do. Of course, the Pirates for Peace - Northern Ireland ship will only be the first of what we hope to be a fleet of ships around the world, all with the purpose of bringing together children from various backgrounds to learn how to and then create their own radio programmes. Plans are currently in the pipeline for a second ship based in the Palestine/Israel area. All of us here at Pirates for Peace are very excited about our intended arrival, and cannot wait to get started in Northern Ireland. Thank you to everyone that has helped over the years in any way they could. Once again, it has been your contribution that has made all of this possible. That's not to say we couldn't use some more, far from it. Any donation of time, money, or equipment, would still be greatly appreciated. A quick list of supplies that would be useful includes: 10 tonnes of Admiralty Pig Iron, 2 sets of Navigation Lights, a small GPS system, Admiralty standard anchor chain, Apple Mac G5 Computer System, Ship to Shore Radio 6 or 10 man liferafts Power Generators 25hp Long-shaft outboard motor Fluxgate Compass and 3 repeaters Fire Pump and hoses Watch the website http://www.piratesforpeace.co.uk/news.html for more updates and ideas on how you can get even more involved with the Pirates, as well as more pictures and, of course, Pirates for Peace Radio! Sincerely, The Pirates (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** IRAQ. SADDAM SHAME FOX DIDN'T THINK OF THIS SOONER -- BEN RAYNER WASHINGTON --- The citizens of Iraq will choose their new leader from a pool of top-tier celebrity candidates in a landmark new reality TV series set to debut on the Fox Network in the spring, U.S. President George W. Bush announced today. Reconstruct This! pits 10 stars of stage, screen and the music industry against one another in a race for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people in a six-episode run that will climax with a final viewer vote to determine Saddam Hussein's successor on June 30, the deadline set by the U.S.-appointed Governing Council for the establishment of a transitional government in the wartorn nation. . . http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1075548538327&call_pageid=968867495754&col=969483191630 (via Doug Smith W9WI, WTFDA Soundoff via DXLD) ** IRELAND. UK, 7465, 6220, Laser Hot Hits carrying Radio Caroline at 1045 Sun Feb 1 with John Lennon Death Anniversary program. Fair reception on Javoradio Europe (Hans Johnson, Naples FL, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** ITALY [non?]. 13840, IRRS with American Christian programming at 1153 Jan 31. Completely blocked in AM mode by a persistent ute; had to listen in USB. IRRS ID at 1200. Via Javoradio Europe (Hans Johnson, Naples FL, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** KASHMIR [non]. INDIA. I have been studying the tune-up procedures of Radio Sadaye Kashmir 6100 before 1430 and of various AIR external services outlets for a few days. 6100 as a rule has a continuous 1050 Hz tone right up to the programme start. This procedure is also commonplace among regular AIR transmitters. As the same 1050 Hz tone has been observed not only from Delhi transmitters but also from Panaji and Bangalore it appears that the tone is inserted at the Delhi master control. The precise programme start of 6100 is slightly variable. Today they needed an extra 30 sec to get going and the tone also stayed on until just before the opening announcements. The end of the programme has also been noted as late as a few minutes after 1530. There is no known CIS site that would fit with this behaviour, while on the other hand the main characteristics fit with AIR procedures, so clearly Jose Jacob is absolutely right when he suggests an AIR site. The choice of meter band indicates a Delhi site, as Bangalore and Panaji would be too far away and a local Kashmir transmitter would rather use 60 meters. The rather clean audio suggests Kingsway in the northern outskirts of Delhi rather than Khampur in the countryside some distance north of Delhi, but this is only guesswork (Olle Alm, Sweden, January 31, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [non]. JoongAng Ilbo ("DEFECTORS FROM NORTH WILL START BROADCAST," 01/30/04) reported that DPRK defectors will set up an Internet radio broadcasting station "Free North Korea Broadcasting" http://freenk.com which will begin service in April. Kim Sung-min, chairman of One Korea, a defector group, said yesterday that the aim of the broadcast is to improve human rights in the DPRK and help democratize the country. "We will point out the problems of DPRK society and tell the tales of the defectors," Kim said. Testing will begin on Feb. 16 and the station will broadcast regularly from April 15 for one hour. It will be operated out of an office in Sinjeong-dong, Seoul, which was set up with 30 million won ($25,500) donated by defectors. The station may also sell its contents to Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, and will pursue short-wave broadcasting for people in the DPRK as well (via Joe O'Brien, KG4DVB, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova, Jan 31, DXLD) This might be worth keeping an eye out for in the future. I can't imagine VOA or RFA paying for their programing, though (Ulis Fleming, Cumbre DX via DXLD) NORTH KOREAN DEFECTORS IN SOUTH SET UP INTERNET RADIO STATION | Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap Seoul, 30 January: North Korean defectors in South Korea will establish an Internet radio station on Pyongyang's infringement of human rights, a step aimed at raising awareness of their fellow North Koreans on the issue, a defectors' group said Friday [30 January]. The station, "Free NK," will air programmes on the lives of North Korean defectors, the North's human rights abuses and other programmes that will reveal the "reality" of society there, Kim Sung-min, the head of the group, said. In addition to airing the programmes online, the group is seeking ways to sell them to international broadcasting stations so that North Korean residents can listen to the programmes, Kim said. The group is in negotiations with the Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia about supplying the programmes. "VOA is already airing programmes on North Korea 10 minutes a day, of which I am in charge... [ellipses as carried] North Korean residents will be able to listen to our programmes if we air them through those stations... Although I cannot specify the exact state of the negotiations, I can say that it is fairly under way," Kim, who is also working as a reporter for the VOA, said. "Through our programmes, we would like to raise North Koreans' awareness of the human rights problem by pointing out differences in the state of human rights between the South and the North. We will also cover the lives of North Korean defectors and tell why they have chosen to come out of the communist North," Kim said. North Korean defectors donated around 30m won (25,536 US dollars) in setting up the station. Almost all of the construction on the station is done, and it will go into service on 15 April. It will air programmes for an hour a day and listeners will be able to access the station through its Web site, http://www.freenk.com The North Korean defectors' group, called "the Paektu (Baekdu)-Halla Association," has around 220 members. A growing number of North Koreans have escaped the country because of economic difficulties and oppression. Most of the defectors live in hiding in China. According to estimates by the group Human Rights Watch in November 2002, around 100,000 to 300,000 North Korean defectors are hiding in China. Source: Yonhap news agency, Seoul, in English 0242 gmt 30 Jan 04 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** LATVIA. 9290, checked here at 1240 Jan 31 and heard nothing via Javoradio Europe. Can someone update me as to the schedule of what is airing here as I have lost track (Hans Johnson, Naples FL, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** MALAYSIA. 7295, Radio Four, 1047 Feb 1, pops in English, DJ in English. Two time pips, what sounded like a quick Radio Four ID, and news at 1100. Good signal. "That wraps up the 7 PM news." Quick Radio Four ID after the news. Via Javoradio Australia (Hans Johnson, Naples FL, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** MEXICO. 4810v, R. XERTA, 1126-1151, Feb. 1, English/Spanish, Contemporary religious music in English, switched to Spanish at 1140, YL with canned IDs in Spanish at 1130, 1140 and 1142 tho too much transmitter hum, "sweeper" QRM and muffled audio to get good copy on any of the three. Kept shuffling the dial between 4809-4810 in .01 kHz increments, unsure if the signal or the interference was drifting (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R75, MLB-1, RS longwire with RBA balun, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. RADIO ZAPOTE, ESTACIÓN ILEGAL -- USURPABA [sic] LA FRECUENCIA DE OPUS 94.5 --- Georgina Hidalgo Vivas Durante casi tres años, una estación montada en las instalaciones de la Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia, ENAH, interfirió la frecuencia del IMER. La Secretaria de Comunicaciones y Transportes "se dió cuenta" del hecho apenas el 16 de enero pasado La estacion comunitaria Radio Zapote, que desde hace 2 años y 10 meses transmite sin permiso legal en el 94.1 de FM desde las instalaciones del edificio principal de la Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia, ENAH, [DF] apagó ayer a las 10 de la noche su transmisor debido a una queja que interpusieron en su contra concesionarios del Instituto Mexicano de la Radio, IMER, en concreto de la estación OPUS 94.5. Surgida para dar cobertura a la marcha del EZLN a la Ciudad de México, a principios de 2001, Radio Zapote continuó transmitiendo en esa frecuencia que, según sus operadores, "es un espacio libre que ya había sido utilizado varias veces por colectivos de radio independiente mucho antes que nosotros"... http://www.elindependiente.com.mx/articulos.php?id_sec=9&id_art=8251&id_ejemplar=235 (El Independiente.com, Mejico, Jan 22 via Conexión Digital Jan 31 via DXLD) ** MEXICO [and non]. Thread about XEROK/XELO et al.: http://www.radio-info.com/mods/board.php?Post=120258&Board=texas (via Artie Bigley, OH, DXLD) Including: There are a couple of great airchecks of X-Rock 80 at http://www.reelradio.com (RadioSidekick Jan 23, radio-info.com Texas board via DXLD) They used to be a great Top 40 station that lasted a few years in the mid-late 70's. They pumped out a huge signal that sounded like a local when I was growing up in Oklahoma. (bigger than KOMA) Too bad the Mexican government put an end to most or all of the English programming on those border blasters. A good history of the station is at http://www.oidar.com/CHAPTER8.htm An you can hear a tight sounding aircheck is at http://radio-info.com/airchexx/xerok-1978.html (Billy G. in TX, radio-info.com Texas board via DXLD) it was economics tha put an end to it. XEROK was viable until towns like Roswell and such had their own FM CHR stations. The Mexican government has given 4 english permits in just Tijuana in the last few years. They see it as a source of revenue for Mexico. XEROK, brilliantly engineered and processed by Bruce Earle, was eventually beaten locally by Jim Tabor's KINT-FM in el Paso, and the local revuen dried up, too. At that point, the owner associated with one of the Mexico City groups (I forget which... my books are at home, and I am in Dallas), which reduced the power to 50 kw and changed to a norteña format as radio Cañón. This was in part due to the increased local revenue in Cd. Juárez, which is one of hte top 10 markets in Mexico and now gets lots of national revenue (David Eduardo, ibid.) This is actually David Gleason, no secret if you check his profile, who quit the NRC-AM list a few weeks ago; and the source of the recent item about XEROK tripling power back to 150 kW (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) This doesn't apply to XEROK with their rock programming, but didn't the Mexican government ban all English language religious programming on border stations? As I understood it that, along with economic factors, marked the beginning of the end for XERF as a stereotypical "Border Blaster," as well as the conversion of XEG back to full-time Spanish programming (jd, radio-info.com Texas board via DXLD) I don't know if English religion was ever banned; due to considerably more separation of church and state (including state licences), Mexico always prohibited Spanish religion on radio until about 10 years ago. It is now permitted, but since Mexico is close to 99% catholic, there is not much activity, although several catholic staitons have gone on the air (Gleason, ibid.) ** MEXICO [and non]. The continuing B.S. (balanced story) of border station 560, XEPE continues to rise the ire of U.S. facilities on or near the same channel. The station is causing wide-spread havoc to KLAC 570, KSFO-AM San Francisco, and KBLU AM 560, in nearby Yuma. The Tijuana/Tecate station is estimated to be at 20,000 watts day, and at least 10,000 watts nights -- but estimates by field engineers say these numbers cannot be verified and sometimes, it is believed, to be significant more. Last week, SDR reported that the president of the Pacific Spanish Network was Jaime Bonilla, a Chula Vista resident, and member of the local town water district. Last week, U.S. broadcasters asked the FCC to rescind the permission to furnish programming to XEPE (listed as XEKTT with the FCC). Government rules permit a reasonable window for response -- and the Pacific group has asked for 2 1/2 months to reply. (enter the other B.S. factor) Expect this to heat up as 560 AM continues to cause interference far and wide from its Baja California location. Also, the Pacific Spanish Network has filed to furnish programing to two additional stations in Mexico: 780 and 920 AM. They are believed to be under construction near Rosarita, near the XETRA, & XEPRS antenna farm, and are thought to be in the same power range as 560. (From last week's media bytes: "Pacific Spanish Network has the permit to bring programming from the United States for XEPE-AM 560, and also has on file, the permit to bring further programming for XESS-AM 780, and XEDD-AM 920. The new stations are believed to be under construction near the AM antenna farm in Rosa Rita. The president of the company, according to research at the FCC.gov website is Jaime Bonilla He is the director of the Otay Water District Board and is online bio has "president of Pacific Spanish Network" in it. See JaimeBonilla.com Bio http://www.jaimebonilla.com/about.htm Calls to the office were not returned. (Pictured is Jamie Bonilla with California Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante.)" (media bytes, tuesday january 26, 2004 ... Updated: | 04:56 | a.m. | pt | SDRadio.net via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS? CUPID RADIO'S NEXT SCHEDULED TRANSMISSION: Sunday February 18 at 1400 UT on 21890 using 50 watts. Reports can be mailed to: P. O. Box 9, 8096 ZG Oldebroek, Netherlands (Free Radio Weekly via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS ANTILLES [and non]. David, do you have any background info on how TWR was able to pull off that monster signal, seeing that it would wipe out anything on 800 kHz in neighboring countries? A look at the 1965 WRTH (the oldest one I've got) doesn't show much on that frequency, though stations might have already moved out of the way by then. I think you've said you have older info; what does it show? As I recall XELO did not stay on all night, neither did TWR, but the silent times were different. During those hours was I able to get clear reception of one or the other at my (then) Austin, Texas location back in the 60's. Another clear time for TWR was at sunset, before the signal from Juárez started coming in; conversely Juarez was in the clear at sunrise (Mediafrog, radio-info.com Texas board via DXLD) The authorization of TWR was done by the Dutch Government in European style. They forced the 800 in Maracaibo off the air, and damaged the coverage of 800 in Bucaramanga, Colombia. Both were 10 kw. They also forced HCFV1 in quito to move from 805 to 810 (that was my station then). Essentially, they just took the frequncy, as radio in Latin America did not coordinate much between countries. 800 also affected the coverage in much of Puerto Rico of WKVM-810, PR's only 50 kw AM (David Eduardo Gleason, ibid.) ** NIGERIA. 11770, V. of Nigeria (presumed), 1903-1920, Jan. 27, French, News with field reports, Afropops and French language ballads, talks begining at 1914 re "West Africa". No ID noted. Fair with splatter from 11765 VOIRI (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R75, MLB-1, RS longwire with RBA balun, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. Moscow. Radiostation "Tsentr". For East Sibireya In Russian: 11700 kHz: 0700-1300. 7285 kHz: 1300-2030. Tx: Belogorsk 500 kW (http://www.guzei.com 2004-01-19 via RUS-DX # 127-A via Trutenau, Cumbre DX via DXLD) Are these transmissions being heard? (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, Cumbre DX via DXLD) 11700, Radiostation Tsentr trying at 1040 Feb 1, there was a station here, but it wasn't in Russian. Via Javoradio Europe. 1110 ditto via Javoradio Australia (Hans Johnson, Naples FL, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** RWANDA. RWANDA'S PRIVATE RADIO STATIONS BACK IN BUSINESS Cathy Majtenyi, Nairobi, 30 Jan 2004, 16:23 UT VOA news item http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=83B8AB59-8E4F-4C90-AB315B077048F1CA The Rwandan government has approved the establishment of seven private radio stations, the first time this has happened since radio stations were used to incite ethnic violence a decade ago. As of Friday, at least five stations had already been allocated their frequencies. It should only be a short time before Rwandans will be able to tune into a variety of commercial and religious local stations. The only radio station currently broadcasting is the government-run Radio Rwanda. The editor-in-chief of its Second Channel, Jean-Marie Vianney, says Rwandans are eagerly awaiting the new stations. "Up to now, as they haven't started yet, we are just waiting," he said. "Everybody's curious to see how they are going to operate." For many Rwandans, private radio stations are synonymous with the country's 1994 genocide, in which Hutu extremists killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Radio stations were used to transmit propaganda about Tutsis, and were tools the Hutu extremists used to incite Hutus to kill Tutsis. Last month, at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the founder and manager of one such station, Radio Television Libre des Milles Collines, Ferdinand Nahimana, was sentenced to life in prison for using the radio station to incite genocide. A colleague, Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza was sentenced to 35 years. But now the country appears to be giving the airwaves a second chance. Mr. Vianney of Radio Rwanda says the private stations could usher in a new era in Rwanda. "It means democracy, freedom of expression," he said. Since the genocide, Rwandans have only been able to listen to Radio Rwanda or international broadcasters (via Kim Elliott, DXLD) FIRST PRIVATE RADIO STATIONS GO ON AIR 31/1/2004 http://www.misna.org/news.asp?lng=1&id=105646 On the tenth anniversary of the genocide of 1994, Kigali has decided to open the airwaves to the first private broadcasters in Rwanda, thereby ending the state monopoly on radio and television. The Rwandan information minister has announced that five stations have already been licenced, while a further two Catholic broadcasters are soon to be authorised. RTLM (Radio-Television 'Libre des Mille Collines) played a decisive role in inciting the violence during the tragic months of April through June 1994, when between 500,000 and 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred. Last December the ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) handed down two life sentences and a 35-year jail term to three men in charge of the mass media in Rwanda: Ferdinand Nahimana, professor of modern history at Kigali University, and Jean Bosco Barayagwiza, Director-General of political affairs at the Rwandan foreign ministry, two top directors of RTLM, and Hassan Ngeze, former director of the extremist bimonthly magazine 'Kangura' (meaning 'awakening'). Instead, the court sentenced Georges Ruggiu, a controversial Italo-Belgian who played an important role in RTLM, to 12 years in prison in 2000. Thanks to the new concessions, the Rwandan School of Journalism and Communications, which comes under the auspices of the University of Butare, has been licensed to compete with state-controlled 'Radio Rwanda'. Three more stations will offer commercial programming, while 'Radio Adecco' will offer 'educational programmes'. The new stations must observe the media law approved in 2002 outlawing all references to ethnic 'divisionism'. The President of Rwanda's Press Council invites caution: "There is a history (of ethnic tensions, ed.) here, so the authorities have been careful about opening things up," he told 'Reuters' agency on Friday.[LC] (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** SOMALIA [non]. 17565 Radio Mustaqbul (Future) checking for this service at 1200 via Javoradio Europe, nothing heard on these days: Jan 30, 31, Feb 1 (Hans Johnson, Naples FL, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) via SOUTH AFRICA ** SPAIN. "Españoles en la Mar" via REE, 11625, f/d QSL letter and form letter, both in Spanish, "RN 5" and "RNE En Carnaval, Seamos gente 10" stickers in 16 days for 1 IRC and an English report to the Españoles en la Mar, Apartado 1233, 38080 Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Island address. V/S, Mary Cortés (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R75, MLB-1, RS longwire with RBA balun, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. SITE? 8000, Voice of Sudan, 1530 Jan 31, with music, then sign on in Arabic with IDs. Gave schedule that I either heard wrong or is out of date: 8000 and 9025 from 6:30 to 7 PM Sudan? time (1630 UTC, yes?) and 3:30-4 AM Sudan? time (doesn't make sense, maybe UTC?) via Javoradio Europe (Hans Johnson, Naples FL, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** SWEDEN. A QSL has finally arrived from Radio Dellen (1602 kHz, Delsbo, Sweden) for a special transmission in July. The card is beautifully produced and correctly filled in and signed and was well worth waiting for. The v/s is Rolf Larsson, Kalmarvagen 31, SE-85730 Sundsvall, Sweden (Olle Alm, Sweden, Jan 31, DX LISTENING DIGEST) In the German-language A-DX list two posters reported that they received a Radio Delsbo QSL today, too. Obviously some kind of batch processing. By the way, has anybody heard the special transmissions from Göteborg on 981? The town strangely known in English under the German-sounding name Gothenburg, but in German (or at least East- German) as nothing else than Göteborg (Kai Ludwig, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SYRIA. Radio Damasco en español --- Estimados colegas: Disculpen que vuelva al tema del servicio en idioma español de RADIO DAMASCO, también conocida como Radioemisora de la República Arabe Siria. Yo había enviado una información a modo interrogante motivada por la inexistencia del SPANISH en el esquema general de la emisora publicado por el WRTH 2004, como sigue... ----- Original Message ----- From: Rubén G. Margenet Estimados colegas: Con sorpresa he observado que en la página 546 del World Radio & TV Handbook 2004, en la sección SYRIA, no aparece el Español en el esquema general de transmisiones. ¿Se trata de una omisión?... Saludos! Rubén Guillermo Margenet Como no he visto ninguna reacción es que insisto con este tema agregando otras direcciones y requiriendo de alguien que tenga pleno conocimiento sobre la suerte que haya corrido Radio Damasco en español, si fue suspendido su programa en lengua hispana, si lo han cerrado definitivamente o si el WRTH 2004 ha omitido tal información y, por lo tanto, debemos tomarlo como un error. Desde Rosario, Argentina, yo puedo decir que Radio Damasco no se escucha absolutamente nada a las 2315-0030 UT en español sobre los 12085 ni tampoco en 13610 kHz, esta última frecuencia ocupada por China National Radio en idioma chino, identificándose en inglés "You are listening to China National Radio" o "This is China National Radio". Tienen la palabra... Saludos! (Rubén Guillermo Margenet, Jan 30, DX LISTENING DIGEST) En la madrugada de hoy domingo, entre 0012 y 0030, estuve escuchando Radio Damasco en la frecuencia de 13610 KHz. La calidad de la señal era excepcionalmente buena, ya que normalmente no consigo ni detectar su presencia. Sea cual sea la razón por la cual no aparece en el WRTH, podemos congratularnos de que siga emitiendo. Saludos para todos (Jesús Maria Iglesias, EA1-0986, Asturias, España, Feb 1, (c) Notici@sDX es un servicio de AER y ADXB via DXLD) Maybe irregular (gh) ** TURKEY. 6900, Turkish State Meteo Service (Tentative) weak talk over music at 1403, didn't sound like a weather report. Just music at 1408 and a bit better at 1530 retune Jan 31. Via Javoradio Europe (Hans Johnson, Naples FL, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** U K. Simpson/Telegraph comment re BBC/Hutton 'Why are the British destroying the BBC?' the Saudi asked me (Filed: 01/02/2004) The BBC must not abandon the principles it has become admired for around the world, writes John Simpson 'I can never understand the British," said the elegant Arab in his white robes. He sipped his tea in the moonlight, while all around us in the open-air restaurant came the sounds of people enjoying themselves. "You have the best thing on earth, and you want to destroy it." Much of the world shared the same incomprehension last week, as the Hutton report was published and the best chairman/director-general partnership that the BBC has had during my 38 years at the corporation resigned. In some quarters there was a kind of reluctant admiration: "Hats off to the English!" said an editorial in the French newspaper Libération, on the grounds that there was a continuing political debate in Britain about the invasion of Iraq and that leading figures - in the BBC, Libération meant, not in the Government - were still honourable enough to resign over important issues. In the United States, predictably, the big networks ignored the story altogether, and CNN's domestic service - which is greatly inferior to the much more impressive CNN International - devoted more airtime to a monkey which had taken part in a rodeo than to the crisis in British broadcasting. Perhaps this helps to explain why the BBC sometimes now has more viewers in the US than CNN. Personally, although it has taken a good deal of planning for me to get to Sa`udi Arabia, I very much wish I had been back in London as the crisis unfolded. And if I couldn't make my personal goodbyes to Gavyn Davies and Greg Dyke, I could at least have stood with the other staff members on the pavement in Wood Lane and cheered them. The next chairman and the next director-general will find Davies and Dyke a particularly hard act to follow, and they will need all the backing they can get from the BBC's staff. Only one of these jobs, the chairmanship, is in the gift of the Prime Minister, and putting the right person into it will require every bit of skill Tony Blair possesses. It will be the most intensely scrutinised appointment he has ever made, and anyone who is regarded as in any way soft or subservient to the Government will be in trouble. The new director-general, by contrast, will be in some ways less vulnerable. He or she will be chosen by the board of governors; and although the governors have been heavily criticised within the BBC in the past few days for going well beyond what Davies and Dyke thought necessary in the way of apologies to the Government, they will presumably choose a steady, street-smart television executive who will know how the BBC's director-general should behave. Perhaps it's worth remembering that when Greg Dyke was appointed D-G in 2000 there was a great upsurge of dismay among the snootier supporters of public service broadcasting (myself, I'm sorry to say, among them), and the name of Roland Rat was mentioned a good deal. In the four years since then Greg has shown himself to be the best D-G the BBC has had since Sir Hugh Greene. Greene, it is perhaps worth reminding people 30 years on, supported powerful, incisive reporting as long as it was accurate, and he was eased out by a compliant chairman who was appointed for that very function by Harold Wilson. Conservative governments have historically screamed more at the BBC, but Labour governments have done particular damage to it. Confrontation has long gone. This unpleasant business would not have happened without Alastair Campbell himself. The BBC's managers stood by Andrew Gilligan's reporting because they knew it was their duty in general to maintain the BBC's independence against Campbell's sometimes quite outrageous attempts to bully it. If, as we hear, Campbell intends from now on to direct himself to sports reporting, it may turn out to suit that loud voice of his. Finally, what about those of us who are left at the BBC? There will of course be a powerful instinct to be more careful about what we say. Nothing wrong with that - as long as it means our reporting is as accurate as we can make it. But there must be no shying away from reporting on certain subjects merely because they might cause trouble, or the Government might object. If inaccuracy should have no part in what we broadcast, neither should timidity. I think I can speak for many of my colleagues, those who never appear on the screen and are never heard on radio as well as the familiar faces and voices: we really would rather leave the BBC than see the BBC abandon the principles it has become admired for around the world. "Don't let yourselves be cowed," said Greg Dyke, as he stood on a desk in the newsroom and announced he'd be resigning. We won't. That's a promise. John Simpson is the BBC's World Affairs Editor www.telegraph.co.uk (via Kim Elliott, DXLD) ** U K. Times of India comment re BBC/Hutton http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/455665.cms [SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 2004 12:00:34 AM] LONDON: It is not the end of civilisation as we know it. But the severe, sustained, almost savage strike at the world's premier media organisation, the BBC, may turn out to be more than just another bad news day for an 82-year-old behemoth that proudly declares its basic 'foundation value' to be 'trust'. For a long time yet, the BBC may find itself unable, with steady eye and fearless gaze, to challenge governments around the world including its own in Britain. It may find it difficult to justify looking at both sides of a dictator's story; unable to pore over bitterly-contested human rights records. In fact, it may not manage to sound as if it were the voice of implacable authority. When that goes, all else crumbles. Consider the facts: One of Britain's most senior and respected judges, Lord Hutton, has issued forensic criticism of the way the BBC reported, editorially mismanaged and managerially mishandled arguably one of the most important international news stories in the ongoing war on terror. That is, the allegation that Tony Blair's government dramatically and deviously told the British parliament, public and wider world that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) available to launch within 45 minutes. One of the BBC's UK news correspondents had fatally, if colloquially, suggested the great Blair lie on an early-morning, flagship domestic radio broadcast last May. Using a single source for his information and freely misquoting the source, the correspondent said Blair's boys 'probably knew the (45-minute) allegation was wrong at the time' they issued it. The judge ruled the BBC to be totally out of order. It was a 'grave, unfounded' allegation, which 'impugned reputations (of Blair and his officials)', he said. Its editorial control, managerial overview and subsequent redressal were all deemed defective. Suddenly, the world found itself wondering about the truth behind the BBC's famous journalism of independence and infallibility. The BBC had been hung, drawn and quartered by the very Establishment that set it up, cossetted it, used it to push British news stories, values and culture around the globe. It was also incidentally, the same Establishment that had long enabled the BBC to continue its unique but ultimately unsustainable method of public funding with private regulation. Currently, every man, woman and child in the UK pays 12 pence per head per day for the privilege of possessing -- but not owning -- a Rolls Royce British institution. That unorthodox arrangement has given the BBC nearly all its money, most of its authority and some of the fuzzy international halo of a very-British news service in which the world has a stake. It doesn't matter that Hutton has censured, indeed humiliated, only Britain 's domestic BBC and not the World Service or World TV available to audiences in India and around the globe. Criticism of one wing damns the whole edifice, for the BBC has long traded internationally on its doughty, confusingly joined-up image as one BBC. So does this matter? Yes, because in the age of increasingly snazzy 24-7 news and rich cowboy media houses, it would be fatal for the BBC to retreat to the safety of an earlier avatar. In the 1950s, it earned the cosy but unexciting nickname Auntie and was able to shake off the carpet slippers and cocoa image only very recently. Now, to coin a BBC colloquialism, it may lose its bottle. And we all lose, if Blair's dramatic WMD claims are henceforth questioned only by al-Jazeera. The big falling-out was unprecedented. Not during the Suez crisis or the Falklands war, when the BBC was deemed unpatriotic. Not when it was accused by the government of offering too much television sympathy to the IRA. Nothing like this had ever happened before to any media organisation anywhere in the world. For all that media pundits hastily recalled an 'equivalent' saga, that of the New York Times' (NYT) sorry loss of face last year, it was just not the same. The NYT was found to have coolly and regularly put hearsay on its front page as eyewitness reports. It issued an abject, 7,000-word, front-page mea culpa. But the NYT is not the BBC. This is an organisation that built itself up from very little into a global brand name with unparalleled reach, human resources and possibly disproportionate influence worldwide. By its very constitutional status, the BBC has always been seen to bear the imprimatur of the old empire. The very first royal address to India and the Empire was scripted for George V by that old Raj ideologue, Rudyard Kipling. It went out on the then Empire Service, which was set up with money straight from the British government's coffers. Today, that World Service remains an important, if crackly, shortwave spin-off from the BBC brand. Available from Jhumri Talaiya to Ljubljana, it is an often ignored but still not inconsiderable force. Now the Hutton earthquake may have multiple aftershocks. BBC chairman Gavyn Davies has resigned; the corporation has admitted some of the error of some of its ways. Within hours of its worldwide shame, the corporation half-heartedly said it considered itself to have been only half-wrong. But even that may be too far wrong to be deemed unquestionably right again -- at least for some time. The world according to the Beeb may never look or sound the same again (via Larry Nebron, Kim Elliott, DXLD) ** U K. BBC AT WAR --- M'LORD HUTTON BLESSES BLAIR'S ATTACK ON BBC'S INVESTIGATION OF IRAQ WAR CLAIMS By Greg Palast Wednesday, January 28, 2004 He did not say, "hello," or even his name, just left a one-word message: "Whitewash." It came from an embattled journalist whispering from inside the bowels of a television and radio station under siege, on a small island off the coast of Ireland: from BBC London. And another call, from a colleague at the Guardian: "The future of British journalism is very bleak." However, the future for fake and farcical war propaganda is quite bright indeed. Today, Lord Hutton issued his report that followed an inquiry revealing the Blair government's manipulation of intelligence to claim that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass murder threatening imminent attack on London. Based on the Blair government's claim, headlines pumped the war hysteria: SADDAM COULD HAVE NUCLEAR BOMB IN YEAR, screeched the London Times. BRITS 45 MINS FROM DOOM, shrieked the Sun newspaper. Given these facts only a sissy pacifist, a lunatic or a Saddam fellow traveler would fail to see that Prime Minister "Winston" Blair had no choice but to re-conquer it's former Mesopotamian colony. But these headlines were, in fact, false, and deadly so. Unlike America's press puppies, BBC reporters thought it their duty to check out these life or death claims. Reporters Andrew Gilligan and Susan Watts contacted a crucial source, Britain's and the United Nation's top weapons inspector. He told reporter Watts that the Weapons of Mass Destruction claims by Blair and our own President Bush were, "all spin." Gilligan went further, reporting that this spin, this "sexed up" version of intelligence, was the result of interventions by Blair's PR henchman, Alistair Campbell. Whatever reading of the source's statements, it was clear that intelligence experts had deep misgivings about the strength of the evidence for war. The source? Dr. David Kelly. To save itself after the reports by Gilligan and Watts, the government, including the Prime Minister himself, went on an internal crusade to out the name of its own intelligence operative so it could then discredit the news items. Publishing the name of an intelligence advisor is serious stuff. In the USA, a special criminal prosecutor is now scouring the White House to find the person who publicly named a CIA agent. If found, the Bushite leaker faces jail time. Blair's government was not so crude as to give out Dr. Kelly's name. Rather, they hit on a subterfuge of dropping clues then allowing reporters to play '20 questions' - if Kelly's name were guessed, they'd confirm it. Only the thickest reporters (I name none here) failed after more than a couple tries. Dr. Kelly, who had been proposed for knighthood was named, harangued and his career destroyed by the outing. He then took his own life. But today is not a day of mourning at 10 Downing Street, rather a day of self-congratulations. There were no weapons of mass destruction, no nuclear warheads just short of completion, no "45 minutes to doom" bombs auguring a new London blitz. The exile group which supplied this raw claim now calls the 45 minute story, "a crock of shit." Yet Blair's minions are proclaiming their vindication. This is not just a story about what is happening "over there" in the United Kingdom. This we must remember: David Kelly was not only advisor to the British but to the UN and, by extension, the expert for George W. Bush. Our commander-in-chief leaped to adopt the Boogey Man WMD stories from the Blair government when our own CIA was reticent. So M'Lord Hutton has killed the messenger: the BBC. Should the reporter Gilligan have used more cautious terms? Some criticism is fair. But the extraordinary import of his and Watts' story is forgotten: our two governments bent the information then hunted down the questioners. And now the second invasion of the Iraq war proceeds: the conquest of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Until now, this quasi- governmental outlet has refused to play Izvestia to any prime minister, Labour or Tory. As of today, the independence of the most independent major network on this planet is under attack. Blair's government is "cleared" and now arrogantly sport their kill, the head of Gavyn Davies, BBC's chief, who resigned today. "The bleak future for British journalism" portends darkness for journalists everywhere - the threat to the last great open platform for hard investigative reporting. And frankly, it's a worrisome day for me. I'm not a disinterested by-stander. My most important investigations, all but banned from US airwaves, were developed and broadcast by BBC Newsnight, reporter Watts' program. Will an iron curtain descend on the news? Before dawn today, I was reading Churchill's words to the French command in the hours before as the Panzers breached the defenses of Paris. Churchill told those preparing to surrender, "Whatever you may do, we shall fight on forever and ever and ever." This may yet be British journalism's Finest Hour. ***** Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. His reports for BBC Newsnight and The Guardian papers and other writings may be viewed at http://www.GregPalast.com Join Greg, Janeane Garafalo, Tom Tomorrow, and others for the launching of the Greg Palast Non-Profit Investigative Foundation and Release of his new CD from Alternative Tentacles, "Greg Palast, Weapon of Mass Instruction - Live and Uncensored." For more details on the party check out: http://www.gregpalast.com/store.htm (via Current via DXLD) ** U K. We are inundated with more and more press about the BBC affair, and rather than put them all here, or even link to each one, suggest those interested keep checking one main source at least, http://www.guardian.co.uk (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. Dyke: "I was sacked" Former BBC Director-General Greg Dyke is insisting that he was sacked, and did not want to leave the BBC. Dyke confirms reports circulating for the past three days that he made a "back me or sack me" offer to the BBC Board of Governors, and the majority chose to let him go. Dyke also says that the governors had considered resigning themselves. This news will only strengthen the anger amongst staff at the BBC, who are still seething at the contrite tone of the apology to the government offered by Acting Chairman Lord Ryder minutes after Dyke's departure. Dyke responded by saying "I'm not sure what he has apologised for." Some of the BBC's most respected senior journalists were among the 10,000 BBC staff who supported a newspaper advertisement yesterday expressing dismay at the loss of Dyke, and pledging to continue a 'fearless search for truth'. It seems that the 11 remaining governors may have badly misjudged the mood both inside the BBC and in the country. Unions representing BBC staff say that there is now an open rift between the staff and the governors. Observers note that not one of the governors has a background in broadcasting and journalism, and that it was their failure to carry out their role that precipitated the chain of events which culminated in last week's high profile departures. A number of the biggest names in the BBC are said to be considering their position. # posted by Andy @ 11:29 UT Feb 1 (Media Network blog via DXLD) BBC STAFF PLAN PROTEST RALLIES NEXT THURSDAY Unions representing BBC staff say they're organising protests next week. The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) says on its Web site that "To mark our anger at the unfair and one-sided conclusions reached by Lord Hutton, members of the NUJ working in news and current affairs will hold a rally to assert our independence of Government. We will also lobby Members of Parliament to demonstrate that we will not accept attempts to compromise the BBC's independence." Media Network understands that BBC staff across the UK will hold rallies outside their offices from noon to 2pm on Thursday, 5 February. Today, a full page advertisement supporting ousted Director- General Greg Dyke, paid for by voluntary donations from 10,000 BBC employees, appears in the UK's largest-selling quality newspaper, the Daily Telegraph. The BBC has distanced itself from the ad, saying it wasn't an official Corporation initiative. # posted by Andy @ 11:52 UT Jan 31 (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** U S A. DATELINE: WASHINGTON, 01/30/04. AFGE Local 1812 has just learned from a reliable source that the Broadcasting Board of Governors is considering a scheme, hatched by the IBB Budget Office, to all but eliminate the Voice of America's English News Service (from http://www.afge1812.org/ --- no further details, via DXLD) ** U S A. The annotated WBCQ Program Guide at http://www.zappahead.net/wbcq/main.php has finally been updated. It shows WORLD OF RADIO at it new time of Saturday 2130. The differences between this and the schedule [aka ``other``] in DXLD 4-015 are: [again, strictly UT days] Sun 7415 0000 0030 The Real Amateur Radio Show/Piss and Moan Net [other does not show Piss and Moan] Sun 9330 0100 0130 The Power and the Glory [other has Allan Weiner Worldwide, previously established as not being there] Sun 9930 0130 0200 Glenn Hauser's World of Radio [ditto] Sun 7415 2200 2300 Radio Free Euphoria/Radio Three [other does not show Radio Three] Sun 9330 2300 2330 Jeff's Show [not on other] Sun 9330 2330 0000 The Alternative Transportation Show [not on other] Mon 5105 0000 0100 Radio Reaction Theater [other has Best of Complex Variables Studio] Mon 9330 0000 0100 Genesis Communications Network [not on other] Tue 7415 0515-0615 Odin Lives [not in annotated schedule] Wed 7415 2330 0000 When All Else Fails [other has The RMF Show] Sat 17495 2130 2200 Glenn Hauser's World of Radio [other shows sign off at this time] [WOR confirmed Jan 31 -gh] Both schedules still show Allan Weiner Worldwide Saturday at 2200 even though it has been established that it is not there, Sabbath Bible Study instead, at least for the first thirty minutes (John Norfolk, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. 9465, WMLK is still on their 50 kW home-brew. In running up the 250 kW in early January, they realized that a few parts had failed. Those parts have been ordered. This per telephone conversations with the station at various times in January (Hans Johnson, Naples FL, Jan 29, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** U S A. 13570, WINB effective Feb 1st 1300-2300 ex 9930. Excellent reception in south Florida at 1301 Feb 1 (Hans Johnson, Naples FL, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** U S A. Has the radar sweeper in 60 meters increased its bandwidth?? I noted it from 4770 to 4830, and 4895-4925. That's a full 90 kHz. That's 25% of the band blocked!! Does the FCC really know that it exists?? I'm about to go into editorial mode, so I'll leave it at that (Dave Valko, PA, Cumbre DX via DXLD) One can hope that sane action might be taken. Editorial mode on the hobby is inappropriate for which reasons? (Bob Wilkner, FL, ibid.) ** U S A. MPR host Lanpher joining Al Franken --- Their new radio show will anchor a New York-based liberal talk network expected to go live this spring. BY BRIAN LAMBERT Pioneer Press Posted on Wed, Jan. 21, 2004 Minnesota Public Radio's "Midmorning" host, Katherine Lanpher, announced on the air Tuesday that she is leaving the station "to pursue a wonderful new opportunity." Lanpher is moving to New York City to co-host an as-yet-to-be-launched national talk radio show with satirist Al Franken. Tuesday's show was her last for MPR. Lanpher and Franken's show will be the centerpiece of an entirely new, still unnamed liberal network designed to counter the conservative bent of most current talk radio. The pairing had been under discussion for nearly a year. "The exact start dates are still floating," Lanpher says, "but we expect to be on the air in the spring." She says she plans to move to New York within the next couple of weeks to start working with Franken on the three-hour show, which will air weekday afternoons. Franken, a Twin Cities native and author of the best seller "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them," committed to a one-year contract for the show last week. Mark Walsh, CEO of Progress Media, parent company of the new network, says he's looking for studio space in midtown Manhattan, including in Times Square. But he has no plans for one of those "Today Show"-style, ground-level fish-bowl venues. Lanpher has been with MPR for 5½ years. Before that, she hosted a show on KSTP-AM 1500 for 16 months and was a reporter and columnist with the St. Paul Pioneer Press for 16 years. Bill Buzenberg, MPR's senior vice president for news, says he will conduct a search for Lanpher's replacement. Kate Smith, who has filled in for Lanpher in the past, will man the mike for at least the next sesquiweek. Lanpher joked about what Franken was looking for in his ideal co-host. "Yeah, he keeps saying it was between me and Carmen Electra," she said. "But seriously, I know radio. I've done commercial radio, and I've done public radio. I know what to do when you flip on the mike. If what you're asking is, 'Am I an equal partner?' — he's Al Franken. He's the Big Kahuna. I understand that, and it doesn't concern me." Lanpher also notes that this is a rare opportunity. "I'm doing this because I knew if I didn't do it, I'd always regret it. Al says it reminds him of when they started 'Saturday Night Live.' Who wouldn't want to be a part of something like that?" Another Twin Cities native, comedian Lizz Winstead, co-creator of Comedy Central's popular television program "The Daily Show," has been hired to oversee the network's entertainment programming. Walsh says he expects to announce agreements with stations in "a couple more markets by the end of next week." Last week, he signed a deal to lease WNTF-AM 950 in Chicago. He says he also expects to have satellite broadcast deals with Sirius and/or XM as well as audio satellite distribution with EchoStar and/or Rupert Murdoch's DirectTV. Walsh is not worried about Murdoch refusing to carry the signal of a liberal talk network. "A little like Fox News suing Al Franken," he laughs. "That might be exactly the kind of publicity we need — Murdoch claiming there's no room on his satellite." (via Current via DXLD) ** U S A. RADIO LOVERS TUNE IN TO YESTERYEAR February 1, 2004 OAK FOREST -- Before the days of big screens and plasma TVs with surround-sound, before there was remote control -- heck, even before there was black and white, radio ruled the living room. In a few corners, it still does. At the Acorn Public Library in Oak Forest last week, 12 actors conjured up nostalgic images of the 1930s and '40s as the Those Were the Days Radio Players-South Side Chapter entertained an audience of several dozen with clever wordplay and equally clever sound effects, performing vintage programs. The group, organized by old-time radio host Chuck Schaden, read from scripts and interspersed sound effects such as a ringing telephone, a door opening and closing, and silverware tapping against china during their renditions of "The Life of Riley" and "Easy Aces, Jane's Mink Coat." "We want to make people remember the old days," said Larry Bergnach of Oak Lawn, who played the role of a paint-store owner in Easy Aces. Bergnach, like many of the actors, is retired and joined the troupe because of his love of the golden age of radio. James Embry, 70, of Riverdale loves it too. Although he doesn't act or do special effects himself, Embry was once a loyal listener. Since he found the troupe about three years ago, he has followed it around to historical societies and libraries, just to exercise his imagination. "There's nothing on television except PBS that I watch," said Embry. With radio, "you can close your eyes and remember what they're doing." In "The Life of Riley," Mel Black of Chicago plays Chester Riley, a bungling father who is outraged that his wife and children spend too much time on the telephone. First he sits on the phone when it rings, saying to his wife, "I don't feel so good. I've got a ringing sensation in my stomach." He ends up putting the phone in the closet and locking the door, charging his kids a nickel for each call. When an attractive neighbor comes over and asks to use the phone, he tells her, "Come on, let's step in the closet." To no one's surprise, she stomps off the set in a huff. Copyright (c) 2004, Chicago Tribune (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. BENTON HARBOR OFFICIALS QUESTION RADIO STATION ISSUES By JIM DALGLEISH / H-P City Editor and LYNN STEVENS / H-P Staff Writer BENTON HARBOR [MI] -- The city of Benton Harbor is in the radio station business, but not everyone at City Hall is tickled about the idea. The city manager and city attorney are looking into questions about legal liability, expenses, how the broadcasting license was secured and how station operations were handed to the African Arts & Culture Council of Benton Harbor. And at least one city commissioner wants the license returned to the Federal Communications Commission. Although the low-power FM broadcasts began this month, there is no record of city commissioners voting to seek the license, City Manager Dwight Mitchell said. He said the City Commission will have to vote on it one way or another. "If, in fact, the commission wants to continue with this station, the choice is going to be theirs," Mitchell said. The issue is slated to be discussed at Saturday's commission retreat at City Hall. Mitchell said the arts council is expected to make a presentation. "If (the license is) something that's going to be a continuing problem, my recommendation would be to return it to the FCC," Mitchell said. Under the call letters WBHC, the arts council has begun broadcasting music at 96.5 FM, and there are plans for public affairs programming. Based at arts council offices at 711 E. Britain Ave., the 100-watt station's range is 3.5 miles, covering Benton Harbor, Fairplain and most of St. Joseph... http://www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2004/01/30/news/news1.txt (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** U S A. WYSO MANAGER SPENCER RESIGNS --- CRITICS WELCOME DEPARTURE By Jim DeBrosse, Dayton Daily News, Saturday, January 31, 2004 YELLOW SPRINGS [OH] -- The resignation Friday of Steve Spencer, the controversial general manager of WYSO-FM, has encouraged critics of the station who want to see a return to more local programming... http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/daily/0131wyso.html (via Artie Bigley, OH, DXLD) ** U S A. BOOK TUNES IN TO THE GLORY OF CLEVELAND'S FM HEYDAY 01/30/04, Clint O'Connor, Plain Dealer Reporter ...The book, from Kent State University Press, is being praised by radio insiders for its depth of research and accuracy. Despite its title, it is mostly about WMMS. Olszewski is thrilled with the response, and this weekend he will be toasted again... Olszewski, a longtime local radio and TV journalist for several stations, worked at WMMS for a time. But "Radio Daze" is not an insider's confessional. In fact, his original manuscript ran more than 1,000 pages "until I took myself out of it," he says. "I realized this wasn't a story about me. It's a story about FM radio in Cleveland." http://www.cleveland.com/books/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1075470902215030.xml (via Brock Whaley, DXLD) ** U S A. Brooke Gladstone's Manifesto --- Public Radio depends on trust. In a time when most media is overtly manipulative and you'd be a fool to trust anyone, public radio manages to retain a decent rep among its listeners. Of course, that rep can be blown with a few choice wrong moves. Careful. The show "On The Media" takes a clear-eyed look at all media, public radio included. You tend to trust Brooke Gladstone (and her co-host Bob Garfield for that matter) because they're so straight ahead, funny, not puffed up. Are these attributes among the core values of public radio? Should they be? In her Transom Manifesto, Brooke meditates on the way we sound now, and the way she wants to sound, and the way she's getting there. Read her Three Waypoints for making the trip... http://talk.transom.org/WebX?14@141.uepLaV7viWF.148901@.eeb1a8b/0 (via Current via DXLD) ** U S A. WHO`S BUYING WHAT AT THE SUPERBOWL http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=39561 (via Lou Josephs blog via DXLD) ** U S A. VINTAGE RADIO, DOWN TO FARM REPORTS AND SCHOOL MENUS, IS SIGNING OFF -- By G. PATRICK PAWLING Published: February 1, 2004 UPPER DEERFIELD TOWNSHIP, N.J., Jan. 29 - As radio stations go, it's not fancy. The microphones appear to belong to the 1940's, and some do. There is not a single personal computer in the building, though a typewriter sits on one desk and is used every day. The format? Call it country nostalgia: polka, school lunch menus, farm reports, hunting and fishing news and pet advice. One of the most popular slots is a call- in show called "Country Store," during which people try to sell three- quarter-ton pickup trucks, tractors and, at least once, a cow. WSNJ, which sits in a farm field just outside Bridgeton, is the radio station that time almost forgot. But not for much longer. The family that nurtured it for more than 50 years is selling. The much-sought FM license will go to Radio One, a hip, urban-oriented company with 66 stations. Radio One intends to move the operation north to Pennsauken, where it can broadcast across the Delaware River to a bigger and more lucrative Philadelphia audience. The AM side is also being sold, to the mayor of nearby Millville, who says the operation is too successful to change or move, so he won`t... http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/01/nyregion/01radio.html?ex=1076216400&en=a8d196b30fdeb80e&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. RADIO STATIONS FIRE PUNXSUTAWNEY PHIL This story was published Saturday, January 31st, 2004 By Anna King Herald staff writer In Kennewick, it's a hefty cow, not a groundhog deciding if more winter is in store or spring will come. Tri-City radio stations KORD-FM and KEYW-FM decided to make light of last month's discovery of a slaughtered Mabton Holstein infected with mad cow disease and the subsequent federal investigation. The station operators decided to ignore the musings of Punxsutawney Phil and hire a cow, Weighsatony Phyllis, declaring Monday as Ground Beef Day. "We are supporting the beef industry," said Paul Drake, program director for 98.3 THE KEY and 102.7 KORD radio stations. "We were sitting around thinking what we were going to do for Groundhog's Day, and then we thought, 'How about Ground Beef Day?' " Drake said. After the idea came forth, Monday's event was put together quickly, he said. Radio DJs will broadcast live from 6 to 9 a.m. [PST = UT -8] at the Kennewick Ranch and Home parking lot, while Phyllis roams a pen with a checkerboard grid. The squares will depict sunshine and clouds. If Weighsatony Phyllis lifts her tail and hits a sunny square she has predicted an early spring. If she hits a cloudy square it's six more weeks of cold, dark winter. "There is no shadow involved here, just time," Drake said. "If she hasn't hit her mark by 9, we will just wait. There will be plenty for her to eat." Beyond weather prediction, Ground Beef Day participants can guess how much Phyllis weighs. The winners will receive 20 pounds of ground beef donated by Tyson Fresh Meats, tickets to the Benton Franklin Fair and other prizes. Punxsutawney Phil was fired because the small rodent was having trouble in his personal life and it was affecting his job performance, said Chuck Hall, a DJ for KORD. "We have a big scoop back East, Punxsutawney Phil got a little liquored-up," he said. With blurred eyes, the furry rodent mistook a miniature Doberman dog for an attractive female groundhog, so Phyllis was chosen as his replacement, Hall said. Phyllis, a 400-pound longhorn cross, belongs to Dale Struthers of Pasco. Struthers said the good tempered horned cow is used for roping when not predicting weather. "I don't have mad cows out here," he said. "I have happy cows." (c) 2004 Tri-City Herald (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. PIRATE 96.9 RADIO IS BACK ON THE AIR IN SAN DIEGO Broadcasting from another clandestine location, thought to be near the downtown area, the pirate station has resumed the airwaves. Bob Ugly writes, "We're ironing out a lot of technical problems. A lot of people have written in saying that they can't hear us anymore, or that it's really staticy (courtesy of 97.1 usually). This is to be expected until we get our antenna a bit higher up. For whatever it's worth, understand we're working on it, but some things require a decent amount of time and energy to do them right. We're on the air, and will be working to get the web stream and FM signal stabilized, and available to a larger audience quickly." The station's website is http://Pirate969.org (media bytes, thursday january 29, 2004 Updated: | 05:04 | a.m. | pt |, sdradio.net via DXLD) ** U S A. HOMELESSNESS MARATHON Thursday, February 12, 9 p.m. [MST = 0400 UT 13th] KUNM will participate in the seventh annual national overnight broadcast of the Homelessness Marathon, aimed at bringing attention to the nation`s epidemic of homelessness. To dramatize the plight of the millions of Americans who become homeless each year, this unique program will originate from outdoors in Cleveland, Ohio, where temperatures could easily be sub-zero. KUNM`s coverage will begin with a local, one-hour talk show, from 9 until 10 p.m., where local homeless advocates will talk about the severity of the problem in New Mexico, and what can be done to alleviate it. The Seventh Annual Homelessness Marathon will air live on community radio stations nationally; KUNM`s broadcast will continue throughout the night, and conclude at 5 a.m. Friday. The Homelessness Marathon was founded in 1998 by Jeremy Weir Alderson (aka ``Nobody``) as an offshoot of his regular radio program, ``The Nobody Show,`` broadcast weekly on WEOS, an NPR-affiliate in Geneva, NY. ``That first year, I was just thinking of it as a matter of conscience,`` Alderson says. ``Basically, I just wanted to get on the air and say, `This isn`t right, and I want no part of it,` and, of course, I wanted to bolster this argument with the opinions of experts and the voices of homeless people.`` He got the idea of broadcasting from outdoors in the dead of winter, he says, because he wanted to dramatize the plight of people with nowhere to go in the cold. And the marathon has been broadcast from outdoors ever since, even though other things about it have changed. ``By the time I broadcast that first marathon, I`d already been on the air for six years, so I had a pretty good idea of how my audience responded to issues. But the response to the marathon was something different altogether. Throughout the night, people brought me coffee without my having said a word, and in the morning, people dug into their pockets and gave me crumpled up bills to help defray my expenses, even though, as a matter of policy, the marathon doesn`t solicit money even for itself, because we really want people to understand that ending homelessness isn`t a matter of charity but a matter of changing the way our society is structured. ``Anyway, that first year opened my eyes, so I got the idea to put the marathon up on the NPR satellite and make it available to a broader audience. The second year we were on seven stations, I think, and the next year we were on 23. The fourth was on 35, and the fifth was on over 50. As the marathon has grown, its philosophy has evolved. I used to think I had to scold people and tell them why they ought to care, but now I know that people really do care, and that homeless people aren`t on the streets because that`s where Americans want them to be. So I`ve backed off a lot, and I now mostly look at the marathon as giving people the reasons for what they already know in their hearts.`` Over the years, the marathon has become something more than just a broadcast. Dozens of people, affiliated with organizations or just acting on their own, contribute their time (no one on the marathon staff gets paid) to help get the show on the air. And each year the broadcast has been associated with small marches and candlelight vigils around the country. ``I`m not kidding myself that just the marathon is going to change the world,`` Alderson says, ``but that`s the goal, to create a world where the marathon will be obsolete, because there won`t be any more homeless people. ``You know, I hate it when every now and then someone compares me to Jerry Lewis, because we both do these long, cause-related broadcasts. But there`s one way I`ll accept it. We`re not just trying to make a statement anymore. We`re looking for the cure.`` More information at http://www.homelessnessmarathon.org (Zounds, Feb, KUNM via gh, DXLD) ** VENEZUELA. 4940, R. Amazonas, 0958-1019, Jan. 30, Spanish, Music with canned IDs at 1005 and 1015, brief zingers between musical selections. OM with remote, lots of cheering and crowd noises. Weak but clear (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R75, MLB-1, RS longwire with RBA balun, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA [non]. VENEZUELA/EE.UU/INAUGURADA RADIO REVOLUCIÓN BOLIVARIANA. TRANSMITIRÁ POR INTERNET DESDE MIAMI Por: E.Hernandez - Aporrea.org Miami. - En el dia de hoy en su programa dominical Aló Presidente, fue inaugurada por el Presidente Hugo Chávez la radio Revolución Bolivariana la cual transmitirá desde Miami, Florida, EEUU noticias sobre Venezuela y Latinoamerica, programas de opinión, música y deportes. La radio que estará disponible a través de la internet fue creada por el Sr. Manuel Valera, Vocero numero 2 del Círculo Bolivariano de Miami. Con esta apertura de la radio Revolución Bolivariana, el proceso encabezado por el Presidente Hugo Chávez se anota otra victoria en los medios de comunicación, y ahora contará con un medio mundial de difusión de la labor del presidente Chávez de una forma veraz. La radio puede ser escuchada a través de la página http://www.bovmiami.org todos los dias (Aporrea.com, http://www.aporrea.org/dameverbo.php?docid=13407 via Conexión Digital Jan 31 via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 5940: Checking for "Persian" music that was reported here at 1300, nothing heard on Fri/Jan 30, but did hear them at 1350 on Jan 31. Music went right through the hour of 1400, just a fair signal (Hans Johnson, Naples FL, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) Javoradio Europe? UNIDENTIFIED. 13790, UNID reported testing here at 2254 with Big Band music by Glenn Hauser. I wonder if this is WWRB which often uses Big Band music as a filler when they have open time or a show ends a few minutes early (Hans Johnson, Naples FL, Jan 29, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LANGUAGE LESSON +++++++++++++++ FREE TRANSLATION http://WWW.FREETRANSLATION.COM has been a real godsend for me. For FREE, this web site will translate English to whatever languages you need to send a decent reception report to one of the many radio stations that now have E-mail. Also this website also offers HUMAN TRANSLATION for a fee, but I hope the computerized version is enough for the QSL card (Tom Messer, WI, hard-core-dx via DXLD) Allow me to end your dream. If you used this web site for any translation you may have wanted, the result will have been so unintelligible that no station will answer your mail. I'm sure that you would never answer any mail written in a kind of English produced by a computerised translation from another language. At most machine translation can be used to have an idea what a text is all about, but never ever to really know what has been written. The human language is so vastly complex that computers may never be able to master it (which is why they use the easy and artificial binary language). To prove my point: I have asked the web site to translate the first three sentences of my mail from Dutch into English: "Me closed you stand from your dream to get. If you this webstek have uses for whichever translation you wanted, than will the result so inconceivable be that no station your e-mail will answer. I am it certainly of that you self never an answer would steer on an e-mail that in a kind English has been written that by a computer translation was produced." Would you answer such a mail? 73 (Herman Boel, http://www.emwg.info ibid.) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ THE TENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF MEXICAN DXERS AND SHORTWAVE LISTENERS, VERACRUZ JULY 30, 31 AND AUGUST 1ST / 2004 CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF DX MEETINGS [further to DXLD 4-008:] MEETING SCHEDULE [local time = UT -5] [preliminary] FRIDAY 30 OF JULY 2004 10:00 - 11:00 Official Inauguration 11:00 - 12:00 Experiences at the 2003 EDXC meeting in Germany (César Fernández) 12:00 - 13:00 Radio Miami International (Jeff White) 13:00 - 15:00 Break for Lunch 15:00 - 16:00 Principles of Radio 16:00 - 17:00 Participation of the FMRE (Mexican amateur radio organization) 17:00 - 18:00 10th Anniversary Celebration 18:00 - 19:00 Experiences working with DRM System SATURDAY 31 OF JULY 2004 10:00 - 11:00 10 years of Mexican National DX Meetings 11:00 - 12:00 Radio Netherlands 12:00 - 13:00 History of Shortwave Radio in Mexico (Dr. Adrian Peterson, Adventist World Radio) 13:00 - 15:00 Break for Lunch 15:00 - 16:00 Radio Mexico International / Radio Educación 16:00 - 17:00 Keynote Speech (to be confirmed) 17:00 - 18:00 Forum of Radio Broadcasters SUNDAY 1st OF AUGUST 2004 10:00 - 11:00 Radio on the Internet 11:00 - 12:00 Official Closing POSSIBLE MEETING LOCATION: VERACRUZ CULTURAL INSTITUTE (IVEC) (via Jeff White, Jan 30, DXLD) POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Re: HANOVER TWP, PA Thanks John for bringing my attention to this development. I posted it to the BPLandHamRadio yahoo egroup. A few minutes later Ed Hare of ARRL responded with the following: (Note his comment about somebody's spectrum ox getting gored. He's talking about us.) "Within a couple of days of the start of the Hanover BPL marketing trial, an amateur reported strong interference on the 17-meter band. After some wrangling back and forth with the utility customer service folks, he got through to the right staff at the electric utility. They made some "adjustments" to the system and the next day, he had moderate interference on 12 meters. Another report of interference, and they moved it again, apparently to non-amateur spectrum. The summary of that event in the article is... well... concise. "This system is, IIRC, made by Amperion. Their system uses about 2.5 MHz of HF or low VHF for the backbone (overhead or underground MV distribution lines) and uses 802.11 to get from the distribution lines into the houses. While it is possible for them to address interference reports as they did above, somebody's spectrum ox is getting gored. Even more significantly, they cannot re-use spectrum for some distance down a line, so in a complex neighborhood distribution environment, it may not be possible at all to configure the system so that no spectrum allocated to amateur radio is used throughout the entire system. While it may be possible to try to address this on a "complaint-driven" basis, that does not account for hams that are temporarily inactive; hams that move or new people obtaining amateur radio licenses. "This type of BPL, like a cable modem, is a shared pipe. As more and more users try to cram into that 2.5 MHz of bandwidth, the pipe will fill up pretty quickly. One solution would be to have the MV lines carry multiple 2.5-MHz wide BPL "channels," reducing the system slowdown caused by multiple users or bandwidth hogs. In that case, the complexities of trying to engineer an entire community that will not use amateur spectrum is, IMHO, daunting." (Ed Hare, W1RFI, ARRL Lab (via Joe Buch, swprograms via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ SANGEAN INTRODUCING PRO TRAVEL SHORTWAVE SERIES Sangean has announced four new shortwave radios. The new Sangean ProTravel series features two analog and two digital radios. The analog models are PT10 and PT633. The digital models are PT50 and PT80. All models are expected to be available March 1, 2004. (from http://www.dxing.com/news.htm with links to further info on each model via DXLD) Eton E1 XM YES! Grundig Satellit 900 NO! Those wishing for the past 8 or so years for a radio that has a Grundig Satellit 900 label on it may have to wait forever. Gary Arnold sends the following message: "Looks like there has been a major decision at Eton Corporation to drop the Satellit 900 and release only the Eton E1 XM. My source tells me the target release date is the middle of this year, will cost around $560 US, and will have 3 bandwidths (7.0, 4.0, and 2.5) along with passband tuning." Time will tell. Jan 13 (Ulis Fleming, Radiointel.com via DXLD) ETON STICKING WITH GRUNDIG BRAND Palo Alto, Calif. -- Eton said it will continue to market Grundig- branded shortwave radios in the U.S. following an announcement that German-based Grundig will be taken over by U.K. electronics maker Alba and Turkish electronics maker Beko... http://www.twice.com/index.asp?layout=story&doc_id=130800&display=breakingNews (via Jilly Dybka, Kim Elliott, Larry Nebron, DXLD) For those who don't want to read the article here is a brief synopsis: Grundig AG, which was in bankruptcy, has been taken over by UK based electronics maker Alba and Turkish based electronics maker Beko. Eton, which is the new corporate name for Lextronics, has been using the Grundig name under license for some years. This will continue for the foreseeable future. Eton has started marketing shortwave and other hobby related products under the Eton name. At some point, no date in sight though, this licensing arrangement may be terminated and all products would then be solely under the Eton name (Mark Coady, ODXA via DXLD) ###