DX LISTENING DIGEST 4-070, April 17, 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 AIRINGS OF WORLD OF EXTRA 46: Sat 1830 on WPKN Bridgeport, 89.5, webcast http://www.wpkn.org Sat 2030 on WWCR 12160 Sat 2030 on WBCQ 17495-CUSB Sat 2100 on DKOS usually, http://www.live365.com/stations/steve_cole Sun 0230 on WWCR 5070 Sun 0300 on WBCA 9330-CLSB Sun 0630 on WWCR 3210 Sun 1000 on WRN1 to North America, webcast; also KSFC 91.9 Spokane WA, and WDWN 89.1 Auburn NY; maybe KTRU 91.7 Houston TX, each with webcasts Sun 1900 on Studio X, Momigno, Italy 1584 Sun 2000 on RNI webcast, http://www.11L-rni.com Mon 0100 on WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0330 on WSUI 910, webcast http://wsui.uiowa.edu [last week`s 1227] Mon 0430 on WBCQ 7415, webcast http://wbcq.us Tue 0300 on SIUE Web Radio http://www.siue.edu/WEBRADIO/ Wed 0930 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 Extra 46 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/worx46h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/worx46h.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/com0401.html WORLD OF RADIO Extra 46 (low version): [same as CONTINENT OF MEDIA 04-01] (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/com0401.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/com0401.rm WORLD OF RADIO ON RPFI WEBCAST. Robert Wise in Hobart, Tasmania, confirms hearing WOR now, so we remind you of the nominal schedule: Thu 2000 repeated 4-hourly thru Fri 1600; Sat 2130 and 2300 repeated 8-hourly thru Monday 1500 http://www.rfpi.org DXLD YAHOOGROUP: More and more postings here, and quite a lot of them do not appear later in DXLD itself. Here`s where to sign up. There may be a delay in approval if I do not recognize your name and / or e-mail address. If your yahoo profile does not give this info, please send me a separate e-mail with your true name, location and brief reason for wishing to join the group --- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dxld/ (Glenn Hauser, April 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AFGHANISTAN. AFGHANISTAN/GERMANY dw-tv - Afghanistan Channel. http://www.taz.de/pt/2004/04/16/a0093.nf/textdruck Lack of 600.000 EURo, the Deutsche Welle-tv Afghan news channel in Pashto and Dari will be ceased p r o b a b l y from July 1st, 2004, due of funds lack. DW-TV suffers budget cuts of 4.5 Million EURos in 2004 and 2005. DW-tv is in a special charge position, is the only foreign organization which delivers news material to the state owned Afghan RTA channel (taz - tageszeitung berlin - Apr 16) # # # # - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Kabul verliert TV Kanal. Auswaertiges Amt will TV-Sender der Deutschen Welle in Afghanistan nicht mehr finanzieren. Kanal vor Einstellung. BERLIN taz - Dem vom Auswaertigen Amt finanzierten afghanischen Fernsehprogramm der Deutschen Welle (DW) droht im Juni das Aus. Fuer die zweite Jahreshaelfte fehlen dem Nachrichtenprogramm in den Landessprachen Paschtu und Dari 600.000 Euro, sagte DW- Fernsehprogrammdirektor Christoph Lanz der taz. Das Auswaertige Amt habe mitgeteilt, die Finanzierung nicht fortsetzen zu koennen. Aus Kreisen des Auswaertigen Amtes hiess es, es muessten in den finanzschwachen Zeiten Prioritaeten gesetzt werden. Es sei zudem noch nicht sicher, ueber welche finanziellen Mittel das Amt selbst verfuegen werde. Nach Informationen der taz war zwischen DW und Auswaertigem Amt vereinbart worden, das Programm sowohl aus dem Globalhaushalt als auch aus Mitteln des Auswaertigen Amtes zu finanzieren. Der Anteil von 400.000 Euro, die nun auf das AA zukommen, ist dem Amt aber offensichtlich zu hoch. Dass die Deutsche Welle das Etatloch selbst stopfen kann, ist jedoch angesichts ihrer finanziellen Lage unwahrscheinlich. Nach kontinuierlichen Kuerzungen in den vergangenen Jahren sollen in diesem und im kommenden Jahr weitere 4.5 Millionen Euro im Etat eingespart werden. Man werde jedoch alles tun, das Programm zu erhalten, heisst es bei der DW. Das Fernsehen der Deutschen Welle erfuellt in Afghanistan einen besonderen Auftrag, denn es beliefert als einziger auslaendischer Sender das staatliche afghanische Fernsehen RTA (Radio and Television Afghanistan)." taz Nr. 7335 vom 16.4.2004, Seite 2, 53 TAZ-Bericht SASCHA TEGTMEIER © Contrapress media GmbH. (taz - tageszeitung berlin - Apr 16) (via Wolfgang Büschel, DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. CHRISTIAN RADIO LOOKS TO GLOBAL BROADCASTS (HCJB) http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1086755.htm An international Christian radio station based in Western Australia's Kimberley region has ambitions to broadcast to more than half the people in the world. The group, Heralding Christ Jesus' Blessings, has applied for approval to build 31 radio towers on land outside Kununurra, in the state's north-west. The station says the expansion would allow it to build on its current overseas audience with a potential market of 60 per cent of the world's population. Its original application more than two years ago met with considerable local opposition. But manager Mike Moore is confident that has changed. "The facility we've done I believe we've done well," he said. "The few stirrers that were around the last time... they were actually saying that [what] we were doing wasn't really quite right. "It's certainly not obtrusive and certainly hasn't caused any environmental problems." (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) Kununurra is not in the northwest of Western Australia, but in the extreme northeast corner! (gh, DXLD) ** AUSTRALIA. Naughty words OK here: see BROADCAST BAND UPDATE, USA ** AUSTRIA. ORF Radio 1476 program have a Romany program on Wednesday, ``Radio Kaktus``, at 2000-2030 MESZ [1800-1830 UT], but also more on Friday. http://www.orf.at (Gager Paul, Deutschkreutz, Austria, 11 April, by p-mail, DX LISTENING DIGEST) And he encloses a story in Wiener Zeitung, April 6, ``Desperate Living Conditions --- EU enlargement: Roma leaders fear exodus`` by Michael Winfrey, Reuters ** AUSTRIA [and non]. R. Austria International. What is happening? Are they on strike? Regular program was heard here at 2300 Thursday April 15 to South America on 9870 with English at 2315 and 2345 and Spanish at 2330. At 0000 Friday April 16 to Central America on 9870, brief news in German at 0000 and music for the remainder of the hour. Similarly at 0100 to North America-East. Very good signal at all the above times but no regular programing at 0000 and 0100 (Bernie O'Shea, April 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) But none at all last night (Fri. 16 Apr. 0100-0200 UT). Classical music ran continuously with two short announcements in German that may have been an explanation (but I'm not conversant with German). (John Figliozzi, NY, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Well, it was back to normal with English news and Report from Austria at 1510-1525, repeated at 1540-1555 UT April 16 on 13775 via Sackville. Probably yet another screwup in the control room of Vienna and/or Moosbrunn, losing the regular feed (gh, DXLD) Good signal at 1500-1600 on 13775 (Sackville) to North America-West, Friday April 16. Report from Austria heard at 1510 and repeated at 1540. So back to normal schedule again after all music at 0000 and 0100 April 16 (Bernie O`Shea, Ottawa, Ontario, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio Oesterreich 1 / International Frequency schedule from website April 15, 2004 All times and days are UT. Europe 0400-2208 6155, 0400-1730 13730, 1730-2208 5945 Middle East 0600-0700 17870 (0500-0600 for A-03) Asia and Australia 1200-1300 17715 North America-West 1500-1600 13775 (Sackville) South America 2300-2400 9870 Central America 0000-0100 9870 North America-East 0100-0200 9870 Programs in English From B-03 listings on website and times adjusted for A-04 1. Report from Austria (15 minutes) Europe 1215 from Monday to Friday Asia and Australia 1215 and 1245 from Monday to Friday North America-West 1510 and 1540 from Monday to Friday South America 2315 and 2345 from Monday to Friday Central America 0015 and 0045 from Tuesday to Saturday North America-East 0115 and 0145 from Tuesday to Saturday 2. Insight Central Europe (25 minutes) Middle East 0605 on Sunday Europe, Asia and Australia 1205 and 1235 on Saturday and Sunday North America-West 1505 and 1535 on Saturday and Sunday South America 2305 and 2335 on Saturday and Sunday Central America 0005 and 0035 on Sunday and Monday North America-East 0105 and 0135 on Sunday and Monday (Bernie O`Shea, Ottawa, Ontario, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, I tried to figure out what could go out during the ORF shortwave transmissions, but only with limited success: 0400-2208 on 6155 and 13730/5945: Mon-Fri 1245-1300 Report from Austria; Sat/Sun 1200-1205 news from ORF Regionalradio, 1205-1230 Insight Central Europe, 1230-1300 replay of 1200-1230 output; 2055- 2100 Noticiero de Austria; otherwise Ö1 // FM and Astra 0500-0600 on 17870: Mon-Fri Ö1 (// 6155 and 13730), Sat/Sun 0500-0505 Ö1 news, 0505-0530 Insight Central Europe, 0530-0600 replay of 0500- 0530 output 1200-1300 on 17715: Continuation as shown on http://oe1.orf.at/service/international under "Asien/Australien", just one UT hour earlier 1500-1600 via Sackville on 13775: Continuation as shown on http://oe1.orf.at/service/international under "Amerika West", just one UT hour earlier 2300-2400 and 0000-0100 and 0100-0200, each on 9870: Looks like 30 minutes programmes with a replay in the second half hour, Sun and Mon at xx05 Insight Central Europe, otherwise at xx15 Report from Austria, but what at xx05; Noticiero de Austria, German news from Regionalradio, replay of Ö1 Nachtjournal from 2000, what?? Do they still know themself what they should actually put into the system?? (Kai Ludwig, Germany, April 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) {No more Insight Central Europe on Austria: 4-071} ** CHINA. PRIVATE RADIO CHBC AVAILABLE LIVE ON THE INTERNET Private broadcaster China Huayi Broadcasting Company (CHBC) is now available with an online live stream from their web site at http://www.chbcnews.com CHBC broadcasts in Mandarin on FM, mediumwave and shortwave to a domestic audience and listeners in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. The current schedule is as follows: 2130-1900 gmt on 783 kHz mediumwave, 107.1 MHz FM 2230-2400 gmt on 4830 kHz shortwave 0000-1300 gmt on 6185 kHz shortwave 1300-1700 gmt on 4830 kHz shortwave 0400-0830 gmt Wednesday: Off air for maintenance. CHBC was launched on 1 November 1991 from studios in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian Province in southeastern China. Source: BBC Monitoring research 16 Apr 04 (via DXLD) ** CHINA [and non]. Glenn, Re Nagoya's CRI schedule - the English broadcast via Luxembourg is now at 2000-2100 UT on 1440 kHz (not 2100- 2200) I received an A04 CRI English schedule in the post a couple of days ago which also incorrectly gives the time of the Luxembourg relay as 2100. Someone at CRI had amended the time of the London 558 kHz relay in biro [?], but got the UT/local time columns transposed. As per the Nagoya schedule, the 558 relay is now at 1500-1700 UT [which is 1600- 1800 British Summer Time]. Cheers (Dave Kenny, UK, April 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9600 China Radio Int'l; 2101-2122+, 15-Apr; "CRI News. News and Reports", "It's Friday, the 16th of April" (No, it wasn't). All in EE. SIO=343- 9600 not listed on http://www.crienglish.com for any target at 2100 (Harold Frodge, Mim MARE via DXLD) Ed: Per their latest sked, it's probably from St. Petersburg for the time and freq shown. (see below) (Joe Miller, Mare ed. via DXLD) It was Friday in Beijing, all that matters; how do you get St. Pete from the info below? 9600 could be Habana (gh, DXLD) Received a new sked from CRI via snail mail (postal escargot in FF and schneckepost in GG) this week. Transmitter sites include: W Africa, St Petersburg, Beijing, Sackville, Havana and Brazil - unfortunately the sites are not listed for each listing. All listings for N America unless otherwise specified: 0100-0200 9790 & 9580 0300-0400 9690 & 9790 0400-0500 9560, 6090 & 9755 0500-0600 9560 & 6190 0900-1100 15210 & 17690 S Pacific 1000-1100 6040 1100-1200 6040 & 11750 1200-1300 9730 & 11980 SE Asia 1200-1300 11675 & 11765 S Asia 1200-1300 11760 & 15415 S Pacific 1300-1400 7405, 9570, 9650, 15260 & 1120 WUST Washington DC 1300-1400 11980 & 15180 SE Asia 1300-1400 11760 & 11900 S Pacific 1400-1500 7405 & 13740 1400-1500 13685 & 15125 E & S Africa 1400-1500 9560 S Asia 1500-1600 6145, 13740 & 13680 [wrong time conversion???] 1500-1600 7160 & 9785 S Asia 1500-1600 13685 & 15125 E & S Africa 1600-1800 11900 & 9570 E & S Africa 1900-2000 9440, 7140 & 9585 W & N Africa 2000-2100 7190, 9600 & 11790 Europe 2000-2100 9440 & 7140 W & N Africa 2000-2130 11640 & 13630 E & S Africa 2100-2200 7190, 9600 & 11790 Europe 2200-2300 9880 Europe 2300-2400 5990 Caribbean 2300-2400 6145 & 13680 (via Joe Miller, MI, MARE via DXLD) ** GERMANY. Do religious broadcasters usually rely on reception reports to judge whether or not there is an audience for their transmissions? At least this one does so: (Kai Ludwig, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ---Ursprüngliche Nachricht--- From: "Weyl, Ralf" Subject: WG: Reception reports for EMG Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, We would like to inform you that there is a weekly broadcast service from our Customer Evangelische Missionsgemeinden which is broadcasting on short-wave on a regular weekly in German language. Our Customer is planning to stop this transmission at the end of April 2004 caused by the lack of reception reports. Regarding to the EMG broadcasting service, please find attached the following technical data: Wednesdays only, 22:00 - 22:30 UTC, using 9.860 kHz on high gain antenna system to SAM, azimuth 240 degrees. Your reception reports would be highly appreciated. All the best from Juelich, Best regards from Juelich, Ralf Weyl, T-Systems (via Kai Ludwig, Alokesh Gupta, DXLD) ** GUYANA. 3291.07, Voice of Guyana, 0010 April 17. Noted a man in English language comments which seem to be political. Guyana mentioned often. Signal was good (Chuck Bolland, Clewiston, Florida, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [and non]. PIRATE RADIO'S NUMBER ONE FAN April 14, 2004 12:17 WHEN it comes to being a fan of pirate radio, Melvyn Johnson is a model example. The carpenter is such a huge enthusiast of Radio Caroline he has transformed his Norwich home into a shrine devoted to the much loved 40-year-old radio station. Mr Johnson, 60 today, has also put his carpentry talents to good use, making radio controlled models of the boats from which the station used to broadcast. Last week the Evening News marked the 40th birthday of Radio Caroline with a double-page feature on the station. Mr Johnson — who has also written a book about pirate radio — explained why his passion remained as strong today as it was when he first tuned-in. "It put radio on the map again," said Mr Johnson, who lives with his partner of 18-years, Marjorie Smith, in Pennyroyal, Catton. "All we had in the old days was the usual stations. Rock and roll and that sort of music was just on half-an-hour every Sunday afternoon. "The likes of Jimmy Saville, they only did pop. At my age, when Radio Caroline came along I thought it was great." Mr Johnson's home is full of Radio Caroline memorabilia, including badges, radio dials with the station marked and his famous radio controlled boats. His replica of the Ross Revenge took him five months to complete, complete with studio, presenters and miniature records. Just like the real version, Mr Johnson's model is wired for sound. He has installed a personal stereo in the hold. There are also two speakers and an amplifier. Radio Caroline began broadcasting off Felixstowe on Easter Saturday 1964 from a ship called the MV Caroline. Nine weeks later it merged with another pirate radio station called Radio Atlanta, which broadcast from a ship called Mi Amigo. The Marine Broadcasting Offences act came into force in August 1967, making it illegal to work for, advertise on or supply the pirate stations. Mr Johnson said modern radio had much to thank Radio Caroline and its contemporaries for. "For people these days stations like this are the norm," he said. "But when I was younger we only had the BBC and Radio Luxembourg at night times. "Now we have things like Radio Norfolk, Broadland, Capital Gold – it changed the whole image of radio." http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/News/story.asp?datetime=14+Apr+2004+12%3A17&tbrand=ENOnline&tCategory=NEWS&category=News&brand=ENOnline&itemid=NOED14+Apr+2004+12%3A18%3A01%3A863 (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** IRAQ. ANALYSIS: EGYPTIAN GROUP TO LAUNCH IRAQ'S FIRST PRIVATE NATIONAL TV - HAWA | Text of editorial analysis by Caroline Smith of BBC Monitoring Media Services on 15 April A licence has been granted allowing an Egyptian consortium to launch the first privately owned national TV station in Iraq on 15 June, Al- Jazeera and the Associated Press reported on 13 April. The Arabic-language TV station will be called Hawa, (meaning "air"). It will start by broadcasting six hours of news and entertainment programmes daily before going 24/7, said Hasan Abu al-Ala, the station's deputy manager and editor-in-chief. Egyptian investor Najib Sawiris, whose Orascom Telecom company heads the consortium, and Video Cairo Sat, an independent Egyptian news provider, plan to invest 25m dollars in the new channel. Muhammad Juhar, chairman of Video Cairo Sat, told Al- Jazeera that the consortium spent over four months negotiating with the US-backed Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to grant them a licence. "The Iraqis were wary to grant such permission to a foreign company, and the Americans were worried about our independence," he said. "But with the veteran journalists we have, we convinced them that we are objective and not taking a line against anybody." "We are neither with nor against anyone. Our main objective is to entertain Iraqis and deliver information objectively," he said. "We want to encourage them (Iraqis) to coexist peacefully and ... renounce violence." Credibility questioned However, critics say the Hawa channel will struggle to gain independent credibility, as its broadcast licence comes from the US- backed CPA. "If Sawiris had any political awareness, he would have never done this," Hasan Nafaa, head of political science at Cairo University, told Al-Jazeera. "The American ruler has the final say in all matters in Iraq, including media, and this is enough to affect the credibility of the station." The Iraq Communications and Media Commission, set up on 24 March by US administrator Paul Bremer, has yet to announce the result of more than 60 applications which have been submitted for licences to set up TV and radio stations in the country. "It will be interesting to see Hawa operate freely with the Americans controlling everything," Jalaa Jad Allah, an editor at Egypt's state- owned Al-Jumhuriyah newspaper, told Al-Jazeera. But Abu al-Ala, a former BBC Arabic Service senior executive and an experienced broadcaster, insisted the new station has no political agenda, pledging an "objective editorial policy as we are not with or against anybody". To start with, Hawa will operate terrestrially before possibly being transmitted via satellite. "Our broadcast will be terrestrial only for about six months, and then we will decide if we will go on satellite," said Muhammad Juhar. Newsgathering will be supplied from four bureaux across Iraq, along with offices in Cairo, Jerusalem and Washington. A team of 240 people will be employed in Baghdad. According to Juhar, the Iraq-based bureaux will rely heavily on local experience but will also employ other Arab nationalities. Competition The new channel will be competing directly with the pan-Arab and foreign satellite TV broadcasts which Iraqis currently turn to as reliable sources of news. Al-Iraqiyah, the CPA-funded main terrestrial TV station in Baghdad, has attracted few viewers with its news coverage, which many Iraqis perceive as poor. At least two other new satellite channels aimed at Iraqi viewers - Al-Sharqiya and Al-Diyar, run by Iraqi media tycoons Sa'd al-Bazzaz and Faysal al-Yasiri - are due to start transmission soon. But with no commercial market yet to sustain a private media sector, aspiring media tycoons in Iraq will have to have deep pockets and be prepared for a long wait to see returns on their investments. Source: BBC Monitoring research 15 Apr 04 (via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. Israel's Eurovision choice --- While the song to represent Israel in the 2004 Eurovision has been chosen awhile ago... here is some info now: The song is, "To Believe" "Le'haamin" By: David D'or David D'or's official website. His Eurovision page which contains both the audio and the music video: http://www.daviddor.com/euro.htm Official Dance Remix of the song included with the single: http://forums.nana.co.il/Article/?ArticleID=104816 This song is number one in the local Israel music charts. Reshet Gimmel charts - Hebrew - For some reason last dated 10 days ago - maybe due to Passover: http://gimmel.iba.org.il/gim_piz3.htm May 12 will be the Eurovision Qualifier Round May 15 Eurovision Finals, Both in Turkey Some information from: "Your Daily Eurovision Center" http://www.esctoday.com/ Official Eurovision song contest website: http://www.eurovision.tv (Doni Rosenzweig, April 16, DXLD) ** ITALY. 7180, In A04 season RAI Rome registered a 41 mb channel again, for its morning Italian service to Europe 0630-1300 UT. \\ 9670 kHz. In past six years from A99 to B03 season, 11800 kHz was in use instead. Signal in Central Europe is powerful 55555 (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Apr 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JAPAN [non]. Hello DXers, The Arabic section of NHK started broadcasting a special Arabic news to the listeners in the Middle East due to the current events in Iraq. Transmission is via Ekala, Sri Lanka from 1100 till 1115 UT on 17595; after the end of the news the transmitter is still on till 1130 with IDs in Japanese, English and French. All the best (Tarek Zeidan, Cairo, Egypt, April 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Very interesting. R. Japan already had Arabic half-hours at 0400 and 0700 (at least in A-03 as I quickly check the WRTH 2004), no local evening broadcasts. I wonder why this new one is necessary, and at such an odd time (mid-afternoon --- or is it for the siesta crowd --- if any in the ME?). NHK does seem more flexible than most major SW broadcasters in setting up special transmissions, but will this one disappear once the Japanese hostage situation is resolved? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JAPAN. R. Tampa/NSWBC, 9595, colorful f/d "Globe With sheet music" card in 13 days for 1 IRC. Still using cards with the Radio Tampa logo. I inquired about the name change to Radio Nikkei on April 1; my report was for March 31, requesting a card with the new logo. The Japanese character logo on the front of the card was circled on the back with "Radio Tampa" handwritten above. I assume any new logo QSLs, if available, will be for reports post March 31 (Scott R, Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH-USA, R75, MLB-1, RS longwire w/ RBA balun, April 16, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KAZAKHSTAN. RFA Cambodian at 1230-1330 UT noted on 15625 kHz today. This was an A03[!] frequency registration, but registered on 15670 instead in A04. \\ much stronger as usual on Iranawila 13645 and 15525 (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, April 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KUWAIT. Please can you help me with a functioning email address of Radio Kuwait (Emma Elo Ezeani, Sokoto, Nigeria, April 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I assume by functioning, he means one from which QSLs may be obtained; also wants WYFR, q.v. ** MEXICO. Baja California MW clashes: see BROADCAST BAND UPDATE, USA ** OKLAHOMA. This Saturday, quite by chance as I was channel-surfing, caught the Vietnamese show on KOPX 62 OKC almost from the start at 1702 UT. It was actually a world newscast, with captioning in English, bug CSNN, which stands for Cuoc Song Ngay Nay [minus the diacriticals here]. After local commercials, the same anchors came back with OKC news, so it is all-local origination. Then the president of POW of OK Nguyen Van Su shared his views on Black April. Then a Vietnamese doctor talking about family health; then a weekend `horiscope` by the anchors; anti-communist Vietnam news, demonstration in California. Google search on ``Cuoc Song`` got some 22,000 hits – probably a common term meaning ``news`` or something similar. ``Cuoc Song Ngay Nay`` got only 79 hits, but appears to be a common phrase, not the name of an organization, and nothing relevant when I add Oklahoma to the search. Even Pax 62`s own grid http://www.pax.tv/stations/default.cfm?sti_id=38&siteid=50649 is no more specific than ``paid programming`` at this and many other dayparts. Closing gave phone number [405] 409-3335 and production credit to CSNN / Blue Network (I think --- I was interrupted before I could note it down). I wonder if this is also on other days at noon? I have not checked (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PARAGUAY. 9736.9, R. Nacional del Paraguay, Asunción; *0802-, good on 3/21. Sign-on with music ``Pájaro Campana`` and opening ID ``El ta?er de los recuerdos de alpa, ... identificados con el .. de la cultura musical del Paraguay, anuncia .. de los ... del día de ZP1, ZPA1 y ZPD1 Radio Nacional del Paraguay, emisora oficial del estado paraguayo en sus frecuencias 920 kHz amplitud modulada, 9735 kc banda de 31 metros onda corta internacional y 95.1 MHz frecuencia modulada estéreo. En su programación independiente desde Blas Garay 241 entre Yegros e Iturbe, estudios centrales de la emisora ... de Asunción, capital de la República del Paraguay. A iniciar de jornada ... democráticos y ... de la paraguayidad ayudamos a nuestros oyentes el mejor de los ...`` Distorted audio (Takeshi SEJIMO, Radio Nuevo Mundo via Hideki WATANABE, April 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. Re. religious programs via VOR: ``Missionswerk Heukelbach... [...] Judging from the continuation style these programs are just played instead of own stuff, i.e. apparently they [VOR] put the tapes received from Germany and Switzerland on the Mechlabor tape recorders in the German service live studio without any switchings in the program distribution taking place (Kai Ludwig, Germany, April 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` The "mechanical-only" times at VOR are long gone: Missionswerk Heukelbach, Missionswerk Freundesdienst and Lutherische Stunde are mailing their programs to VOR in form of audio files via ftp (as they informed me). VOR itself produces daily audio files of some of its programs in English, French, German, Japanese, Russian and Spanish and makes them available at the WRN website for on-demand-listening/ download: http://www.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=25 (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, April 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SEYCHELLES [non]. Here's the updated A'04 schd for FEBA Radio as on 31st March '04. Almost all the entries for their transmissions to North India & South India have been changed/corrected since there were too many overlappings in the sched posted earlier in their website. Regds, (Alokesh Gupta, DX LISTENING DIGEST) FEBA RADIO - BROADCAST SCHEDULE UPDATED 31ST MARCH 2004 28 March to 31 October 2004 (A04) Tx Site Codes - ARM Armavir Russia KIG Kigali Rwanda ASC Ascension Island MEY Meyerton South Africa DHA Dhabayya MOS Mossbrunn Austria ERV Yerevan Armenia NVS Novosibirsk Russia FLE Flevo Holland SAM Samara Russia IRK Irkutsk Russia TAC Tashkent Uzbekistan Day 1 = Sunday (ITU Convention) NORTH INDIA, NEPAL, TIBET Days Frequency Metre Site Time UTC 1234567 Languages kHz band code ------------------------------------------------------------ 0030-0100 s...... HINDI 7365 41 TAC 0030-0045 .mtwt.. BANGLA 7365 41 TAC 0030-0045 .....fs BHOJPURI 7365 41 TAC 0045-0100 .m.w.fs HINDI 7365 41 TAC 0045-0100 ..t.... ORIYA 7365 41 TAC 0045-0100 ....t.. MAGAHI 7365 41 TAC 0100-0130 smtwtfs HINDI 9820 31 MOS 0130-0145 smtwtfs MARATHI 9820 31 MOS 0115-0130 .....f. URDU 9820 31 MOS 0115-0130 ......s PUNJABI India 9820 31 MOS 1200-1230 smtwtfs TIBETAN 15355 19 DHA 1230-1300 s.t.... NEPALI 12005 25 TAC 1230-1300 ......s CHATTISGARHI 12005 25 TAC 1230-1245 .m.w... MUNDARI 12005 25 TAC 1230-1245 ....t.. CHATTISGARHI 12005 25 TAC 1230-1315 .....f. BANGLA 12005 25 TAC 1245-1300 .m.wt.. ORIYA 12005 25 TAC 1300-1315 smtwt.s BANGLA 12005 25 TAC 1315-1345 ......s KUMAUNI 11750 25 SAM 1315-1345 ...w... PUNJABI India 11750 25 SAM 1315-1330 .mt.tf. PUNJABI India 11750 25 SAM 1315-1330 s...... KANGRI 11750 25 SAM 1330-1345 .m..... BHILI 11750 25 SAM 1330-1345 ....t.. MARWARI 11750 25 SAM 1330-1345 ..t.... BRIJ 11750 25 SAM 1330-1400 s....f. GUJARATI 11750 25 SAM 1345-1400 .mtwt.s GUJARATI 11750 25 SAM 1400-1415 smtw... URDU India 9530 31 DHA 1400-1445 ....t.. URDU India 9530 31 DHA 1400-1500 .....fs HINDI 9530 31 DHA 1415-1500 smtw... HINDI 9530 31 DHA 1445-1500 ....t.. HINDI 9530 31 DHA SOUTH INDIA, MALDIVES, SRI LANKA ------------------------------------------------------------- 0030-0100 s...tfs TAMIL 7335 41 ERV 0030-0115 .mtw... TAMIL 7335 41 ERV 0100-0115 .....fs BADAGA 7335 41 ERV 0100-0130 s...t.. KANNADA 7335 41 ERV 0115-0130 .m.w.fs KANNADA 7335 41 ERV 0115-0130 ..t.... TULU 7335 41 ERV 0130-0200 smtwtfs TELUGU 9855 31 DHA 1400-1430 smtw... MALAYALAM 7365 41 IRK 1400-1445 ....tfs MALAYALAM 7365 41 IRK 1430-1445 smt.... TELUGU 7365 41 IRK 1445-1500 ..t.t.. TAMIL 7365 41 IRK 1445-1500 .....fs KANNADA 7365 41 IRK 1430-1500 ...w... TELUGU 7365 41 IRK 1445-1500 sm..... LAMBADI 7365 41 IRK 1500-1515 smtwtfs ENGLISH Slow 7365 41 IRK 1515-1600 smtwtfs ENGLISH 7365 41 IRK 1600-1615 smt.... SINHALA 7365 41 IRK 1600-1615 ...w.fs DHIVEHI 7365 41 IRK 1600-1615 ....t.. MALAY 7365 41 IRK PAKISTAN, AFGHANISTAN, IRAN ------------------------------------------------------------- 0200-0215 .m...fs URDU Pakistan 12045 25 NVS 0215-0230 .m...fs PUNJABI Pakistan 12045 25 NVS 0200-0230 s.t.... PUNJABI Pakistan 12045 25 NVS 0200-0230 ...wt.. URDU Pakistan 12045 25 NVS 0230-0245 s...... URDU Pakistan 12045 25 NVS 0230-0245 ....t.. POTHWARI 12045 25 NVS 0230-0245 .mtw.fs HINDKO 12045 25 NVS 0200-0215 s.....s SINDHI 6145 49 DHA 0200-0215 .mtwtf. SIRAIKI 6145 49 DHA 0215-0230 s..wtfs BALUCHI 6145 49 DHA 0215-0230 .mt.... BRAHUI 6145 49 DHA 0200-0215 smtwtfs PASHTO 9855 31 DHA 0215-0245 smtwtfs DARI 9855 31 DHA 0245-0300 smtwtfs HAZARAGI 9855 31 DHA 0530-0700 .....f. PERSIAN 9660 31 DHA 1530-1630 smtwtfs PERSIAN 9875 31 ARM 1630-1645 s.....s BALUCHI 9875 31 ARM 1630-1645 .mtw... TURKMEN 9875 31 ARM 1630-1645 ....t.. AZERI 9875 31 ARM 1630-1645 .....f. LURI 9875 31 ARM 1400-1415 smtwtfs English Slow 9495 31 NVS 1415-1500 sm..tf. URDU Pakistan 9495 31 NVS 1415-1515 ..tw..s URDU Pakistan 9495 31 NVS 1500-1515 sm..tf. BALTI 9495 31 NVS 1530-1600 smtwtfs PASHTO 9415 31 ARM 1600-1630 smtwtfs DARI 9415 31 ARM 1630-1645 smtwtfs HAZARAGI 9415 31 ARM 1645-1700 smtwtfs UZBEK 9415 31 ARM MIDDLE EAST ------------------------------------------------------------------- 0400-0530 smtwtfs ARABIC 15530 19 SAM 0500-0530 .....f. SINHALA 6125 49 DHA 0530-0630 .....f. MALAYALAM 6125 49 DHA 1903-1957 smtwtfs ARABIC 9690 31 KIG AFRICA, ETHIOPIA, SUDAN ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1515-1530 smtwtfs NUER 12125 25 MEY 1530-1545 smtwtfs DINKA 12125 25 MEY 1545-1600 smtwtfs MAKONDE 12125 25 MEY 1600-1630 s...tfs AMHARIC 12125 25 MEY 1600-1630 .mtw... GURAGENA 12125 25 MEY 1630-1700 smtwtfs AMHARIC 12125 25 MEY 1700-1730 smtwtfs OROMO 6180 49 DHA 1700-1730 smtwtfs SOMALI 11690 25 KIG 1730-1800 smtwtfs TIGRINYA 11690 25 KIG 1830-1900 smtwtfs FRENCH (West+Cent Af) 15130 19 ASC 2145-2215 ....tf. WOLOF (West Af) 11985 25 ASC WESTERN EUROPE (DRM Digital Transmission) ---------------------------------------------------------------- 0945-1000 smtwtfs ENGLISH Slow 9815 31 FLE ---------------------------------------------------------------- Schedule Engineer, FEBA Radio, Ivy Arch Road, WORTHING BN14 8BX, UK. A04bs03 dated 31.03.04 rww (via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India, DXLD) ** SWITZERLAND. There was no big finale. They ran the same program for at least three days prior and then just ran pop music after the briefest of announcements stating the obvious and suggesting listeners access Swissinfo.com on the internet in future -- advising that the site still included "some audio". You think it would have killed them or their budget to have put together a fitting tribute? The program that ran for several days(!) sounded like someone found an old tape at random in a drawer and decided to throw something together as quickly and as mindlessly as possible (John Figliozzi, NY, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi, Glenn --- Spotted your latest items in DXLD 4-068 about the supposed "final" English transmission from SRI on April 12. I was listening on 9885 at 2330 UT on April 9, and it turns out THAT was the final broadcast, three days earlier than advertised. Rather lackluster; included archive reports on SwissAir, and Switzerland joining the UN, but the last item was an interview with SRI director Nicolas Lombard explaining the reasons for the end of shortwave from SRI (budget, technological change) and expressing his personal regret at the change, but also acknowledging the need to go in a different direction. Also held out the faint hope that if DRM catches on, SRI might make a return via that medium. The program host ended the broadcast by thanking listeners for their years of support, then music fill before the next language block. All rather sad --- I remember hearing SRI for the first time in 1966 as the then "Switzerland Calling" with 75 minutes (!!!) of English to North America, 0115-0230 GMT on 9535 kHz. Another one bites the dust, and I'm afraid, more to follow (Stephen Luce, Houston, April 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TIBET [non]. UZBEKISTAN. Voice of Tibet programs suffered by heavy Chinese jamming on Apr 12 1215-1300 15660 17525 Apr 12 1430-1515 17540 Apr 16 1215-1300 15635 (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, April 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UKRAINE. BROADCAST COUNCIL MOVES TO BOLSTER UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE Ukraine's National Council for Television and Radio (NRPTR), a body responsible for issuing broadcast licenses, adopted a resolution on 15 April whereby all broadcasters in the country are obliged to increase the hours of their broadcasting in the Ukrainian language so as to meet the requirements specified in their licenses, Interfax reported. Moreover, the resolution stipulates that all new licenses issued by the council after 18 April will require that nationwide and regional broadcasters use only Ukrainian in their programs. The broadcasters that currently operate under licenses requiring less than 100 percent Ukrainian-language programs reportedly will not have to apply for new licenses. "Ukraine is becoming a unique state in Europe, a state losing its indigenous language, which is being pushed out by official languages of other states," NRPTR deputy head Vitaliy Shevchenko commented on the 15 April resolution to RFE/RL. The NRPTR is to immediately launch a month-long monitoring of Ukrainian broadcasters to examine how they react to the resolution. "If the council detects that its resolution is being ignored by some companies, they will be subject to sanctions," NRPTR spokesman Mykola Hrystsenko told journalists without elaborating. JM (RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 71, Part II, 16 April 2004 via Bernd Trutenau, DXLD) Comment: The claim that "nationwide and regional broadcasters (may) use only Ukrainian in their programs" is not fully correct. The original text of the resolution is available on the NRPTR website (in Ukrainian): http://www.nradatvr.kiev.ua/message_14_04_04.htm --- the requirement for exclusive Ukrainian language programming applies to nationwide broadcasters, and to pan-regional broadcasters transmitting to mono- ethnic target areas (items 2.1 and 2.2 in the resolution). Regional (item 2.3) and local (item 2.4) broadcasters may transmit up to 50% of the broadcast time in minority languages. Also pan-regional broadcasters are authorized to broadcast in other languages in addition to Ukrainian, if the target area has a multi-ethnic population (as expressed in item 2.2). These are the ethnic groups in the Ukraine acc. to CIA Factbook (figures from 2001): Ukrainians 77.8%, Russians 17.3%, Belarusians 0.6%, Moldovans 0.5%, Crimean Tatars 0.5%, Bulgarians 0.4%, Hungarians 0.3%, Romanians 0.3%, Polish 0.3%, Jewish 0.2%, others 1.8% (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, April 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. Test outlet 17700 from Rampisham which reported recently, [as UNIDENTIFIED] missing today Fri 16th at 1405 UT (Wolfgang Büschel, Stuttgart, Germany, April 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ditto (gh) ** U K. BBC's local stations to stream online --- Friday 16 April The BBC confirmed today that it will begin streaming all forty of its local radio stations on the Internet later this year. Andy Griffee, Controller of the BBC English Regions, said: "More and more people are listening to radio through the internet, especially on their office desk tops (Digital Spy via Mike Terry, April 16, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. Re: VOA SHOULD BROADCAST IN ENGLISH ``VOA's frequencies and transmitters can be put to good use by using the old BBC World Service concept: Transmit in English on as many frequencies as possible, for as many hours as possible, to as many parts of the world as possible. If this is done, VOA should generally be audible any place in the world at any time. The global English audience would not need a program schedule; they could find VOA by tuning across the dial.`` Actually, that was the concept originally developed and cooked to perfection by the USSR's Radio Moscow World Service. To the recipe below one only needs to add an important ingredient - the transmitters had to be as powerful as possible. I guess BBC did try to emulate this ingenious Soviet invention but obviously the bourgeois World Service couldn't defeat the workers' World Service back then ;) The Maoist Radio Peking/Beijing used to follow the similar tactics in its Russian-language broadcasting to the USSR. Back in the 80s, it seemed like there was R. Peking at every 10-kHz step in the 31 m-band! And then those guys really loved the out of band frequencies - another fresh approach to delivering one's message via the shortwave (Sergei Sosedkin, IL, swprograms via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. Apparently the IBB schedules were removed from public access. The previous sds.his.com URL's do not work anymore, and I see no reference to schedules anymore at monitor.ibb.gov (Kai Ludwig, Germany, April 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Bummer! ** U S A. Greetings! Glenn: The listener club member certificate qualifies as our QSL card. Reception reports to: WWRB, Box 7, Manchester, TN 37349 We are thinking of taking two of our 100 kw's and combining them to 200 kW. No hard decision made in this matter; it would not be difficult to do this as a combiner is no big deal. We have many new upstarts joining WWRB; it is fun working with them. It is a real pleasure to hear the gospel preached by real men and women of GOD going out over our facilities (Dave Frantz, WWRB, April 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Please can you help me with a functioning email address of WYFR (Family Radio) (Emma Elo Ezeani, Sokoto, Nigeria, April 16, DX LISTENING DIGEST) By `functioning` I assume he means one from which QSLs may be obtained. I don`t keep up with this type of info; does anyone have a quick answer for him? Also KUWAIT (gh) ** U S A. US LIBERAL RADIO FLAMES OUT IN LA, CHICAGO OVER BILLING DISPUTE NEW YORK (AFP) - A liberal radio start-up touted as a counterweight to right-wing talk radio has been yanked from the airwaves in two of its top markets amid an acrimonious billing dispute, according to network representatives. The broadcaster that rents air time to Air America in Los Angeles and Chicago pulled the plug on the network in those two cities Wednesday, just two weeks after its much-ballyhooed launch. Executives with Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Inc., which owns Air America affiliates WNTD-950 AM in Chicago and KBLA-1580 AM in Los Angeles, claims Air America bounced checks and fell behind on its payments, and now owes it more than one million dollars. Air America, for its part, filed suit against Multicultural Wednesday in New York state Supreme Court, charging it with breach of contract and seeking an injunction forcing Air America back on the Chicago station. "MultiCultural Radio Broadcasting's conduct in this matter has been disgraceful," said Evan Cohen, Air America Radio chairman in a statement posted on the network's website Thursday. "To shut off a broadcast that listeners rely on without warning and in the middle of discussions is the height of irresponsibility and a slap in the face of the media industry." Executives for the fledgling network say they have withheld payment for air time they purchased in Los Angeles in February, prior to its March launch. They contend that Multicultural re-sold that airtime to third parties, essentially "double-dipping," and that the network should be credited for that block of time. The network has also used its remaining radio stations in New York, Minneapolis, Portland, Oregon, and its website as platforms to attack Multicultural and its owner Arthur Liu. Jean Heinemeyer, general manager of Multicultural's New York station, said the station has been flooded with calls from irate Air America listeners over the past 36 hours. And he lashed out at a tongue-in-cheek Air America "press release" in which the network was going to resolve the matter, vigilante-style, by putting a crowbar to Liu's head. "It's more than sophomoric," said Heinemeyer. "It's disgusting and frightening." The release was removed from the site Thursday. [4-069] (via yahoonews via Bill Westenhaver, DXLD) AIR AMERICA RESTORED IN CHICAGO By John Cook, Tribune staff reporter, April 16, 2004 In a rapid reversal of fortunes, Air America Radio won a temporary restraining order Thursday requiring the owner of its Chicago affiliate to restore the fledgling, liberal talk-radio network's broadcast, one day after it was thrown off the air in Chicago and Los Angeles. "We've just won Round 1," said Evan Cohen, Air America's chairman. "Arthur Liu received a clear message: Temper tantrums are not the way to conduct business." Cohen said the network expects to resume broadcasting Friday on WNTD-950 AM in Chicago. Liu, whose Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Inc. owns Air America's Chicago and Los Angeles stations, pulled the network off the air in both markets Wednesday and changed the locks on the doors. He told the Chicago Tribune that Air America had bounced a payment check and owed Multicultural more than $1 million. But New York state Supreme Court Judge Marylin G. Diamond found Thursday that Air America had fully paid for airtime in Chicago and ordered Multicultural to begin broadcasting Air America's programming again. Air America remains off the air in Los Angeles, where it had been broadcast on Multicultural's KBLA 1580 AM. A person answering the phone Thursday at Multicultural said the company had no comment. The dispute between the two companies began Wednesday morning, when Multicultural employees kicked Air America staffers out of the Chicago and Los Angeles stations and began airing Spanish-language programming. Liu claimed Air America had defaulted on payments for airtime. But Air America executives said they were withholding payments for the Los Angeles station because Liu had been "double-dipping," or reselling airtime that the network had bought and paid for, prior to the network's launch a little more than two weeks ago. Cohen said Thursday that Air America is considering its legal options regarding the Los Angeles station and would be "doing something within the next 48 hours." Diamond scheduled a hearing on Monday to get a response from Multicultural. No matter how the dispute is resolved, it seems unlikely that Air America will continue to broadcast on Multicultural's stations. The public relations battle became personal very quickly on Wednesday, with Liu accusing the network of insolvency, and Cohen calling Liu "disgraceful and unprofessional." "Is this a relationship we want to continue?" Cohen asked. "Over the next couple of days we're both going to be doing a lot of thinking." Cohen said he is "exploring other broadcast options with a partner who is more responsible and mature." Copyright (c) 2004, Chicago Tribune (via Jim Moats, Bill Westenhaver, DXLD) AIR AMERICA BACK ON RADIO IN CHICAGO, LOS ANGELES Thu Apr 15, 2004 07:56 PM ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York judge ordered the owner of two radio stations on Thursday to put the 2-week-old, liberal radio network known as Air America back on the air. MultiCultural Radio Broadcasting Inc, which owns radio stations in Chicago and Los Angeles, pulled the plug on Air America on Wednesday. MultiCultural's owner, Arthur Liu, told the Chicago Tribune the radio network "bounced a check" and was in default. Air America, which leases radio stations in 16 cities, filed a complaint in New York State Supreme Court demanding it be restored to the air and compensated. Judge Marilyn Diamond issued a temporary restraining order on the condition that Air America post a $156,000 bond. The judge will hold a hearing on the dispute on Monday. . . http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4843148 (via Bill Westenhaver, DXLD) ** U S A. STERN BELONGS ON RADIO JUST AS MUCH AS RUSH April 16, 2004 BY ROGER EBERT http://www.suntimes.com/output/eb-feature/cst-edt-ebert16.html Like millions of Americans, I listen to Howard Stern on the radio in the mornings. I think he is smart, quick and funny. Sometimes he is ''offensive,'' but to be quite frank, I am not ''offended,'' because what he says falls within the realm of words and subjects that, as an adult, I have long been familiar with even without the tutelage of Stern. Unlike millions of Americans, I do not listen to Rush Limbaugh on the radio. One reason for that is that I am usually at the movies when he's on the air -- an alternative I urge on his listeners. Limbaugh does offend me when I monitor him, because he has cheapened political discourse in this country with his canned slogans and cheap shots. Once you call a feminist a ''feminazi,'' what else is there to say about feminism? Of course you may disagree with me and prefer Limbaugh. I may disagree with you and prefer Stern. That is our right as Americans. What offends me is that the right wing, secure in its own right to offend, now wants to punish Stern to the point where he may be forced off the air. The big difference, of course, is that Stern's offenses usually have to do with sex and language, while Limbaugh's have to do with politics. Stern offends the puritan right, which doesn't seem to respect the American tradition of freedom of expression. You don't have to listen to Stern. Exercising the same freedom, I am Limbaugh-free. And please don't tell me that Stern must be fined and driven off the radio because he uses the ''public airwaves.'' If they are public, then his listeners are the public, and we want to listen to him on our airwaves. The public airwaves cannot be held hostage to a small segment that wants to decide what the rest of us can hear -- especially now that President Bush supports consolidating more and more media outlets into a few rich hands. But what if a child should tune in? Call me old-fashioned, but I believe it is the responsibility of parents to control their children's media input. The entire nation cannot be held hostage so that everything on the radio is suitable for 9-year-olds. Nor do I know of any children who want to listen to Stern, anyway; they prefer music. It is a belief of mine about the movies, that what makes them good or bad isn't what they're about, but how they're about them. The point is not the subject but the form and purpose of its expression. A listener to Stern will find that he expresses humanistic values, that he opposes hypocrisy, that he talks honestly about what a great many Americans do indeed think and say and do. A Limbaugh listener, on the other hand, might not have guessed from campaigns to throw the book at drug addicts that he was addicted to drugs and required an employee to buy them on the street. But listen carefully. I support Limbaugh's right to be on the radio. I feel it is fully equal to Stern's. I find it strange that so many Americans describe themselves as patriotic when their values are anti- democratic and totalitarian. We are all familiar with Voltaire's great cry: ''I may disagree with what you say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it.'' Ideas like his helped form the emerging American republic. Today, the Federal Communications Commission operates under an alternative slogan: ''Since a minority that is very important to this administration disagrees with what you say, shut up.'' Copyright © Chicago Sun-Times Inc. (via Bill Westenhaver, DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. US AGENTS GRILL CAPE RADIO MAN By Zenzile Khoisan April 16 2004 at 10:35AM The Argus http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?sf=2813&click_id=2813&art_id=vn20040416103506334C717484&set_id=6 Cape Town radio man Zane Ibrahim was taken off an international flight minutes after it landed at Baltimore airport by United States Homeland Security personnel and interrogated for almost 12 hours. Ibrahim, an award-winning journalist and managing director of Bush Radio, had flown to the US from Cape Town via Amsterdam to deliver a keynote address on 10 years of South African democracy at a conference at Goucher College, near Baltimore. Ibrahim said on Friday by telephone from the US that his aircraft was still on the runway when guards boarded the flight, removed him, strip-searched him and interrogated him in the airport building for nearly 12 hours on Thursday. Reached at his hotel, just after his encounter with the almost a dozen security officials, an angry Ibrahim said he was shocked and disturbed. He said the first thing he knew was an announcement on the aircraft. "They said, 'Will everyone just remain seated, security agents are coming aboard.' Then four uniformed and four plainclothes officers boarded the plane. Four passed and positioned themselves behind my seat and four came up towards me and asked if I was Zane Ibrahim." Ibrahim said he was "bumrushed" off the plane, in full view of hundreds of other passengers, bundled into a van, driven to a remote location and strip-searched by several officers. "They went through all my bags, put me through this humiliating search and then put a thick dossier on the table. Then the questions started." Ibrahim went on to say that he was interrogated for almost 12 hours about his work as a journalist. "I don't know what was wrong with these people, but they seemed really angry about an anti-war campaign we had running on Bush Radio, called Bush Against War." Ibrahim said that when he did not appear at the airport, colleagues who were there to meet him made inquiries and eventually he was released, without an apology. "They simply told me that I could go about my business, but I should remember that they were keeping a very close eye on me." He was scheduled to deliver his address on Friday, and returns to South Africa at the weekend. * This article was originally published on page 1 of The Cape Argus on April 16, 2004 [The Argus] Published on the Web by IOL on 2004-04-16 10:35:00 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Independent Online 2004. All rights reserved. IOL publishes this article in good faith but is not liable for any loss or damage caused by reliance on the information it contains (via Mike P., Grassroots Radio Coalition, via Leigh Robartes, Moscow ID, DXLD) ** U S A. PUBLIC RADIO MOVES TOWARD DIGITAL FUTURE --- CPB awards grants to 76 public radio stations serving 32 states and territories WASHINGTON, D.C., April 15, 2004 - The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) today announced that it will award grants totaling more than $5 million to help 76 public radio stations, including 25 serving rural and minority audiences, purchase the equipment needed to transmit a digital signal. Digital radio is an exciting advance in radio broadcast technology that could increase significantly the quality and scope of program services, as well as to provide richer quality sound than is currently available. CPB is encouraging and supporting the early adoption of this promising new technology by providing matching funds to eligible stations. "Public broadcasters are by nature pioneers," said CPB President and CEO, Robert T. Coonrod. "They are eager to explore the new frontiers of service this technology will make possible for millions of listeners." These funds are part of the nearly $150 million in funding that Congress has provided to CPB over the last four years to assist both public radio and public television stations to convert from analog transmission to digital. Additional proposals for the remainder of available fiscal year 2003 digital radio funds are being reviewed, and these funding decisions will be announced next month. CPB will earmark funding for fiscal year 2004 to assist more stations, including those serving rural and minority markets, in making the digital transition. Stations will be able to apply for another round of digital funding this summer. Additional awards for public television to convert to digital also will be announced this spring. Final grants are contingent upon final equipment costs and contract negotiations. Recipients of this funding round include: * indicates rural and minority stations. KFSK-FM* Anchorage, Alaska KSTK-FM* Anchorage, Alaska KAZU-FM Monterrey [sic], California KCRI-FM Los Angeles [sic], California KCRY-FM Santa Monica [sic], California KQEI-FM San Francisco, California KUOR-FM Redlands, California KVMR-FM Nevada City, California KPRE-FM Denver, Colorado WHUS-FM Storrs, Connecticut WJCT-FM Jacksonville, Florida WUCF-FM Orlando, Florida WCLK-FM Atlanta, Georgia KBSS-FM* Boise, Idaho WIUM-FM* Macomb, Illinois WIUW-FM* Macomb, Illinois WFIU-FM Bloomington, Indiana KSUI-FM* Iowa City, Iowa WMKY-FM* Morehead, Kentucky WOCS-FM* Morehead, Kentucky WEKU-FM* Richmond, Kentucky KRVS-FM Lafayette Ville [sic], Louisiana WMEH-FM* Bangor, Maine WMPG-FM Portland, Maine WEAA-FM Baltimore, Maryland WYPR-FM Baltimore, Maryland WFPB-FM Boston, Massachusetts WNEF-FM Boston, Massachusetts WFUM-FM Ann Arbor, Michigan WVGR-FM Ann Arbor, Michigan WCAL-FM Northfield, Minnesota WJSU-FM Jackson, Mississippi WPRL-FM Lorman, Mississippi KBIA-FM* Columbia, Missouri KCUR-FM Kansas City, Missouri KWMU-FM St. Louis, Missouri KTBG-FM Warrensburg, Missouri KIOS-FM Omaha, Nebraska WEVO-FM Concord, New Hampshire WEVS-FM Concord, New Hampshire KANW-FM Albuquerque, New Mexico KGLP-FM* Gallup, New Mexico KUNM-FM* Albuquerque, New Mexico WEOS-FM* Geneva, New York WLIU-FM Southampton, New York WOSR-FM Albany, New York WFAE-FM Charlotte, North Carolina WFDD-FM Winston-Salem, North Carolina WFHE-FM Charlotte, North Carolina WNCU-FM Durham, North Carolina WRQM-FM Chapel Hill, North Carolina WUNC-FM Chapel Hill, North Carolina WGUC-FM Cincinnati, Ohio WKSU-FM Kent, Ohio WMUB-FM Oxford, Ohio WVXU-FM Cincinnati, Ohio KCCU-FM* Lawton, Oklahoma KMCU-FM* Lawton, Oklahoma KOSU-FM* Stillwater, Oklahoma KBOO-FM Portland, Oregon KBPS-FM Portland, Oregon KMHD-FM Gresham, Oregon KOPB-FM Portland, Oregon WDUQ-FM Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania WHYY-FM Philadelphia, Pennsylvania WRTI-FM Philadelphia, Pennsylvania WXPH-FM Philadelphia, Pennsylvania WXPN-FM Philadelphia, Pennsylvania WRTU-FM San Juan, Puerto Rico WPLN-FM Nashville, Tennessee WUOT-FM Knoxville, Tennessee KPVU-FM Prairie View, Texas KUT-FM Austin, Texas KUWS-FM [sic] Madison, Wisconsin WERN-FM Madison, Wisconsin WHRM-FM Madison [sic], Wisconsin CPB, a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967 develops educational public radio, television and online services for the American people. The Corporation is the industry's largest single source of funds for national public television and radio program development and production. CPB, a grant making organization, funds more than 1,000 public radio and television stations (via Grassroots Radio Coalition via Leigh Robartes, April 16, DXLD) Some strange things above. Many of these stations do not really have - FM suffixes, since there is no AM or TV station with the same call. How is `rural` defined? Stations in big cities generally reach into rural areas as well, and stations in small cities (e.g. Stillwater OK) also reach into big cities, (such as OKC). Why is one Albuquerque station rural and the other not? Both have translators in different `rural` areas besides transmitting from two miles high, and I know both cater to minorities. Cities shown in many cases are for the base station, not the relay, e.g. WHRM is at Rib Mountain, Wisconsin, not Madison. I can hardly wait until digital KOSU sidebands mess up the adjacent channels that have been encroaching on it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Noticed the errors too, but forgot to send an explanation when I forwarded it. Seems the cities listed are those of the parent stations. It's odd that some of them are what I call 'slave' stations, essentially high and medium-powered repeaters with call letters. I noticed the one in Idaho is a CP for Sun Valley. Almost all of it is NPR of course. I only noticed two community stations on the list. I think there's more 'rural' stations among the asterisks than 'minority' stations. Maybe the CPB should use our tax dollars to subsidize some low-power, locally-originated, analog stations. After all, they're the ones that will be most impacted by the IBOC, HD radio invasion. I know, it's probably too much to ask this government to serve the public interest (Leigh Robartes, Moscow, Idaho, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. PIRATE STATION INTERFERING WITH AVIATION SHUT DOWN http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/auto/epaper/editions/th ursday/south_county_04d79f8b734100da10b2.html By Eliot Kleinberg, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Thursday, April 15, 2004 Federal authorities shut down a pirate radio station in Lake Worth this week after a pilot reported it was blocking radio communications at the Lantana airport and Palm Beach International Airport. "That was one hell of a dirty transmitter," said Terry Jones, one of three pilots who fly WPEC-TV Channel 12's chopper. The three work for Aircoastal Helicopters, based at the county airport in Lantana. Pirate stations operate with no federal broadcasting licenses; a transmitter can cost as little as $5,000. Since 1997, the FCC has shut down more than 400 in Florida alone. South Florida is believed to have more than any region in the country. Jones said he started noticing the interference about two weeks ago. He said it bled into transmissions from the control tower at PBIA as well as a frequency used by all aircraft flying around the Lantana airport. That frequency is a community channel of sorts used for facilities such as Lantana's that have no tower. Pilots simply come on and give their location and route so others can avoid them. Depending on where a plane or helicopter is flying, the pirate station can "completely drown out" communications with other aircraft, Jones said. He said that's especially dangerous around Lantana, which has several flight schools and helicopter operations. Jones said he also found that in some cases controllers at PBIA could hear him but he could not hear their instructions. Jones said he alerted air traffic controllers at PBIA and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport as well as the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Communications Commission. FAA technicians used special sensing equipment to find the building, spotted an antenna, and contacted the FCC and Lake Worth police, FAA spokesman Christopher White said from Atlanta. Lake Worth officers and agents from the FAA and FCC came to the home of Frantzler Narcisse at 910 N. F St. Tuesday, and Narcisse showed them radio equipment on a second floor, according to a police report. "To avoid legal trouble and expensive fines, Narcisse allowed the FCC to confiscate the radio equipment," the report said. Narcisse could not be reached for comment Wednesday. An FCC spokesman in Washington said the agency shut down that station and three others on Tuesday and that all four stopped operations voluntarily. The spokesman said only one station was interfering with air traffic. The FAA knows of just two or three stations that have interfered with air traffic communications, spokesman William Shumann said from Washington. But, he said, though the number is small, the potential for catastrophe is great. Improper interference, whether accidental or intentional, has never led to a crash or serious mishap, Shumann said. But, he said, "the potential for an accident exists in either case." (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) WTFK????? This can happen when pirates venture above 107.9 MHz into the aero band, or would it be an integral harmonic on a higher aero channel? (gh) ** U S A [and non] BROADCAST BAND UPDATE – BY GREG HARDISON, April 15 STERN WARNING: You're probably aware by now, of the $495,000 fine levied against Clear Channel, for airing the Howard Stern show on several of its stations (including San Diego's KIOZ/105.3 FM) --- and CC's reaction, permanently bouncing Howie off ALL its affected outlets. CC has also ousted its own Regular Guys from Atlanta's WKLS/96 Rock. That move comes after the "accidental" airing of a production piece, involving the Guys and a porn star --- which was supposed to air via backwards-playback, as a satirical/protest jab targeting the FCC. AllAccess reports that a "Wall Street Journal" article published last week portrays the FCC's plans to go after Stern syndicator, Infinity Broadcasting (division of Viacom). The numbers are staggering: as reported, Infinity could be hit with just under $1.5 Million in fines, if the Feds determine certain Stern bits aired on his 18 Infinity-owned facilities. Those bits would be the same ones which resulted in the Clear Channel liability, allegedly involving sex-related themes. Not helping Infinity's case is their refusal to ante-up on the $357,000 fine levied, due to the infamous Opie'n'Anthony/WNEW-FM/Sex-in-the-Cathedral bit, aired in 2002. Infinity head honcho Mel Karmazin still stands behind Howard Stern, as opposed to a growing number of affiliated General Managers, who are waning away from committing to contract renewals for Howie; questions can only arise as to what Stockholders may think of the whole affair, but believe-you-me, Viacom/Infinity/CBS/Westwood One DOES have the brain trust to pull it all off. Howard predicts a wider-reaching campaign against alternative expressions in overall-popular culture. AND FOR HIS PART: Howard's reply to the entire mess: from http://www.howardstern.com "This is not a surprise. This is a follow up to the McCarthy type 'witch hunt' of the administration and the activities of this group of presidential appointees in the FCC, led by 'Colin Powell Jr.' and his band of players. They and others (a senator from Kansas City to a congresswoman from New Mexico) are expressing and imposing their opinions and rights to tell us all who and what we may listen to and watch and how we should think about our lives. So this is not a surprise. It is pretty shocking that governmental interference into our rights and free speech takes place in the U.S. It's hard to reconcile this with the 'land of the free' and the 'home of the brave'. I'm sure what's next is the removal of 'dirty pictures' like the 20th century German exhibit in a New York City Museum and the erotic literature in our libraries; they too will fall into their category of 'evil' as well. Howard Stern, April 8th 2004" Now, this is a bit ironic in light of Howard's flirtation with Conservative politics over the past ten years. (You may recall his aborted run for the NY Governor's chair in 1994, and his subsequent open support of Republican Governor George Pataki.) AllAccess goes on to tell us that FCCommisioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein were all over themselves, proclaiming a new era of fines levied due to "a single utterance", rather than programs in their entirety. To me, it still seems like some Parents are dropping the ball, by not monitoring (or necessarily caring about) programs being heard by their kids --- therefore, the Government must police our choices and protect our thought processes. Meanwhile, Medicare is expected to run out of funds in 2019, and the blatant trashing of what used to be called "antitrust" has cost the jobs of thousands of folks, formerly employed gainfully in Broadcasting (as well as in many unrelated industries). Uh, Priorities, anyone?? SURELY NOT HERE TO HELP: --- and I sincerely wish I could recall when and where I heard this --- there exists legal opinion, which states that our blessed Freedom of Speech, as guaranteed by the US Constitution, does *not* apply to Broadcast media, per se, in ways it adheres to print. Reason being, under this theory: the Broadcast spectrum is by nature a limited (read: "finite") resource, whereas one can theoretically print billions of copies of the same script, limited only by supplies of Newsprint. THE BOTTOM LINE: is sinking. Nick Stewart's "Last Call" newsletter from Project 13 Media notes the Radio biz overall was hoping for a six-percent increase in ad revenues this year --- but that may all be kibboshed by the exponential increase in FCC indecency fines. The ones who will ultimately suffer are those employed in mid-level Broadcasting positions --- the production engineers, sales assistants, promotions workers and producers, among others, who comprise the backbone of an industry which really is a bit more complicated than it sounds to the consumer. ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE: comes our way from Australian correspondent Tony Magon: "The use of the F word - from memory here in OZ, the word now is quite able to be used on radio and TV and according to a judge here in Sydney about a year or so ago, you can even use the F word to the New South Wales cops as long as it is used in the right manner (whatever that means). I even heard on ABC National radio a year or two back --- a woman at a women`s forum saying that she was glad that she had a c**t (Edited by Update staff bluenoses). The Australian Broadcasting Corporation of course does not go through the same complaint hoops that the non government stations need to in (response to) complaints." TURNING ATTENTIONS: to the Digital world, CNET reports a letter written by the Consumers' Union and Public Knowledge, asks the FCC to reconsider a rumoured move to "flag" Digital radio broadcasts, similar to such moves being implemented regarding Digital TV. The apparent purpose of all, is to prevent home recording of program material. What this bodes, is further FCC attention to all such (potentially "indecent") content, which is mostly made available to the public by way of subscriptions. As we speak, the U.S. Senate is waiting to vote on Kansas Republican Sam Brownback's anti-indecency bill; at least one lawmaker has said he expects just such an amendment to be tacked onto the measure. This means we will easily see FCC scrutiny over the nude scenes and obscenities one observes (freely, so far) on services such as HBO and Showtime; of course this would also affect any similar content now heard over XM and Sirius Satellite Radio. A SAD STORY: from Memphis, of the apparently violent end to the young life of Rebecca Glahn, a.k.a. Madison, heard over WHBQ-FM/107.5. The 24 year old was found dead in her apartment in the wee hours of Monday (4/12), of strangulation. AllAccess is giving us updates: "MEMPHIS police have formally charged three suspects with the murder of WHBQ (Q107.5)/MEMPHIS air talent REBECCA GLAHN (aka MADISON). 23-year-old STANLEY ANDREWS is charged with First-Degree Murder in Perpetration of Rape and Aggravated Rape. Additionally, 27-year-old LONTRELL WILLIAMS and 19-year-old MARQUITA THOMAS have been charged with Accessory after the fact." - WHBQ-FM went silent in Rebecca's memory, all day Wednesday (4/14) until 6PM CDT; more information is available online at http://www.q1075.com ANOTHER PASSING: We must also acknowledge the death of Jazz-great DJ Chuck Niles, who passed away on March 15 at age 76, following a stroke. The Massachusetts native held court on the old KNOB/97.9 and KBCA-KKGO/105.1 during their Jazz years; for the past 12 or so, Chuck held the afternoon-drive position at Cal State Long Beach's KKJZ (formerly KLON)/88.1. I had one occasion to meet Chuck in the early '90s, and fondly remember every minute of our conversation. So, it appears God needed a Jazz DJ, and of course, he got the best! PUBLIC IMAGE: NPR is feeling and reeling from reaction to its move, bouncing Bob Edwards from "Morning Edition", eliminating his role as Chief Anchor --- which he's held for the entire 25-year life of the program. Sources say NPR has received nearly 30,000 e-mails protesting the affair. Reports indicate local NPR-affiliate execs are mixed about the move. From "The New York Times": "National Public Radio's decision to remove Bob Edwards as host of "Morning Edition" is part of a broader push by the network, at the urging of many of its local partners, to remain competitive in an increasingly demanding and crowded news marketplace, several public radio managers across the country say." WHILE IN THE PUBLIC-DOMAIN: A tip of the Update hat to KCLU/88.3 correspondent Brian Webb, for coming up with the most intelligent and concise questions by far, during NASA's March 27 press conference following the successful X-43 Scramjet flight above the Pacific. KCLU is the Cal Lutheran University NPR outlet in Ventura County, where one would not expect such high-caliber reporting; many of Brian's reports are also heard nationally over NPR. Perhaps you saw the event, televised live over NASA-Select, the agency's dedicated full-time Satellite/Cable service (available on many Time-Warner cable systems). I do expect great things in the future from this guy, in terms of space-based stories. Check out his website: http://www.spacearchive.info LAUGHS FROM THE LEFT: AirAmerica is on. The Air, that is. We here truly wish these well-meaning folk all the good luck in the world, simply (if for no other reason) to stick it to Rush, quite frankly. (The Update is roundly prejudiced against high-profile sanctimonioids who turn out to be pillheads; sorry.) A bit of Balance in Talkradio would certainly be nice as well, though AA may have inadvertently hurt the effort via non-ideological technical problems. I know of one example of Great Radio, thanks to AirAmerica, that I wish I'd heard: Randi Rhodes on-air deep-frying of spoiler-child Ralph Nader. I do know that he challenged her "interviewing" style; she replied quickly that she wasn't interviewing --- she was just PO'ed at the guy! He, uh, hung up. (No Heat, No Kitchen!) -- Latest is to expect AA to show up this month in the SF Bay Area in the 1400's: simulcast over KVTO/1400 in Berkeley, appropriately enough, and KVVN/1430 in San José; both will combine to adequately cover the entire Bay region. Their website boasts new affiliations in Key West, Colorado Springs, Sacramento and Portland (Maine [sic]), along with other locales. Meanwhile, as of Wednesday (4/14), AA is OFF the air at WNTD/950 Chicago, and KBLA/1580 in L.A. Indications point to some form of payment dispute, between AA and stations' owner Arthur Liu's Multicultural Broadcasting. AA is going to court, to try forcing a return, at least over the Chicago facility; in the interim both stations are relaying "Radio Formula" - in Spanish - from Mexico City. AND THEN THERE'S THE N.A.B.: Missing the point entirely, by filing papers with the FCC asking for a declaration against XM and Sirius Satellite Radio offering "local" programming services. Again, the local traffic and weather city-by-city services are available to ALL Nationwide subscribers --- hardly sounds "local" to me. And-again-most Broadcaster fears involved some evil plot by the two providers to *allegedly* offer local content via land-based repeater stations. Hello, NAB: THAT IS NOT BEING DONE, OR CONSIDERED by the Sat providers. "Radio World" relays this opinion: "Womble Carlyle attorney John Garziglia cautions broadcasters about running anti- satellite radio ads. If satellite radio should only run national programming, he says, the same argument could apply to local broadcasters --- that they should only run local programming. 'Which would mean no more voice-tracking,' he said. That's part of this whole undercurrent of the localism hearings, he said. 'The conclusion is stations should not be running one hour of public affairs programming on Sunday morning. Stations might be distraught at what the public thinks. Do they really want the flip side applied to them?' he asked." Good question indeed. Now, this from AllAccess: "A former FCC chief economist says satellite radio should be free to program locally. In an online commentary for Slate, Thomas Hazlett, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, says the commission should 'scrap its absurd rules for satellite radio.' 'So long as satellite radio omits community news, weather, traffic and sports, its march to financial success will be uphill,' he writes. 'Airing local programs nationwide' --- which the satellite services are beginning to do --- 'is a good start, but it's a remarkably inefficient solution because it soaks up precious channels - and satellite operators are allotted only so much bandwidth,' he writes. 'There are, after all, about 269 local radio markets. Squeezing an extra 15 or 20 channels onto the available bandwidth is one thing, but providing more slots for local news becomes very expensive very fast. 'What makes these inefficiencies particularly grating, though, is that existing technology and infrastructure would allow scores of cities to enjoy multiple full- time local news channels via satellite. This smarter way to distribute local content on satellite radio would employ the repeater stations already in use.' --- (which is exactly what XM and Sirius have promised not to do.) Hazlett argues that FCC regulations now serve mainly to spare incumbent broadcasters the effort of competing with satellite rivals. 'The notion that traditional broadcasters deliver idiosyncratic menus closely tailored to local audiences is a quaint one. Nationally syndicated content has become the order of the radio day, and satellite programming is, if anything, less cookie-cutter than its earth-bound analogs.' Ever-reliable AllAccess tells us Congress will save us all!: "Two members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Republican Chip Pickering of Mississippi and Democrat Gene Green of Texas, have introduced legislation that, if passed, would put into law what NAB has been hoping for in regards to satellite radio. The bill would more strictly enforce the licenses of satellite radio companies and protect local radio broadcasters, according to a joint press release from Pickering and Green. The "Local Emergency Radio Service Preservation Act" would clarify that digital satellite radio licensees could not insert local content into their network of terrestrial repeaters." Your Tax Dollars at work in the Dept. of Redundancy Dept. - "The satcasters (correctly, says Update) say they are a nationwide service and that they're including the local traffic/weather traffic channels with their other channels over their satellite systems so all subscribers, nationwide, receive all of those channels." THERE'S NOTHING LIKE A NEW SUIT: George Nicholaw has one, and it's not from Brooks Brothers. He calls it "age discrimination", and has filed it against KNX/1070. The 75 year old spent 36 years of his life guiding KNX into the powerhouse it is today, and was in fact responsible for the CBS outlet's switch to All-News, pretty-much on this day, April 15, 1968. I'm sure you'll recall that George was rather unceremoniously ousted from his long-time position last year, replaced by market-veteran Pat Duffy. PICK OF THE LETTER: A sweep of Don Barrett's |laradio.com| on April 14 brings forth the following morsels: First off, California researcher Mark Ramsey wrote an overall reply to the growing number of anti- satellite-radio spots that we've been hearing around the (conventional) dial. Most noteworthy is the final paragraph: "Radio is missing the boat altogether. Instead of investing our time ripping a new one for Satellite Radio we should be extolling our own considerable virtues, especially these: We're your home town team, we've been your friend all your life, entertaining you, informing you, and keeping you company wherever you go. And best of all, we have all the stuff you like and we're 100% free. Listeners will act according to what's in it for them, not what's in it for us. If we lie to them, if we try to sell them a bill of goods, they're more likely to tilt their ears skyward. Mark Ramsey, Mercury Radio Research". Well put indeed. Then comes this note relevant to Media worship of The 25-To-39-Year- Old-Mass-Consumer: "At the cineplexes, overall ticket sales continue to sag, but the film-going audience age 50 and older climbed 20% last year. Kids are being diverted from the darkened theatre to the Internet, videogames and cell phones. And the 50+ group is spending money at theatres while the target teen attendance dwindles." The question is asked: could Radio be far behind?? (Apparently so, but for no logical reason!) Then a relay of the following analysis of the FCC/Indecency flap, as offered by Clear Channel's resident-crazed-genius, Phil Hendry: ``Radio has allowed itself, because it is desperate to hang on to its licenses, to go down this slippery slope. The FCC attacked radio because it doesn`t have the money or the guts to take on television.`` Intriguing! - I remember hearing a couple of days of Phil's morning show on the old KWST/105.9 in 1978, during a vacation trip to L.A. His rabid intelligence was obvious, even then. NORTHWEST SWAP MEET: Stations are trading signals and identities in Portland (Oregon). First, KOTK/1080 (Talk) and KFXX/910 (Sports, "The Fan") swapped off in March; now KGDD/1010 (Daytimer with Spanish) and KZNY/1520 (Adult Standards) have traded dial-positions. The first swap represents the picking of nits: the 910 and 1080 facilities employ very similar directional patterns, sending everything West off the beautiful Oregon coast. The second swap is more dramatic, as KZNY sacrifices a fulltime 50,000 watt signal (though directional toward Alaska), for a marginal, 4400-watt daytime-only glorified-buzz [that explains why there can be eleven applicants for 50 kW on 1520 in the Seattle market; how nice of KZNY to possiblize this --- gh] Makes market-sense, though, as the past few years have seen the two receivable-Spanish signals in town (KWIP/880 near Salem, and KWBY/940 in Woodburn) have flirted with showings in the overall-market Arbitron books. This new Spanish blaster should clean up, ratings-wise, by the Fall book. IT'S JUST BETTER THERE: A few days sponging off relatives in the Phoenix area has proven what I've felt in my gut for 30+ years: the quality of programming (along with that of the Beef) is much higher, due to wider exploitations of playlist availabilities --- at least, when it comes to Classic Rock. Old FM hands KDKB/93.3, KUPD/97.9 and KSLX/100.7 are still offering surprises almost hourly from all sides of the Rock spectrum, between the three --- all of which are owned by Sandusky Broadcasting. (Perhaps a happily-accidental Good Product of deregulation?) Nowadays, they DO have competition. You've probably already heard about KCDX/103.1 in Florence (SE 'burb of Phoenix), which as I recall, is essentially the commercial-free avocation of a veteran-radio-guy- type, fed up with the usual crap-diet of *most* commercial music radio. I've heard everything from Bubble Puppy, to the Bay City Rollers, to Gary "US" Bonds, to Jethro Tull, to Tommy James, to Derek (remember THAT act, circa 1968?), and others --- in the past twelve hours, as we speak! The signal's a little iffy West of I-17, but it's worth bending the antenna for some variety! AND DOWN TO THE BORED-ER: |SDRadio.net| and the CGC Communicator report that the principals behind the new would-be AM border-blasters on 560 and 780 have turned in their FCC permits, which would've allowed broadcasts to originate on this side of the frontier. This may be purely financial in nature, with not an effect in the world on the technical aspects of the stations in question. XEPE/560 in Tecate and XESS/780, somewhere between Ensenada and Rosarito, allegedly, have in reality caused no more recent interference than anything else on the bloody dial (allowing for the possible exception of 560, and interference to original resident KBLU in Yuma). The document filed with the FCC admits that the tech-details were "not coordinated" with US officialdom, and asserts that an "alternate frequency" may be in store for XEPE. The catch is, the doc also portrays XEPE as transmitting on 550, which it has NOT since around Christmas. That "alternate frequency" insert may just be a legal tool to legitimize the station's move to 560, or at least, to attempt as such. The doc does mention hopes and plans to refile for such programming status in the future. In the middle of it all is San Diego's KURS/1040, which has gone from Spanish to English adult-standards programming, anchored by Imus in the Morning, and a local liberal-oriented talk show in PM Drive. Someone down there please set me straight: aren't all these players co-owned, along with KJOJ/1030 in San Luis Obispo? APRIL FUEL: Of course, a plethora of stations pulled their usual April Fool's pranks on the 1st; highest profile was that of Howard Stern, who was "replaced" for about an hour with a squeaky-clean offering of some sort. Most of the stuff around was run-of-the-mill: afternoon talent doing morning shows, Rock stations converting to Classic Country for a few hours, etc., etc. KZLA-FM/93.9 in L.A. had the spouses of the Peter Tilden Show's three principals on-air --- but formerly-staid-old-reliable KNX/1070 captured my own personal chuckle, with Tom Haule's extensive feature-length story on the preponderance of "DiHydrogen Oxide" in the environment, as heard in afternoon drive. Look it up. BATTER UP: The Atlanta Braves have caused a small quake in the Peach State, by signing up with Clear Channel outlets WGST/640 and WKLS/96 Rock for broadcast coverage. This ends a ten-year alliance with market-monster WSB/750. Conversely, Infinity station KMOX/1120 in St. Louis is now in its 50th consecutive season with the Cards, and sister KDKA/1020 in Pittsburgh goes into year #49 with the Pirates. (Part of my perverse childhood in the Southeast USA involved marveling at Harry Carey's finesse with the Cards, on KMOX's bombastic signal --- just had to reminisce!) It was in April 1924 that the first Cubs game aired on WGN/720 --- where you'll find them today. The L.A. Dodgers hold forth on KFWB/980, and KNX/1070 continues its weekend Talk programming, with nice-people Jeff Levy (on computers) and Melinda Lee (on food) --- but this means that during a good portion of the weekend, there IS no "all-News" available in the Nation's second- largest city. Hmmm... Until the next, Peace and Prosperity. – (GREG HARDISON, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UZBEKISTAN. Re 4-069: Hi Glenn, these are the real A-04 summer frequencies. 9545 kHz at 2030 and 2130 UT is very strong here, well ahead of DW co-channel. 73 wb http://ino.uzpak.uz/uzb/other_uzb/radio_broadcast_uzb.html Inglizcha (English), Nemischa (German), Xindcha (Hindi), Forscha (Persian), O'zbekcha (Uzbek), Xitoycha (Mandarin), Uyg'urcha (Uighur) (Wolfgang Büschel, DX LISTENING DIGEST) "Turkish influence in Uzbek"... - well, Uzbek is one of the Turk languages in Central Asia (others are e.g. Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen). Inglizcha = English, Nemischa = German, Urdu = Urdu, Xindcha = Hindi, Forscha = Farsi, O'zbekcha = Uzbek, Arabcha = Arabic, Turkcha = Turkish, Dari = Dari, Pushtu = Pashto, Xitoycha = Chinese (Mandarin), Uyg'urcha = Uyghur (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM [and non]. Re 4-069: ``And now I realize what it is: 9550 is a RHC frequency; could Cuba have resumed relaying Vietnam [at 2130], as well as Venezuela and China? Needs checking for strength here (gh)`` The schedule which appeared via Alokesh Gupta shows these transmissions via 9550, with 7220 as a parallel.... English 7220 9550 1600-1630 Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia English 7220 9550 2000-2030 Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia French 7220 9550 2100-2130 Africa, Middle East French 7220 9550 1630-1700 Africa, Middle East Mandarin 7220 9550 1100-1130, 1200-1230, 1300-1330, 2200-2230 Beijing, Far East Vietnamese 7220 9550 1500-1600 Africa, Middle East Frequency 7220 is registered 1100-1330, 1500-1700, 2030-2230 via VNI Sontay 27/290 deg, 100 kW, but I cannot find a registration for 9550. So Cuba could be being used - but would it cover all the target areas listed above? [Surely not --- gh] Or is it designed for reception in the Americas? The only registration I find for Canada is........ 6175 0100-0500 Sackville 212/268 deg 250 kW And while you are checking 9550, tune up a little to 9725 & 11630 at: English 9725 2030-2100 Southern Africa Spanish 11630 2130-2200 Africa, Middle East Spanish 9725 2130-2200 Southern Africa Vietnamese 9725 2300-2400 Southern Africa I have been trying to hear these services but have not done so as yet. There is QRM, but something should be audible. There is no registration for 9725 or 11630 at these times, but 9725 is used as registered at......... 9725 1700-1900 Moosbrunn 300 deg 100 kW 9725 1900-2030 Skelton 150 deg 250 kW And BTW, 9730 via registered VNI Sontay 320 deg 100 kW is being used instead of listed 11630 at 1600-2130. 73s and keep up the good work - it's appreciated (Noel Green, UK, April 17, DX LISTENING DIGESST) ** WALES [non]. Wales Radio International - extra frequency --- While listening to Wales Radio International's "Celtic Notes" programme this evening, they announced an additional frequency to Europe for their weekly 2030-2100 broadcast on Fridays. In addition to the usual 7325 kHz (from Rampisham) they are now also on 7150 kHz (from Moosbrunn, Austria). Both frequencies confirmed here in parallel, with considerably better reception on new 7150. So the full schedule is now: Fridays 2030-2100 on 7150au and 7325ra to Europe Saturdays 0200-0230 on 9795ra to Americas Saturdays 1230-1300 on 17745ra to Australia (ra=Rampisham, au=austria) 73s (Dave Kenny, April 16, BDXC-UK via DXLD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PUBLICATIONS ++++++++++++ LONG, MEDIUM & SHORT [Re 4-069:] ``The untimely death of Brian Oddy has resulted in one silver lining: the unreadable format of logs in Britain`s SW Magazine has died with him.`` I respectfully disagree. I thought the format was a refreshing departure from routine. Seeing as logs in a monthly magazine prepared several weeks (or even months) prior to publication are of limited (primarily archival) value anyway, I found Mr. Oddy's format interesting in that it was organized by metre band, station, then listener. A regular devotee to a station could scan the prose and find out, for example, that so-and-so in Surrey was hearing Radio Australia between this time and that time on this frequency. It seemed more personal, rather than a mechanistic computerized listing -- more sort of like DXLD in fact. :-) It was a more leisurely approach, less efficient and a bit eccentric to be sure, but refreshing to me all the same. I'll miss it -- and him (John Figliozzi, NY, DX LISTENING DIGEST) For that purpose, Country order would have been much handier (gh) SWLOG Found something better than the Fineware RLDB database: Hi All, The other day I posted a notice that Fineware was dropping its English Language Database at the end of the month and would also be dropping the RLDB database program come September (with no further support of it up till then). This has been my primary tool for searching the ILG, HFCC and Fineware Shortwave databases as well as the Whamlog AM and FM databases, all from one program. Well, I've found something that does the job even better and seems far more versatile and it too is "Freeware". Not only does it handle the ILG, HFCC, Fineware shortwave databases and create an updated "Whamlog" directly from the FCC AM station database, but it also handles the Primetime database, your "personal database (from your previous loggings), US Amateur Callsigns from the FCC database, Canadian Callsigns from the Canadian databases and the "Community Databases" from other users of the program as well as the NIMA Longwave Beacon Database. It also does Logging, greyline, maps showing location of transmitters and much more. Far more than I can list here. WHAT I LIKE IS YOU CAN ENTER A FREQUENCY in the logging form and it goes and searches all the applicable databases at once and displays the likely candidates of what you're hearing. If you select one of those it'll fill in the log form for you with things like callsign, language, location, etc (any of which you can edit). In that regard it's much quicker than using RLDB and searching each of the databases individually to find out the skinny on what you're listening to (as well as searching more sources). All databases can be downloaded directly off the Internet including the FCC Amateur callsign database etc. NOTE 1: Right now I AM NOT using this program for my logging, I'm still using B_Log as I like its quick simple interface and very easy report generator. But that may change after I've used this other one for awhile. NOTE 2: This is rather a formidable program to download and get running properly as it's about a 13MB or so download and requires the MS .NET Framework to be installed on your computer (a 35 MB download itself) as well as a couple other updates to the Windows system (Win98SE or above, NO Win95). If you've kept caught up on your Windows updates that should be no problem. I ran into one problem. I DID have the Windows Installer update installed on my computer, but my computer wouldn't recognize the unzipped .MSI installation package the program downloaded. Once I downloaded the latest "Installer" (Version 1.1) from MS the program unpacked and set up just fine. The program is called Shortwave Log (SWLog). It's slow to load and start on this 600 MHz Pentium 3 with 256 MB of RAM, but once it's started it does all it's tasks pretty quickly. See it at http://www.shortwavelog.com/ --- it won't cost you anything. I've only just scratched the surface of this program, it'll also do direct control of your receiver (if it's hooked to your receiver) and more. Right now I'm just using it as a database manager. 73 from the "Beaconeers Lair". (Phil, KO6BB, Atchley, DX begins at the noise floor! Merced, Central California, swl at qth.net via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ DX-TUNERS NEWSLETTER APRIL 2004 Dear Member, We will start sending this newsletter to you on a monthly basis. As of today we have 52 receivers on our ever growing network with many more on the way. Last newsletter was sent in the summer of 2003. Lots of new things have happened since then. Topics: * Promotion weekend * New DX-Tuner additions - we now have 52 receivers on the network. * New portal - The old web site has been replaced with a brand new portal. * New name - From now on we are called DX-Tuners! [ex java radio] * Win a brand new receiver on the portal. * Upgrade your Guest account for free. * Clean up of the user database . . . DX-Tuners April 2004 Editor Kelly Lindman http://www.dxtuners.com (via Sergei Sosedkin, swprograms via DXLD) POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ THE BPL FIGHT: SWL`S VS. BROADBAND OVER POWERLINES Shortwave listeners can complain to the FCC if a Broadband Over Powerline installation interferes with their reception, but there are some caveats. Amateur Radio Newsline`s Gary Pearce, KN4AQ, has the rest of the story: Progress Energy has made a concerted effort to move BPL signals out of the ham bands in their trial areas near Raleigh, North Carolina. But the systems, which are governed by FCC Part 15 and are prohibited from interfering with licensed services, are still radiating signals across much of the rest of the shortwave spectrum. That`s leading shortwave listeners to ask if they have ``standing`` to complain to the FCC, since they don`t have licenses themselves. The General Council Chris Imlay W3KD says they do, if the BPL signals are interfering with international shortwave broadcasts from other countries, but not if they are trying to listen to domestic shortwave broadcasters. Replying to an e-mail inquiry, Imlay adds that ``One does not have to be a licensee of a transmitter in order to receive harmful interference.`` ARRL Chief Executive Officer David Sumner K1ZZ noted that the US is a member of the International Telecommunications Union, whose Radio Regulations require member nations to protect HF communications from harmful interference. RR 15.12 reads, ``Administrations shall take all practicable and necessary steps to ensure that the operation of electrical apparatus or installations of any kind, including power and telecommunication distribution networks, do not cause harmful interference to a radiocommunication service operating in accordance with the provisions of these Regulations.`` Reporting for Newsline, this is Gary Pearce KN4AQ, in Raleigh, North Carolina. The bottom line: If you are trying to listen to Radio Netherlands and a Broadband Over Powerline installation covers the station up --- complain to the FCC (KN4AQ, ARNewsline via John Norfolk, DXLD) ###