DX LISTENING DIGEST 2-144, September 15, 2002 edited by Glenn Hauser, wghauser@hotmail.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 HTML version of this issue will be posted afterwards at http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldtd02.html For restrixions and searchable 2002 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 WORLD OF RADIO 1147: BROADCASTS ON WWCR: Wed 0930 9475 BROADCASTS ON RFPI: Mon 0030, 0630; Wed 0100, 0700 on 7445, 15038.7; webcasts also Sun 1830, Mon 1230, Wed 1300 ONDEMAND http://www.wrn.org/ondemand/worldofradio.html (DOWNLOAD) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1147.rm (STREAM) http://www.k4cc.net/wor1147.ram (SUMMARY) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1147.html UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIAL Dear Mr. Hauser, Just a line or two to let you know that I appreciate what you are doing to promote the continued enjoyment of shortwave broadcasting. Having heard my name mentioned several times on your "World of Radio" broadcasts... (Larry Baysinger, KY) ** AFGHANISTAN. 6100, Information R, Kandahar noted here during last week around 1530-1700 and from 2300 onwards, but only ``poor``. I am almost sure that they are off at 1800-2100, since there is no trace here (Vlad Titarev, Ukraine, DSWCI Sept 11 DX Window, Sept 13 via DXLD) ** AFGHANISTAN [non]. NORWAY 18940 Radio Afghanistan Kabul 1450 Sept 14 with news item in vernacular. Maghrib prayers at 1500 followed by women program. Good reception SIO 444 (Richard Lam, Singapore, Cumbre DX via DXLD) What are Maghrib prayers? Doesn`t that refer to N Africa? ** ALASKA [and non]. The German magazine Radio Journal provides lots of info about broadcasting here, and elsewhere via: http://www.radiojournal.de/start/php4 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BAHAMAS. DIOCESE OF NASSAU GRANTED BLANKET FM LICENSE TO CONSTRUCT INTER-ISLAND FM RADIO NETWORK Nassau, Sep 7, (CRA & CRU) ``The Government of the Bahamas has granted Archbishop L. Burke of the Diocese of Nassau, the island nation`s only diocese, a blanket radio license to construct an nationwide, inter- island Catholic FM radio network,`` Steve Gajdosik, president of the Catholic Radio Association announced today. ``The new license requires the diocese to contact the Bahamian Public Service Commission and notify them of the frequencies and locations on any new station located on all other islands or in all cities other than Nassau. The Catholic Radio Association of the United States and Queen of Peace Radio of Jacksonville, Florida, helped the bishop draw up the application and will help with construction of the stations. This is a big step,`` Mr. Gajdosik announced in the September issue of the CRA Newsletter. ``The Archbishop wants to build a station on any island which has more than 500 people. This means that he could have as many as 32 stations over the next several years. The stations will range from 100 watts to 5,000 watts in Nassau, Grand Bahama and the Abcos. Queen of Peace Radio will operate the stations on behalf of the Archdiocese and will utilize the services of the Catholic Radio Association in constructing the stations,`` he added. ``Ad majorem Dei gloriam!`` (``To the greater glory of God,`` the maxim of St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits). The Diocese of Nassau grew out of pioneer missionary work in the Bahamas carried on by the Benedictines from the 19th century. It comprises 29 parishes, has 31 priests, and there are 47,000 Catholics out of a population of 293,000, equal to 16%. A simple webpage can be seen at http://www.jampine.com/diocese/main.html The islands lie about 100 miles east of the U.S. State of Florida and extend south well into the Caribbean. There are 29 populated islands out of 700 that form the Bahamas, which was granted its independence in July 1973 by Great Britain. Nassau, the capital, has about 200,000 people and is the largest city. The nation is a member of the British Commonwealth and is distinguished by a stable, solidly democratic government and free society. The Bahamas boasts a 98% literacy rate and high life-expectancy rates as well. Tourism is the principal industry. The new FM station, with seat in Nassau, will be the first Catholic radio in the British West Indies. Two weeks ago, the Federal Communications Commission of the U.S. granted an LPFM license to a Catholic parish in the U.S. Virgin Isles (Catholic Radio Update Sept 16 via DXLD) ** BOUGAINVILLE. 3850, R. Free Bougainville, Aug 6, 1100-1103*, clear ID and interval signal heard at sign off. Much QRN and amateur QRM. (Roland Schulze, Philippines, DSWCI Sept 11 DX Window, Sept 13 via DXLD) But do they announce ``Radio Free Bougainville`` or ``Radio Independent Mekamui``? Their current mailing address is not known here (DSWCI Ed) ** BULGARIA. 9800, R. Varna verified with e-mail QSL on my reception May 12 with tape to make sure. V/S: Nataliya Gesheva, program manager. QTH: Radio Varna, 22, Blvd. Primorski, 9000 Varna, BULGARIA. Head office: tel.: +359 52/ 612 108, Publicity: tel./fax: +359 52/ 608 908, News: tel./fax: +359 52/ 608 910, Program: tel./fax: +359 52/ 608 911. Details are as follows: Radio Varna has been the first Bulgarian radio station started on Dec 9, 1934 on middle waves. It is now a regional station of the Bulgarian National Radio and it has the most modern technical equipment and studios in Bulgaria. Our new building is designed and constructed especially for the purposes of the Varna Radio station. Frequency Area FM 103,4 MHz Varna and the Northern Black Sea coast FM 88,5 MHz Burgas and the Southern Black Sea coast FM 88,7 MHz Dobrich, Golden Sands FM 88,9 MHz Provadiya SW 9,775 MHz transmission all over the world MW 981 kHz Black Sea coast and Southern Ukraine [N.B., clash Sawa, Cyprus, q.v.,moving to 990 --- gh] Here is the program and a list of the most interesting broadcasts of our station: ``Hello Sea!`` - an author broadcast of Zhoro Vasilev about the things in life - as they seem and as they are maybe not. Once a week on Sunday night a 4 hour-meeting on the waves of Radio Varna, Horizont, the programs of the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) all over the country and on the well-known hot tel. number: 052/ 602 802. 0000-0400 local time. `` At first cock-crow`` - a broadcast of the BNR transmitted every morning of one of the 7 programs of the BNR. On Monday ``At first cock-crow`` combines various creative materials by journalists of Radio Varna on important events of the week, usually on over regional subjects according to the public’s perception at 4-6 a.m. [local] The news bulletins of the Bulgarian National Radio are at 7.00, 12.00, 19.00 and 24.00. Radio Varna has news emissions every one hour from 6.00 to 20.00. Radio Varna transmits news bulletins at 10.00 and 18.00 (Masato Ishii, Shibata-shi, Japan, DSWCI Sept 11 DX Window, Sept 13 via DXLD) All times are local! (DSWCI Ed) ** CANADA. RADIO STATION PULLS CELINE SPOOF Arts NowMontreal - A Quebec radio station has stopped playing a Celine Dion parody after the singer's husband threatened to sue for copyright infringement.Station manager Luc Tremblay said Thursday that Montreal's CKMF would stop drop the song, a French-language parody of Dion's I'm Alive entitled A m'enarve (She Drives Me Nuts). The decision came after Dion's husband and manager, Rene Angelil, phoned the station Tuesday to complain. "He was not happy at the time and not relaxed," Tremblay said. "But he was very classy. He has a way of being angry that's very civilized." Angelil filed a formal legal notice of intention to sue Wednesday if the song was not pulled from the playlists of CKMF and eight other stations in the Radio Energie network. He also asked Tremblay to stop playing any of Dion's songs on the network. Tremblay turned down the request. "As long as listeners want to hear Celine Dion, we're going to play it," he said. For more arts news, listen to The Arts Report weekdays at 7:12 a.m., 8:12 a.m. and 5:55 p.m. on CBC Radio Two. Copyright 2002 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - All Rights Reserved (CBC News via Fred Waterer, DXLD) ** CHINA [non]. 5925 CLANDESTINE Falun Dafa Radio via Sitkunai, Lithuania 9/11 2122-2201* in Mandarin?. Talk and music noted with mention of "Falun Dafa" at 2148 and "Falun Gong". Several tentative IDs by female noted. Chinese jammer music at 2133 heard underneath , but didn't disrupt too badly. // 9945 on the other hand was a mess of jammer QRM. Fair (Scott R. Barbour Jr., NH, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) CLANDESTINE from RUSSIA to CHINA 6035 Falun Dafa station reported on this new frequency at 2100-2200 // 9945 (Hans Johnson, Sept 13, Cumbre DX via DXLD) By whom? ** COLOMBIA. Glenn, I may have contributed to a certain confusion here, but La Voz de tu Conciencia, 6010, ex-6060 and 6065, is not really a ``gospel huxter`` nor a ``gospel pirate``. Only limited portions of the total airtime are devoted to low-key talks centering on issues such as the youth, the family, the truth, war, peace and oppression, many of which are discussed in the light of Christ`s Sermon of the Mount, one of the major ``philosophical`` pieces of Christianity. The station is strictly non-denominational but decidedly Christian in scope, focusing on the present turmoil in Colombia and neighboring countries. All Colombian combatant forces do in fact listen to the broadcasts and appreciate them, and so the station has remained untouched despite its location in the midst of an area of intense armed strife (the Colombian ``llanos``) where at least one of the parties involved in the conflict, the guerrilla, has imposed a ban on all existing evangelical churches. You may gain a greater understanding of how it all started by reading Russel M. Stendal`s book ``Rescue the Captors``, first printed in 1984, ISBN 0-931221-01-3 (for the current paperback edition). Most of this book is a translation of ``Secuestro y Reconciliación``, which was written directly in Spanish by Stendal when captive with the guerrillas in 1983. This book was handed over to the guerrillas when Stendal was freed, and it has been circulating among them ever since (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, Sept 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** COSTA RICA. Radio For Peace International's Weekly Program Update for the week of 15 - 21 September 2002 =============================================================== Frequency Schedule: BAND FREQUENCY/MODE UTC/GMT TIME (frequencies/hours subject to change without notice) 40 meters: 7.445 MHz (AM): 0000 - 0800 19 meters: 15.040 MHz (AM): 2100 - 0500 13 meters: 21.815 MHz (USB): 1200 - 0200 (currently off the air) And streaming live on the Internet in MP3 at http://www.rfpi.org Note time changes. I notice that 1830 Sunday is now shown as a WOR time, so maybe it`s official, rather than a fill-in (gh, DXLD) ** CYPRUS. In an e-mail message to me Radio Sawa say that they are going to move from 981 kHz to 990 kHz from next Tuesday (Björn Fransson, island of Gotland, Sweden, Sept 15, hard-core-dx via DXLD) I wonder why? Must be rather drastic. MW antennas are engineered for a specific frequency; now they will have to chop some of it off for the right wavelength. Any QRM problems should have been anticipated! (gh, DXLD) Radio SAWA is continuing to violate international telecommunication agreements. The 500 kW transmitter in Cyprus has not been coordinated with the ITU (resp. the frequency authorities in the region as required by the ITU), the permitted power on 981 kHz is only 100 kW. Apparently the interference on 981 to stations in the region (like Greece, Bulgaria and Egypt) has been so severe that a new frequency had to be chosen. With the new 990 kHz the station is now "highjacking" a Lebanese frequency (coordinated in the Geneva Plan for a 100 kW transmitter at Amchit). (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, BDXC-UK via DXLD) This is also going to cause some mighttime trouble in West Wales with BBC Radio 5 Live on 990 (Ken Fletcher, 1530UTC=1630UTC+1, 15th September 2002, ibid.) ** DENMARK. Hello Glenn, A majority of the journalists at Danmarks Radio has confirmed the agreement for a new wage system. The journalists will resume work on Monday September 16th after then four weeks of strike. Danmarks TV 2 in the News 1700 UTC (14/9-2002) Best 73s (Ydun Ritz, Denmark, Sept 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ERITREA [non]. 6350, Voice of Peace & Democracy of Eritrea, Mek'elé, Tigray, Sep 4, 0328-0350*, Tigrinya announcer, talk and Horn of Africa songs. 32333. At *0355 the same transmitter opened with orchestral Horn of Africa music and from 0400 the ordinary news programme in Tigrinya from the official ``Voice of the Tigray Revolution`` in Ethiopia. 5500 was heard in parallel with a very faint signal just fading out (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI Sept 11 DX Window, Sept 13 via DXLD) ** FINLAND. 6170, Scandinavian Weekend R., Villat, Sep 7, 0800-0900, ``DJ Madman with ``Radio Roulette`` with interviews from the EDXC Conference of Bob Padula, Osman Erkan (Voice of Turkey), Andrew Janitschek (R. Free Asia) and yours truly. 24333 quickly deteriorating to 14232. QRM Croatia 6165 (QSA 2). Parallel 11720 was totally covered by the Voice of Arabs, Cairo. Later on, at 1240 6170 was heard with 25232 and 11720 better with 33333 fighting with Cairo. At 1625 SWR was heard with 22222 on 6170 under Deutsche Welle in English (QSA 4). The evening before at 2250 it was also heard on 5980 with 23222 squeezed between BBC WS 5975 (QSA 4) and R Liberty in Russian 5985 (QSA 5). (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI Sept 11 DX Window, Sept 13 via DXLD) ** FINLAND [non]. Långåminne: DXing UK from Finland: In spring 1990 Jari Sinisalo and Jukka Soini were researching maps to find the ideal location for listening to radio stations from the British Isles. They found a camping site, which became an instant success among Finnish DXers. During the first 12 years, over 230 DXpeditions have been held in Långåminne... http://www.dxing.info/dxpeditions/langaminne.dx (Mika Mäkeläinen, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. 4860, AIR Delhi has some problems at its transmitter in Kingsway. On Aug 28 at 1815-1930* I heard it in Urdu as usual with 44444. But it was also heard with weak, spurious signals in parallel on every 16.2 kHz away from 4860: on 4795.2, (4811.4 was covered by QRM, probably Yerevan), 4827.6, 4843.8 and 4876.2, 4892.4, 4908.6 and 4924.8 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI Sept 11 DX Window, Sept 13 via DXLD) ** INDONESIA. 3976.1, RRI Pontianak, Aug 1, 1130-1145, Bahasa Indonesia, ``Warta berita``, 45555. Weak spurious signals heard on 3876.2 and 4075.9 (Roland Schulze, Philippines, DSWCI Sept 11 DX Window, Sept 13 via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. From an Early Sputnik Diary of HAROLD A. ZAHL; Source: IRE Transactions on Military Electronics, April-July 1960, Pages 320-322 Summary: Like almost everyone else in the world, personnel of the U. S. Army Signal Research and Development Laboratory (USASRDL), Fort Monmouth, N. J. were caught by surprise when the U.S.S.R. successfully launched earth satellites in October and November, 1957. The narrative which follows portrays some of the happenings in our environment when the BEEP-BEEPS descended upon us. I should mention, however, that any humor the reader may see in the latter-day remarks which constitute this diary was certainly nonexistent during the long, dreary 40 days and 40 nights when, in the wilderness of outer space, we were "wrestling" with these electronic invaders. It is only in retrospect that we can now smile.... http://www.infoage.org/sputnik3.html (R390 mailing list via Phil Atchley, swl via DXLD) ** ISRAEL. A reminder that all the Kol Israel networks will be off the air for Yom Kipur --- between Sunday afternoon and Monday night Israel Time. According to Haaretz, the Kol Israel networks stop broadcasting around 3 PM Sunday to 8 PM Monday (Israel Time). The networks vary a bit. Israel changes to Standard time on Oct 6 (Daniel Rosenzweig, NY, Sept 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ISRAEL. ARUTZ 7 TO OPERATE TV STATION From RadioCarolineMailinglist@yahoogroups.com (This article appeared in yesterdays Yediot Achronot newspaper - here is a translation. By the way, you can see an article I wrote, that will appear in the next edition of Offshore Echoes, predicting this, as I recently visited the Arutz 7 " Internet TV " studios just outside of Tel-Aviv. Mike Brand) The owners of the pirate radio station Arutz 7, who identify with the right wing, are planning to start a new television station, whose broadcasts will originate from Europe, and will be picked up in Israel through satellite. According to the plan, the station will broadcast 24 hours a day in Hebrew and English. The programmes will include News, current affairs, Jewish History, and Torah ( Bible ). The estimated time that the station will come on the air is " within three months " Arutz 7 owner Yaacov Katz adds that the channel`s representatives are raising funds in Western Europe and the USA. Their target is 25 million shekels ($530,000 ), which is mainly for the infrastructure. Katz goes on, "Part of the money has already been raised from Jews in the past two weeks in England, Belgium and the USA." In the first few months the broadcasts will be prerecorded, and the changeover to live and daily news broadcasts will occur within 6 months. Arutz 7 announced that next month, special sales spots will open to sell the satellite dishes that can pick up the broadcasts. These dishes will cost 2000 shekels each (about $422). (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** KASHMIR [non]. PAKISTAN. For some years now, R. Pakistan, Islamabad (100 kW) has been heard at night on 4790.4 kHz with the Rawalpindi III program (Azad Kashmir) from *0042-0215* which was changed to *2342- 0115* when Pakistan introduced Summer time this spring. Furthermore the 10 kW Rawalpindi transmitter has been reported using 4790.0 from *0230-0430* and supposedly *0130-0330* during summer. But on Aug 10 and again Sep 2 I heard R. Pakistan on exactly 4790.0 with programs in Urdu and supposedly Kashmiri (clearly different from Urdu) at 0055 (tune in) with 44333 (which indicated 100 and not 10 kW) till fade out 0205 and without any shift in transmitter power. A shift from 100 to 10 kW would have been noticeable. It looks like the 100 kW Islamabad transmitter finally has been adjusted to its nominal frequency, and it has extended schedule which also covers the former schedule of the 10 kW Rawalpindi transmitter. Sep 2, 1700-1713* I heard R Pakistan, as scheduled with Urdu news, 1705 Call to Prayer, and 1710-1713 the usual ``Azad Kashmir`` martial song - and again the frequency was 4790.03 to be exact (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI Sept 11 DX Window, Sept 13 via DXLD) ** KOREA SOUTH [non]. 3480, Voice of National Salvation verified with QSL letter (but no data). I recently observed QSL information from that station. QTH: Grenier, Osawa 107, 40 Nando-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan. and NDFSK (National Democratic Front of South Korea) mission in Japan. NDFSK Mission in Pyongyang is QTH: Munsu-dong, Taedonggang District, Pyongyang, D.P.R.K. E-mail: ndfsk@campus.ne.jp Korean program: 2000-0100, 0300-0700, 1000-1700 on 1053, 3480, 4400, 4450, 4557 and 0000-1200 on 6100. English program: 0030-0100 on 1053, 3480, 4400, 4450, 4557 (Masato Ishii, Shibata-shi, Japan, DSWCI Sept 11 DX Window, Sept 13 via DXLD) ** KURDISTAN [non?]. 5902.05, Voice of Iraqi People, Iraqi Kurdistan, Sep 08 & 10, *0255-0425 (fade out), Arabic IDs by man: ``Huna sawt al- Shab al-Iraqi, idha`atu al-Hizb al-Shuju`i al-Iraq``, talk by woman about Iraq and Syria, song // 3903 which faded out first, 25232 (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI Sept 11 DX Window, Sept 13 via DXLD) ** KYRGYZSTAN. Hi Glenn, I assume the website of the Kyrgyz embassy in the USA is official enough to provide the official name forms for this country, see: http://www.kyrgyzstan.org The official name in English is KYRGYZ REPUBLIC (in Kyrgyz: "Kyrgyz Respublikasy", you see it in the state emblem), the alternative, short form in English is KYRGYZSTAN. You may compare these two forms with "Czech Republic" and "Czechia". The outdated English form "Kirgizia" was common in the times of the Soviet Union and is based on the Russian "Kirgiziya". Now the official Russian form as decreed by the Kyrgyz authorities is "Kyrgyzskaya respublika" (with the short form "Kyrgyzstan"), though in Russia you may find all three forms Kyrgyz respublika / Kyrgyzstan / Kirgiziya. Regarding the "Turk countries" (which do include Kyrgyzstan) you find a good overview for example on this website: http://www.ulkucuhareket.dk/ulkucuhareket/sayfalar/turkyurtlari/turkdunyasibag.htm 73s, (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, Sept 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBERIA. Report On the Founding Conference of the Liberian Leadership Forum http://allafrica.com/stories/200208300034.html The monopolization of short-wave radio transmission by President Taylor's radio station would come to an end, he suggested, if the decision to allow Radio Veritas to begin short-wave transmission were to be implemented. He stressed the need for the establishment of other short-wave broadcast facilities in view of the fact that radio is a more effective medium for empowering the citizenry in the Liberian context (via NASWA Flashsheet Sept 14 via DXLD) ** MONGOLIA. /INTERNET Voice of Mongolia is one of those stations that I have never been able to log on shortwave (only tentatively) --- not that I have spent a great deal of toil or sweat to do so…just one of those stations that has never left my want list. At the same time I have had a certain fascination with the country since I was a young lad and we learned about Genghis Khan in primary school. It is also one of those nations that are somewhat remote, obscure, unknown in this part of the world. I am intrigued by places like that…North Korea, Tibet, Saudi Arabia, Communist Albania, where very little is known about the country in the "outside world". I recently stumbled on to the Voice of Mongolia website and its really quite a nice one. As a somewhat novice internet surfer, I like it because it is simple, giving pertinent information without a lot of bells and whistles and razzmatazz. This could also describe the programming at the Voice of Mongolia, which I listened to in real audio (Monday, Wednesday and Friday programs are archived). I heard the most recent broadcast --- it opened with an interval signal (kind of cool sounding actually), ID in Mongolian and English. A woman, who anchored the entire show gave times and frequencies then straight into a very lengthy interview with a recently arrived (Australian) journalist who is going to work for Mongol Messenger one of three English newspapers in Mongolia. The journalist, a woman from Adelaide, was interesting in her own right, having seen a large part of the world. She has worked at a radio station in South Africa, in a region of the country where the nearest water was a km away, and as a teacher of English in China. The interviewer had a delightful, if unpolished presentation style. An interesting part of the website describes the personalities at Voice of Mongolia. "There are at present 5 staff at the English Section of The Voice Of Mongolia. They are: Ms. Oyunchimeg - editor-in-chief (responsible for everything, good or bad!); Ms. Bolor; Ms. Ariunzaya; Ms. Tomor; and Mr David O'Connor. These staff are all involved in every stage of programming, from identifying the story to the final broadcast! Mongolian names sometimes present difficulties to foreigners; Mongolians usually use one name (first name), which is often shortened with familiarity. So, Oyunchimeg is usually called Oyunaa in the office. The father's name, usually abbreviated and put first (e.g. Ch), distinguishes between people with the same name. The range of Mongolian names has until recent times been quite restricted, so there are many people with the same name - there are, for instance, two people called Bolor and three called Naraa in the station within calling distance of each other! But many countries of the world have a number of names, which are very common. As in many other countries, context means that confusion is rare. As is also common throughout the world, Mongolian names usually have meaning; so, Oyunchimeg means something like "turquoise decoration"; Bolor means "crystal". We have been improving and altering the style of broadcast to make our programmes much more 'listener friendly' than before. We are also hoping to upgrade equipment to make the programming more flexible and lively, to take the broadcaster out of the studio more and widen the scope of what we can bring to the listener. We can't run to live outside broadcasts yet, but we are bringing our surroundings to you as best we can! We operate on the principle that Mongolia is one of the most mysterious places in the world; but now that the country has embraced democracy, it is trying to be much more open to the rest of the world. Not everybody can manage to visit Mongolia, so The Voice Of Mongolia sets out to tell the world everything it can about this fascinating country - and maybe we can tempt you to come and visit us!" Music on the program consisted of one song after the lengthy interview, which would have been right at home on Much Music, MTV or BET -- sounding like one of the current groups (Destiny’s Child?) very soulful, 3 part female harmony, but in Mongolian. The program ended with another rock song I would describe as a cross between "Mongolian Elvis" and Tom Jones. A brief feature on the congress of foreign Mongol scholars being held in the capital was inserted between the two pieces. Give the website a look at http://mongol.net/vom/archive.htm (Fred Waterer, Programming Matters, Sept ODXA Listening In via DXLD) ** NICARAGUA. 5770, 0010-0050, R. Miskut, Sep 7. Very weak but some audio manages to get thru. First time heard in several months. Some RTTY interference. Sheryl Crow tune at 0016. Signal dropped a bit at 0018. Back up at 0020 with more US pop tunes. Male announcer at 0025 with brief statement and back to music. Tune at 0026 in Spanish and then male announcer again but much better audio. Full station ID with notice of FM station. at 0029. Station on and off several times during announcer statements at 0030. Back to music at 0033. S7 signal level now. Much better reception. Still going after 0045 (Bob Montgomery, PA, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) Still USB plus carrier? (gh, DXLD) ** PARAGUAY. Dear Mr Glenn Hauser: Greetings from Paraguay! To advise that we have modified our test transmissions. We are now transmitting on 7300 KHZ, beamed at 4 degrees, and on 7373 KHZ, beamed at 184 degrees. The antenna used with 4 degrees has a theoretical gain of 8,84 dBi. The antenna used with 184 degrees has a theoretical gain of 25 dBi. The power, in both cases, is 800 Watts. These tests continue, the 24 hours, all days. Your reception reports will be most welcome! With best regards. (Adán Mur, Technical Advisor, Radiodifusión América, Asunción, Paraguay ramerica@rieder.net.py Sept 14, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PHILIPPINES. Dear Glenn, Thanks for including my Pilipinas clip in your current WoR [1147]! Maybe you noticed that they still announce 12015 kHz which some time ago was replaced with 11885, which also had a good signal in Bangkok. Still sunshine in Copenhagen from a blue sky. No rain since early August, so everything is VERY dry. 73, (Erik Køie, Denmark, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, I did ** RUSSIA [non?]. September 15, +0323-0420+, 7416.5-7418.3v, Radio Krishnaloka in Russian (unknown site) poor to fair to almost good with some QRM from WBCQ + utility (CW, RTTY on 7421). According to http://www.harekrishna.ru/news/krishnaloka.shtml (unfortunately, in Russian only) Radio Krishnaloka has broadcast on SW from September 1st, 2002 on 7410 kHz at 0300-0500 and 1300-1500 UT on even days only. They have two postal addresses in Donetsk, Ukraine and in Moscow (ul. Avtozavodskaya, dom 6, kvartira 24 A) and one e-mail address as schyammohan@ukr.net (Mikhail Timofeyev, St. Petersburg, hard-core-dx via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. Hi friends, on my homepage http://www.eibi.de.vu/ you may now also find Reception report forms (with instructions) for RUSSIAN LANGUAGE. It is available both in WORD and PDF format. Furthermore there is a file to print Russian PPC cards, so that you'll get a detailed QSL. Shortwave schedule and German Fm list are there, as before, to your service. 73, (EiBi, hard-core-dx via DXLD) ** ST. HELENA. [HCDX] R. St. Helena need your help I just got a message from the new clerk at R. St. Helena (Claire) - she has got some returned QSL where the address was wrong or the recipient has moved. I would appreciate if you could help Claire by sending the corrections of the following peoples addresses: Dick Goose, 1 SWL G20985, UKRS 07101. This one was just an International Short Wave League card. Thomas Gollmer, Plaustr. 10, 04179 Leipzig (Neulindenau), GERMANY. This is a two page letter/reception report. Rainer G Berns, Ahornallee 46 A, D-14050 BERLIN, Deutschlamand/ Germany/Allemagne. This is a two page Letter/Reception report. Richard Bonney, 916 W. Main St., Festus, MO 63028, USA. E-mail: RICKJAYNE9@AOL.com. This is a three page Letter/reception report. Richard Bradley, 178 Merrimack Street, Methuen, MA 01844, USA. This is a front/back reception report. Paul Biggin, Kirkham, Lancs, England. This is a general letter confirming he heard the transmission. Cliff Cardwell, 1809 Carrier Place, Grand Prairie, Texas 75050, USA. This is a three page letter/reception report. B Cooley, 4210 Morris Drive, Victoria, B.C., Canada V8X 4G8, This is a two page letter/reception report. [see below] Hans Fred, Hultakullav.57, S-43791 Lindome, SWEDEN. This is a Reception report page George Baitzel, 1082 Shallcross Lake Road, Middletown, DE 19709 USA. Just a letter/reception report Please send the corrections direct to Claire at radio.sthelena@helanta.sh Thanks for your assistance! By the way - The Station Manager during decades and responsible for the worldwide broadcasts - Mr. Tony Leo - will now retire next week - don't know who the new Station Manager will be (John Ekwall, Sweden, Sept 13, hard-core-dx via DXLD) As I already E-mailed RSH, B. Cooley, unfortunately, deceased a couple years ago. No doubt he would have enjoyed a timely reply (gh, DXLD) ** SRI LANKA. Wj8712P EWE oriented S (Typical subcontinental direction at local dawn is SSW, not the expected NW for India/Pakistan/Sri Lanka -- this has been noted numerous times in coastal DXing at Grayland) 4902, SLBC (National Service) 1322-1421 Sept 15, Subcont music followed by M and F announcers. At 1335-1339, seemed parallel with weaker 4870 with M and F in local language. 4902 clearly the better of the two frequencies. After Top of hour tentative ID continued with subcont music. Best of the start of this tropical season at 13,630 km transmitter to receiver [how are you measuring that if not great circle???? -- gh] 4870, SLBC (National Service) 1332-1348 M and F in local language. Poor levels, right at the noise floor. At 1335-1349, M and F seemed to be in parallel with 4902, but difficult to tell. By 1341 into subcont music not parallel to 4902 (Don Nelson, OR, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWEDEN. 6095, R. Sweden. This spurious signal (6065 + 30) reported in DX-Window no. 202 was audible daily until Sep 2, *1544-1625* while the carrier from R. Polonia was on; Swedish news ``Dagens Eko`` was heard very clear (35444) and // 6065 (55555), 13580 (35434), 17485 (35444) and MW 1179 (55555). The modulation on 6065 could be seen on the S-meter, to a greater extent than on 6065 - like DAM, Dynamic AM. At 1559-1625* R. Polonia had its broadcast in Czech or Slovak with R Sweden modulated weakly underneath. It disappeared 1625 while R Sweden on 6065 continued. Also heard weakly under R. Polonia in Polish on 6035 (6065 – 30) at 1545-1625*. During own, modulated programs R. Polonia frequencies were disturbed by a terrible noise. Engineers from Swedish TERACOM confirmed that there are only three SW transmitters in Hörby and that R Sweden does not use a relay abroad for this broadcast. On Sep 3 & 4 R. Sweden was no longer heard on 6095 or 6035 and the Polish carrier on 6095 first signed on at 1558:30, so obviously some correction has been made at one or both transmitters (Erik Køie and Anker Petersen, Denmarks, DSWCI Sept 11 DX Window, Sept 13 via DXLD) ** THAILAND. Tried 6765 reported by Padula under LAOS on Sep 10 at 1200 UT and heard Bangkok Meteorological Radio broadcasting from Thailand. It is operated by the Meteorological department and uses 10 kW. It broadcasts maritime weather information for regional shipping routes. The station uses a melodious music box interlude. Also on 8743 USB parallel (Richard Lam, Singapore, Sept 10, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** TIBET [and non]. 7385, Voice of Holy Tibet, Xizang PBS, Lhasa, Tibet, via Xi`an, Shaanxi (50 kW -- but sounds like 500 kW! Ed), Sep 3 & 4, Tibetan service until 1630, then the new programme in English until 1650*. ID and talks about the protection of wild animals in Tibetan valleys. Tibetan music. 45444. The program was heard with more poor quality in parallel on all other scheduled frequencies of the Tibetan Service: 4905 (25222), 5240 (23232), 6110 (25232), 6130 (35333), 6200 (21311) and 9490 (21221). 1649 Short closing announcement in Tibetan and close down. But the carrier continued until 1700* with test tones 7 seconds + 7 seconds pause, and so on from 1655 (Erik Køie & Anker Petersen, Denmarks, DSWCI Sept 11 DX Window, Sept 13 via DXLD) So is 7385 the only frequency for this sited outside Tibet? (gh, DXLD) ** TINIAN [and non]. While searching for a different subject, I came across a portion of an article by you concerning the delay between RFA broadcasts. All RFA broadcasts are from the same source, POR @180 degrees lon. [I suppose that refers to some satellite directly over the dateline? Ah, IBB lingo for Pacific Ocean Relay, as opposed to AOR, right?] We intentionally insert delay at the site between separate (frequency) broadcasts of the same program. At times, we have six 500 kW and two 250 kW transmitters on the air; we have to be careful of power surges on the local power grid. You can imagine what would (and has in the past) happen if all eight transmitters lost modulation (the music stops, the announcer is quiet) at the same time. Hope that clears up an old question. [Later:] Glenn, That is correct. I am not sure of the correct name of the satellite, but back in my old TV days here, it was one of the PanAmSat series. We receive our programing in Scientific-Atlanta PowerVu digital format and a T1 stream as backup. Our other backup is from AsiaSat a bird at 121 degrees. Interestingly enough, this bird failed to go into geosync orbit, was hauled back by the shuttle, sold by the insurance company to Communist China and put back in its present orbit. So, we get programming to broadcast to Communist China via a Chinese satellite. Go figure! Also, this programming includes RFA (80%), VOA (19%), Radio Austrailia (1%) for a total of 135 broadcast hours per day. This does not include the 37 Bhrs/day from Saipan. There is a photo of the Tinian site on my webpage: http://www.tourtinian.homestead.com it is at the end of the WWII section http://www.tourtinian.homestead.com/WWII.html (Larry Brewster, Boeing Service Co., Robert E. Kamosa Transmitting Station - Tinian, Sept 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** TURKMENISTAN. 4930, Türkmen R HS 2, Asgabat, Sundays Aug 25 and Sep 8, 2105-2300*, Turkmen announcements, operatic concert, 2258 ID and national hymn by choir. 35444. Different programme on HS 1 on 5015. It had signed on again as scheduled upon recheck 0108. HS 2 is scheduled 0100-2100. Further checks will show, if the expanded night broadcast is daily (Anker Petersen, Denmark, DSWCI Sept 11 DX Window, Sept 13 via DXLD) ** U S A. RELIGIOUS AND PUBLIC STATIONS BATTLE FOR SHARE OF RADIO DIAL From http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/15/national/15RADI.html?ex=1032753600&en=cdb8f7be2358d96b&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVER By BLAINE HARDEN LAKE CHARLES, La., Sept. 13 - The Rev. Don Wildmon, founding chairman of a mushrooming network of Christian radio stations, does not like National Public Radio. "He detests the news that the public gets through NPR and believes it is slanted from a distinctly liberal and secular perspective," said Patrick Vaughn, general counsel for Mr. Wildmon's American Family Radio. Here in Lake Charles, American Family Radio has silenced what its boss detests. It knocked two NPR affiliate stations off the local airwaves last year, transforming this southwest Louisiana community of 95,000 people into the most populous place in the country where "All Things Considered" cannot be heard. In place of that program - and "Morning Edition," "Car Talk" and a local Cajun program called "Bonjour Louisiana" - listeners now find "Home School Heartbeat," "The Phyllis Schlafly Report" and the conservative evangelical musings of Mr. Wildmon, whose network broadcasts from Tupelo, Miss. The Christian stations routed NPR in Lake Charles under a federal law that allows noncommercial broadcasters with licenses for full-power stations to push out those with weaker signals - the equivalent of the varsity team kicking the freshmen out of the gym. This is happening all over the country. The losers are so-called translator stations, low-budget operations that retransmit the signals of bigger, distant stations. The Federal Communications Commission considers them squatters on the far left side of the FM dial, and anyone who is granted a full-power license can legally run them out of town. Religious broadcasters have done this to public radio stations in Oregon and Indiana, too, and many large-market public radio stations, like WBEZ in Chicago, complain that new noncommercial stations, most of them religious, are stepping on the signal at the edge of their transmission areas. Stations are scrambling for these frequencies at a time of rapid growth in the national NPR audience and even faster growth in religious networks like American Family Radio. It owns 194 stations, has 18 affiliates and has applications for hundreds more pending with the F.C.C. "The noncommercial band is getting very, very crowded, and there just is not a lot of room for new stations in desirable areas," said Robert Unmacht, a Nashville-based radio consultant. "The competition is fierce, and the Reverend Wildmon is especially hard-nosed. His people are very good at what they do." Public radio is belatedly fighting back. Last year, a national nonprofit organization was set up to fend off the new hardball competition. Called Public Radio Capital, it raises money through tax- exempt bonds to help local public stations end their reliance on translators and buy full-power stations. Public Radio Capital, created with seed money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a federally financed agency, has since helped public radio stations in Chicago, Denver, Nashville and Tacoma, Wash., to outbid their competition. In Tacoma, the organization bought a noncommercial FM station from a local technical college for $5 million. Money to operate the station will come from major public stations in the area. "Until recently, public radio had been completely dependent on local initiative to protect its signal and acquire new stations," said Marc Hand, the managing director of Public Radio Capital, which is based in Denver. "A lot of times, local radio is not aware of how to compete. We are stepping in when we can to help." For many of NPR's 273 member organizations, the legal and administrative costs of competing against religious broadcasters are sponging up millions of dollars that they might otherwise spend on news and other local programming. "It is, like, nuts," said Torey Malatia, general manager of WBEZ, which has the country's third-largest public-radio audience. "Starting about four years ago we realized that if we didn't learn how to fight back, our coverage area would effectively shrink by a million people." As NPR itself acknowledges, religious broadcasters are often far better prepared for the radio wars. "They have employed a long-term strategy, where we have failed to do that," said Dana Davis Rehm, vice president for member and program services at NPR in Washington. The two public radio stations heard in Lake Charles, for example, were caught napping as American Family Radio maneuvered over several years to bump them off the air. Those college-based public stations, one in nearby Lafayette, La., and the other just across the Louisiana border in Beaumont, Tex., could have applied for F.C.C. licenses granting them the right to build and operate full-power stations in Lake Charles. Instead, like many public radio stations, they chose to operate on the cheap, using translators. Translator-based stations have given American Family Radio the opening it needs to grab space on the noncommercial FM dial between 88.1 and 91.9 megahertz. As early as 1997, the network filed applications with the F.C.C., declaring its intention to build two full-powered stations that would step on the two translator-based public radio signals in Lake Charles. But KRVS in Lafayette and KVLU in Beaumont did not react and apply for full-power stations of their own. "NPR people should really be embarrassed," said Mr. Vaughn, the lawyer for American Family Radio. "They knew for years that we had applied, and they didn't do anything about it. NPR people were drawing money out of the community in the form of pledge support, but they didn't bother to apply for a full-power station. It is not our fault." Religious broadcasters are snapping up most noncommercial stations when they come on the market. In the first two quarters of 2002, there were 14 sales of noncommercial stations. Of those, public radio groups bought only two. Competition between religious and public radio stations is not always acrimonious. Competitors have amicably divided a contested frequency in some cases by agreeing to use directional antennas that limit interference. Here in Lake Charles, local rage at the loss of all access to NPR has fueled a yearlong effort to bring back public radio. "What Wildmon has done to the public broadcasting band is try to eat it all," said Robert W. McGill, 74, an NPR devotee and a retired chemist. Mr. Wildmon, who became well known in the 1970's when he led national campaigns against sex and violence on television, declined to be interviewed. Mr. Vaughn, the general counsel for American Family Radio, acknowledged that the network was aware that its two new stations would be "blocking out" public radio in Lake Charles. But, he added, "We were in no way targeting it." Like many religious networks, American Family Radio has little local content; its stations rely instead on satellite feeds from the home office in Tupelo. Radio industry analysts agree that public stations usually carry more local news and offer programs more closely tied to the communities they serve. More than a year after American Family Radio went on the air here, its two stations (one carries what it calls Christian contemporary programming, the other what it calls traditional gospel) have just one local employee. Elizabeth Arrington, 21, the station manager, works in a remodeled house on the edge of town. Its broadcast studio is an empty room, although Mrs. Arrington said radio equipment would arrive soon. In all likelihood, before American Family Radio gets around to local broadcasts in Lake Charles, public radio will be back on the air here. A $309,000 antenna, nearing completion about 30 miles west of town, will let people here pick up KRVS, the NPR affiliate in Lafayette. Sixty percent of the money for the antenna came from a Commerce Department grant. The rest came from the city and parish governments, as well as from private local contributions. The primary local mover in raising money was Carolyn Woosley, a financial planner and playwright. "We lost access to a treasure that we all pay for with our tax dollars, and we got mad," Ms. Woosley said. "We decided you don't have to like NPR in this town, but you are going to have to make room for it." (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** U S A. Commentary --- A SHAFT OF SUNLIGHT IN A CLOUDY DAY Classical music returned to Miami on Sunday, September 15th. There are two large issues operative here. || The first issue is the sorry decline of classical music on American airwaves. Classical station after station has changed formats and gone the way of mass appeal programming. Even public radio stations, which once offered a valuable service in making the great music of all ages and lands available to the public, are now pretty much news and information outlets. But there has been a break in the clouds, a small one, and a shaft of sunlight has appeared. What has happened this week is that Spanish Broadcasting converted its time-brokered WKAT 1360 AM (5,000/1,000 watts) to all classical music after doing a market survey. Miami had lost its classical music several years ago when the owner sold WTMI 93.1 FM to Cox Communications for $100 million. Public protests caused Cox to keep it classical, but it could not sell enough air time to pay the notes, according to published reports, and not long ago it abandoned the fine arts for mass junk. WKAT saw a real need and a real profitable enterprise. After all, under its original owner, WTMI was doing very well as a classical station, with healthy ratings and pulling in $3 million a year in ad revenues. Not all goes so well, however. In San Diego, long-time classical music KFSD was sold and the format changed; a Class A station there on 92.1 FM picked up the format for several years, but it, too, gave it up. Then it was picked up by a local station in the north county on 1450 AM, dropped, and then resumed. In Dallas, historic WRR 101.1 FM, owned by the City of Dallas and operated commercially is being ``studied.`` The city has realized that, given the astronomical values of radio properties in general, and FM ones in particular, the station is worth $80 million. It has put together a ``blue ribbon panel`` to ``study`` the matter. There is no doubt that WRR will be sold and the call and classical music format moved to a lesser signal, in which the Dallas-Fort Worth ``metroplex`` abounds. The blue ribbon panel is window-dressing; the deal is done, despite protests from listeners and the media. The same thing happened a year or so ago in Albuquerque to historic KHFM 96.3 FM. Put on the air by a hi-fi shop owner in the 1950`s, it ran classical and nothing but classical from the day it went on the air. Sold to a conglomerate, they convinced another group owner that they should pick up the music on their lesser-signalled 95.5 FM frequency, so that more pop culture (a contradiction in terms?) could be run with equivalent 100,000 watts ERP off 11,600-ft high Sandia Crest on 96.3 FM. Kansas City lost its classical KXTR 96.5 three or four years ago; first the music was moved to mono 1250 AM and then into the expanded band, on 1640 AM, I believe [1660 --- audible here but hardly hifi -- gh]. In Denver, KVOD 99.5 FM was sold and the classical music scrapped until KCFR public radio stepped in and with a bond issue bought the old Catholic Family Radio affiliate KKYD 1340 AM, moved its KCFR news and information programming to 1340 AM and went all classical music on its existing FM. There have been other losses over the last 10 years: historic WFLN 95.7 FM in Philadelphia (since 1947), historic WNIB 97.1 FM Chicago, KOIN-FM 101.1 FM Portland (replaced by a public radio station), KHEP 101.5 FM Phoenix, KMFM 96.1 FM San Antonio (also replaced by a public station), and the lamented WQRS 105.1 FM Detroit. Recently, classical music was moved to weaker stations in Milwaukee and Cleveland. But in other cities, such as Miami, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, and Detroit, the public radio stations are locked into other programming and show no interest in classical music, and consequently there is no full-time classical music station. || The second issue: The previous owner of historic WTMI labored under the impression that the venue for such ``niche programming`` in the future lay with audiostreaming on the Internet. He founded the ``Beethoven.com`` website and continues to audiostream. This is being idealistic, to say the least. Anyone who has listened to audiostreaming music knows that the quality, tone, and noise levels vary considerably as the system tries to find new routes or has to cope with varying bandwidth. (Let it be said, to prevent people from writing me, that I already have digital hookup.) But the thought was, technology would improve and all would eventually be well. Wrong. If anything, the Internet is even more congested and the quality no better. But something worse developed. The recording industry and the societies of performers, composers, and musicians felt that they were not getting enough royalties. If an organization broadcast over the airwaves and the Internet, then that should constitute two separate performances, and the industries and the societies and their members were entitled to extra royalties. (Old-timers like me will realize that this is a new, modernized dispute of the musicians` union against broadcasters 60 years ago; a music program broadcast simultaneously over AM and FM affiliates was in fact a broadcast over two different stations, they said, and they were entitled to extra royalties.) They went to court, got one of the many legislative-minded federal judges to agree with them, and demanded the Librarian of Congress (who is named by the Copyright Act to determine such matters) to require higher royalty payments for each single performance for each single Internet listener. Further, there were restrictions that the Internet audiostreamers could not track an album through or announce a song in advance (``Rotting Corpse coming up in five with their latest hit wonder!``), because these would promote CD burning by listeners (``piracy``) and cut into compact disc sales. Further, the Internet audiostreamers, independent and broadcaster, needed to write down in detail every single track by name, the performers, the name of the disc, and so on, and forward these records. Since then, most Internet only radio stations, other than those that deal with talk, have shut down completely, and most regular broadcast stations that also audiostreamed have shut down their audiostreaming rather than pay the exorbitant fees mandated by law through the Librarian. Ironically, AOL had just announced its ``radio`` services available over the new AOL 7.0 when this happened. Yahoo closed down its audiostreaming, I am told, but I have not verified that. Upshot: Another great ``promise`` of the wonders of cyber-technology shot down. Little classical music left on the Internet, at least from U.S. sources. So, we have little classical music left on FM in most cities, even little on public radio stations. We have little classical music on the Internet. ``You have no culture in the United States,`` a Latin American professional wrote me lately. During the Japanese economic boom, that nation was sending thousands of their people to study over here. Time magazine reported at the time that one of its reporters was told by a Japanese executive, ``We are coming here not to study your culture, because you don`t have any, but your business world.`` When WTMI dropped classical music, a Colombian woman told a Spanish daily there, El Nuevo Herald, ``This is incredible in a city of this size not to have a classical music station. In Bogotá we have eight, and we are supposed to be a backward nation.`` It is not true that we have no culture. In classical music alone we have given the world Ferdinand Grofé, George Geshwin, Howard Hanson, Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, and Leonard Bernstein; in poetry we have given the world Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Carl Sandburg; our writers are first-class (``Your writers are your glory,`` a British professor told us): Mark Twain, William Faulkner, Edgar Allan Poe, Willa Cather, among many others. American painters, particularly the early Hudson River and naturalist schools, are finally getting international recognition. It is not that the United States has no culture. It`s just that we export garbage. The global village does not know we have art, nor do we Americans as a group know any of our art, let alone appreciate it. Five decades of ``relevance`` in our education system, from kindergarten through university, have relegated the arts to the cellar, out of sight and out of the minds of our young. No wonder a garbage culture fills it. No wonder the rest of the world thinks we are barbarians. George Bernard Shaw once described his native England as ``a nation of shopkeepers.`` Our society is a nation of salesmen and technicians. But there is hope. Miami now has classical music; a retired broadcaster who made $40 million in selling his stations is trying to put a noncommercial classical FM station on the air in Indianapolis. Perhaps the conglomerates, of which the top dozen own about 25% of the radio stations in this country, and probably nearly 90% of the major market ones, will begin to have some since of social responsibility and dedicate one of their stations to classical music and the fine arts in communities that don`t have them, and still make money. Maybe. Am I wrong in thinking so? Am I wrong in seeing a growing wave of disgust with the crudity and obscenity and the vapidness of our popular culture? Perhaps the next generation will wash their hands of the mess the Baby-Boomers and the Gen-Xers have made of our culture and replace it with the better. Maybe (Michael Dorner, editor, Sept 16 Catholic Radio Update, Sept 14 via DXLD) ** U S A. FUNDING LOSS SILENCES LYRIC OPERA ON WFMT September 13, 2002, BY ROBERT FEDER, SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST The fat lady has sung: For the first time in 30 years, Lyric Opera of Chicago's opening-night performances won't be airing on WFMT-FM (98.7) --- or anywhere else on radio. With little more than a week to go before the start of their 48th season, Lyric officials announced Thursday that they and WFMT had failed to secure funding to cover broadcast production costs. So if you don't have a ticket for the Sept. 21 opening of Bruno Bartoletti conducting the double bill of "Pagliacci" and "Cavalleria Rusticana," you're out of luck. Principal sponsors of the broadcasts in past seasons had been two financially troubled airlines, United and American, both of which withdrew their support this year. Total cost for the eight opening-night broadcasts each season was $400,000, of which about 75 percent covered talent fees for singers, orchestra, chorus and backstage personnel. It's a huge blow to Chicago's only classical music station, which has aired opening-night performances of all Lyric productions live since 1973, and has syndicated those broadcasts internationally via its WFMT Fine Arts Network since 1977. William Mason, general director of Lyric Opera, expressed "tremendous regret" in announcing the radio cancellation. "These broadcasts have brought grand opera to millions and millions of listeners through the years, and we have always considered them one of our most important outreach activities," he said. "We hope we can find a way to resume them in the future." Dan Schmidt, president and chief executive of WFMT's parent company, Window to the World Communications, cited "uncertain economic times" for the move and vowed to pursue future funding. Under virtually identical circumstances last year, WFMT dropped its broadcasts of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. (Robert Feder, Chicago Sun-Times via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. ARCHIVAL AUDIO REPLACES LIVE BROADCAST STREAMING -- FOR NOW The recent court case prompted by the music sharing websites such as Napster has resulted in a legal ruling that Internet audio providers must pay royalties on a "per listener, per song" basis retroactive to October 1998. Consequently, KXMS has curtailed its live broadcast streaming until such time as a more workable royalty payment plan may be established. In response to this regrettable loss, 88.7KXMS will do its best to compensate by providing archival audio of non-copyrighted materials at http://www.kxms.org If and when alternative measurements and fee structures are put in place, KXMS will resume streaming audio of its broadcast signal (KXMS website dated Sept 12 via DXLD) A pity; no archives found yet (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. NAMES & FACES -- NPR TO DROP NNAMDI SHOW Saturday, September 14, 2002; Page C03 "Public Interest," the weekday talk show hosted by Kojo Nnamdi, will be cut from the National Public Radio lineup at the end of this month. "There were just many, many local stations out there starting to produce their own shows in the talk format, and we didn't see the potential for Kojo's growth," said NPR spokeswoman Jessamyn Sarmiento. The general-interest talk show will remain on local affiliate WAMU (88.5 FM), where it is produced. The program actually gained stations -- from 35 to 37 -- in the past year, according to NPR. "NPR apparently has a plan and obviously it is their absolute right to proceed with their plan, so we at WAMU will proceed with our own plan," Nnamdi told us. "We expect that our listeners in the Washington region won't be going anyplace." Nnamdi added that he and WAMU are creating a new show, "an hour that in our view will make global issues local and make local issues global." (Washington Post Sept 14 via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. WAXP 105.5 Paterson, NY and Danbury, CT is stunting with goofy electronic music repeated in a loop. They claim that new and interesting things will be revealed at 1:05 pm Monday. They were an oldies station. My guess is that they are dropping local content for a format from Dallas or somewhere. I remember wanting to listen to radio. I live in America's #1 market with probably over a hundred available stations. I have a hard time figuring out what to do with more than one or two car radio buttons. As the Grinch once said: Oh the noise! The noise! (Karl N2KZ Zuk, Goldens Bridge, NY, Sept 15, amfmtvdx via DXLD) ** U S A. From NPR's Sonic Memorial Project, a nice reminiscence about NYC's Radio Row, which was bulldozed to make way for the World Trade Center: http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/atc/20020603.atc.06.ram (Al Quaglieri, Sept 15, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. DesMoinesBroadcasting dot com is reporting that WHO-1040 is using their stand-by, short, tower while technicians are 'analyzing and repairing' their famed 780' Franklin antenna. Their signal will probably be down for about 6-7 weeks.(Bill Hale in Fort Worth, NRC-AM via DXLD) I heard information that this change will not take place until Monday 9/16. So, if in the next couple of days it appears that WHO's signal hasn't changed, you might want to try again after the 16th. 73 (Bill Dvorak, Madison WI, ibid.) ** U S A. Did you actually hear the WLW IBOC tests? I could clearly hear the white noise and digital "whine" from WLW all the way out here on just a CC Radio with the internal loopstick. There will clearly be serious compatibility problems with IBOC and analog AM signals on conventional receivers. I hate to think of what the AM band will sound like on an analog receiver with most stations running IBOC. If IBOC is widely adopted, you're going to also have digital interference from WLW on 700 to contend with. The IBOC artifacts are more broadband than conventional AM splash. Nulling and phasing are still options, but getting rid of QRM will become several magnitudes more difficult. It will have as serious an impact on the hobby as the rapid growth of new AM stations and night operation on previous clear channel stations did in the early and mid-1980s; it will do more than make certain receptions more difficult --- it will make them impossible. The one saving grace is that IBOC is currently planned as a daytime- only service, but I expect eventually it would be permitted around the clock. There will be some interesting new IBOC skywave DX. I'm curious if IBOC signals via skywave will have the abrupt "drop out" HDTV signals have when the received signal drops below a certain level. But the net effect of widespread adoption of IBOC on DXing will be negative (Harry Helms AK6C, Ridgecrest, CA DM15, NRC-AM via DXLD) Mention was made of shortwave and the Digital Radio Mondiale system. I don't know what kind of havoc that will cause to adjacent-channel SW reception, but if it does what IBOC seems to do from the tests I've heard on WLW etc., it ain't gonna be good. However... for what it's worth, the audio clips of DRM tests vs. the same transmissions in double-sideband analog AM, on their website http://www.drm.org/system/globstandard.htm --- click on "DRM Audio Samples" at the top of the screen --- are pretty danged impressive in and of themselves (Randy Stewart, Springfield MO, ibid.) There's supposed to be demos of AM and FM IBOC going on during the NAB Radio Show in Seattle (Sept 12-14). The stations with IBOC are said to be KIXI (880) and KBKS (106.1), but I have no idea whether the transmissions are full-time or just occasional. At any rate, you folks in the PNW should check it out and see what you can hear... (Barry McLarnon, Ont., Sept 13, ibid.) Thanks Barry. Well I tuned over to 880-KIXI and they are indeed using IBOC. 890 is a full of white noise as you said. KIXI is about S9 here and the white noise is S7. However there is very little white noise on 870 for some reason. It is still there but much weaker. I am about 150 miles from the KIXI site here. They aren't that strong. No where near what KIRO or KOMO is. This noise is pretty bad, all right, but it can be nulled to a point. I don't notice the white noise on 880 though, but 890 & 870. KFLD-870-Pasco WA is OK on 870 although the noise is under them much weaker than the noise on 890. [Later:] Attention NW DXers: Check out the QRN generated from the IBOC test on KIXI-880-Seattle WA this weekend. At 150 miles off my Eastern Beverage, KIXI-880 is S9 and the white noise on 890 is S7! Terrible to say the least. The noise is somewhat weaker on 870 though, as I can hear KFLD-Pasco, but the white noise is indeed behind KFLD too. If an S9 signal from KIXI-880 can cause as much noise on 890, this will also affect AM DXing overseas. The US stations are heard quite strong overseas. Even something with S5 would create a heck of a lot of QRN on nearby channels for DXers in Europe of Australia/New Zealand. No doubt about that. If adopted it is really going to make the AM band unlistenable in regular analog. I don't know how much it will affect DX if you have an IBOC receiver (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, Sept 13, ibid.) It's simply politics as usual for the NAB and FCC. What's interesting is that the NAB effectively squashed LPFM because of interference issues, yet the same NAB is willing to overlook catastrophic interference issues with IBOC. It's all about the money (Bruce Conti - Nashua NH, ibid.) IBOC will not just help AM; it will help radio. Radio is, as a medium, 80 years old. The "digital" label is hip. The data stream that is what IBOC is based on permits a whole array of other services, including interactive. If they finally fix the algorithm, talk sounds much more "presency" in IBOC. Remember, there is not much AM talk listening of any kind under age 35; the younger talkers like KLSX are on FM. Plus, this will allow some AMs to be used for niche music formats that can not be justified today. To younger people, AM is totally unhip, useless, dead, etc. In LA, I have put a music format on AM in anticipation of IBOC. I hope it comes soon, as I can't wait much longer with the present looser technology. I also changed an AM in El Paso, and am working on two more AM music stations that would benefit a lot form IBOC. There is 100% backing of the IBOC standard, starting at the FCC. AM stereo died in the period of years when the FCC wasted the window of opportunity for AMs to remain viable music stations. And, initially, the technology sucked... platform motion, lack of promotion, near-zero interest by car manufacturers. Not so IBOC. But the big deal is the digital stream, which can carry all kinds of additional data... and become a new revenue source. And they can say "digital" which is the killer buzz word of today in audio (David Gleason, CA, ibid.) David; What about the terrible sideband noise IBOC creates? It is downright terrible. This could very easily put an end to stations covering their fringe areas with all of the noise IBOC generates. How about the agreements we have with Mexico and Canada who are not adopting IBOC? With the noise I heard, this will interfere very much with Canadian and Mexican stations serving their fringe areas. I get S9 from KIXI and the noise was at S7. That is one heck of a noise source. This IBOC might be well and fine for some, but I don't feel the average "Joe" really cares about IBOC and will be willing to run out and buy a new radio. On a side note, what about DXing with IBOC? Will it be possible? Of course this will prety much put an end to TP/TA DXing for the most part if IBOC is adopted widely. There is no way a flea power signal will be able to overpower the noise. 73s, (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) I heard the WLW tests. I heard it. It`s miserable on an analog receiver. On the outside its a beautiful gleaming silver platter and cover but when you open it up, IBAC is still a reeking crap sandwich. No matter how you dress it up, analog receivers are screwed to the hilt. On an analog receiver, IBAC is craptacular. When people hear it, they are going to howl to the high heavens. Digital radio belongs on the L band. The problem is not hipness in the word digital. The problem is the lack of hipness in the programming. If the programming sucks to high heaven, then no one wants to listen. I don't care how many buzz words and slogans you throw at people if they hear IBAC and it sounds like WLW`s test did, then they are going to be really ...uh ...exercised. I suppose that`s a good way to describe it. Putting current programming with restrictive play lists on in digital is like that silver platter I mentioned above. Until the corporate people understand this, its gonna get worse and IBAC is no help at all. Get hip programming and not slogans and buzzwords. Slogans and buzzwords cost money when it comes to replacing working radios. When people realize that this is going to cost them money, they are going to be quite unhappy. Sorry, we ain't buying into it. Digital radio might be a good thing but it needed to be treated as FM was in the early days when it was put on a new band. Once that happened then AM BCB could slowly be closed out. The FCC has already acquiesced to you corporates so there`s probably no use in worrying about it and just put the money aside to replace your radios (Kevin Redding, AZ, ibid.) Kevin, the various people I work for are hardly "corporate" in the Clear Channel mold. One has 55 stations, a number of which are two and three signals knit together to create one stations; we are barely above the 20/20 rule of 1990. Another company I am with has 15 stations, several including stand alone AMs in markets of under 25 thousand. Another owns exactly 2 stations. And, Kevin, if you knew me you would know I was anything but corporate, having built stations of my own years ago that introduced never-heard formats in a variety of markets. Frankly, the "corporate" comment is amazingly offensive to me, since I have been an independent, often against-the-current programmer and manager all my career. The problem, Kevin, is that you are reacting to a real problem radio has from the perspective of a DXer, and there are not enough of us left to fill the lifeboats on the Titanic. We all believe that IBOC will help radio survive into the digital era and will bring new potential, like interactive shopping, TiVo-like program recall (get in the car and hear the most recent traffic report, even if you missed it). All is possible with IBOC. As to the sideband stuff, Clear Channel's DOE suggested to reduce the digital signal by 6 db more; this they believe will resolve the major issues coming from the WLW test. By the way, the support for IBOC is coming from broadcasters of all size stations and markets. They want to be digital. In general, no one cares about fringe AM coverage. The two FCC commissioners just about said as much in a public forum on Friday; they believe they have a duty to help AM. So any fix that takes care of the NRSC objections will get by the commission, also. Mexico's AMs are pretty much in death throes, too, except for a few big market talkers. I don't think that the Mexican government will care; Canada is trying to get everyone off AM anyway and maybe this will be a way to push this even harder. Again, IBOC will be driven by all the stuff the data stream can do besides push out programming. There were 30-some million new cars sold in the last 5 years; that is 30 million radios, too. Just the car issue will make IBOC successful as it will make money for the car manufacturers. This is not about programming alone, it is about touch screen radio dials that can produce additional data, replay the last traffic report, print an coupon for something you hear on the radio. And, it is digital, the word that sells today. I think the FM side will produce an initial feeding frenzy, partly because radio believes in IBOC and they did not believe in AM stereo, which sucked anyhow. Again, there are more people working at the AMs in Idaho than all the DXers in the country; there is a big incentive to try anything that will revitalize interest in AM, as even the talk will eventually move to FM as it is getting older demos on AM. As an aside, I spent most of NAB trying to finance a radio station in a smaller market based on my belief that I can be the first with IBOC and attract a lot of attention to programming by use of all the bells and whistles. This means I am staking my life savings and going about $5 million in debt based on a belief in the system. Now, if the owner gets a bit closer to my offer. At the just concluded NAB, discussions in the general sessions, including the one with several FCC commissioners, included statements that no one wanted to "repeat the fiasco of AM stereo" and this statement was met with loud, loud applause. Finally AM folks are going to have to get rid of one of the things that held AM from developing many other alternatives in the last 2 decades... the belief that FM stereo would do something. There are many manufacturers preparing IBOC radios right now; I saw production models form Ford. We may see the first 6-market roll-out in early 2003. My guess is that, outside of X- band, there is maybe a 2-3% usage of AM stereo any more. The Mexican stations are turning it off now, and the last one in Argentina that I know of was killed early this year. No, Kevin. I am being realistic. Radio is an old technology that has to do something new to change its perception in a digital era. And IBOC is the best bet yet. It's "IBOC" (for In Band On Carrier) and not IBAC. As to Am, no one gives a crap about fringe coverage of smaller AMs. Licencees just want to be able to compete in today's multimedia market. And some AMs will go away. I am thinking of Palm Springs as an example. Not one of the AMs covers the entire market day or night, and the market is only 300 thousand. The facilities all suck so badly, they all deserve to go away; this kind of market will become all-FM eventually. Maybe IBOC will hasten this as IBOC that you can't hear is not really useful; another market that comes to mind is the "Northeast Michigan" market; not one AM covers even half the market. Or Orlando... maybe 2 decent signals. IBOC will bring about change, and I think many marginal AMs may disappear when even religion and ethnic no longer work. But 80 years is a good lifespan for a technology (David Gleason, ibid.) My feelings are much the same. Who would think the powers that be would make something so terrible to pretty much kill MW DXing in this country. Unless they do something about all the sideband noise, AM DX is doomed. You can phase and all or that, but when you find several stations on the same frequency all using IBOC and you are trying to hear a TP or TA station 2 kHz away, forget it. I guess if this is adopted in the present form, I will have to move back to Alaska or maybe take up Tropical Band DXing. I doubt DRM will end up on those frequencies. The question still comes to mind, can you DX with IBOC, but even if you can, big deal. The TP/DU DX will be gone. Maybe the Western side of Kauai, anyone? David; These so called small stations are not going away without one heck of a fight!! Mark my words, this is going to end up in the courts. You can't just tell some small station that has been operating for years on analog AM, "Too bad, your useful time is over, go away" Bull on that. If I had a station, I would visit an lawyer very quickly. The small stations do count. For us in small towns, the little station helps us with emergencies, entertainment, and all. I am very tired of hearing, the only thing that counts are the big boys in the cities. It is time they find out that the little guys will not put up with this. As they say, it ain't over until the fat lady sings". I normally stay out of these type things, but when I find my hobby I have had for well over 40 years is getting wiped out by some money and greed that isn't going to do one darn thing for AM radio, it burns me up. I am not alone either. 73s, (Patrick Martin, ibid.) I think these stations will disappear as better facilities on channel buy them to expand coverage. There are too many inferior signals that don't even cover markets today. I am not suggesting they will be sacrificed, just that they will find it a better return on investment to sell and go silent than to look for some kind of format that can be done on a limited coverage AM. For example, most Spanish was on AM. Now, Hispanics reject AM more than non-Hispanics (true in Mexico, too). So many Spanish AMs in larger markets are either changing or on their last legs (1380 in NY: 4 formats in a year and no numbers). LA has lost 1430, 900 and may lose more. Miami just lost Spanish on 1360. My point is that the option on bad AMs is either to sell to vacate the dial or to consolidate among themselves. A 500 watt daytimer in Pittsburgh has no hope of surviving or making money with any format; it should be sold so someone in another market can improve coverage to compensate for higher noise levels today and the growth of cities beyond coverage patterns. After being responsible for a batch of AMs for many years now, and finally giving up, I see some hope on the IBOC front because I think certain music formats, unviable on FM due to cost of the stick, would work with 35+ listeners on AM where the listeners don't have a preconception about AM that is so vile that they would never listen. The problems and glitches will get worked out. But Dxing may not be the same. Unfortunately, there are not many of us world-wide and skywave reception is truly not worth protecting as a public serving function (David Gleason, ibid.) A 500w daytimer in Pittsburgh may not be a moneymaker. You might remember and article in Radio World about a small station in a suburb of Chicago that is Polish. I think the calls are WPNA. They make money serving a small niche of the population. I am sure they never make the ratings, but they sell plenty of time. So the small ma and pa stations do have a spot. Maybe they do not have the 25K to go IBOC or maybe they don't even care. The Poles in the area I am sure are not going to go right out and buy a new radio anyway. Is this station less important than WGN or WLS in those Poles eyes, they would feel WPNA would be the most important station in their area. Money and greed seem to run this country in so many ways. It is very unfair. Hopefully they can clean up the glitches in IBOC and we can all live in peace, but it sure does not sound like it at the moment. 73s, Patrick Martin Truth be told, they could care less about DXers. Just because you can hear a station (even consistently at good strength) doesn't mean it is officially regarded as providing "service" to your area. ``Unless they do something about all the sideband noise, AM DX is doomed.`` We've said that about power increases on the local channels. (from 100 watts to 250/100 to 250/250 to 1000/250 to 1000/1000...) We've said that about directional antennas. We've said it about the proliferation of 24/7 stations, and about the death of the silent period. And we've said it about the breakup of the clear channels. Low-power TV was going to kill off TV DXing. Yet I see plenty of people DXing, and if I recall properly NRC membership is pretty much steady. Certainly, the hobby changes. DX no longer means listening to TAs in the Midwest on simple equipment. It no longer means hearing 500-watters in Oregon on the East Coast on a table radio. Instead, we're monitoring "cheaters" on high-school football night; tracking the new stations on the expanded-band; and experimenting with new and highly-effective antenna and radio designs. Besides, we *could* be adopting the European/ Canadian Eureka system - and ending up with all radio on UHF! (IMHO Eureka is a better system which is being ignored for political reasons. However, any such system that doesn't operate on a station's existing frequency certainly *would* destroy medium-wave DXing!) AM DX will survive digital (Doug Smith, TN, ibid.) Doug; I have been spoiled I guess and I don't give up on things easily. I don't care to DX a station 100 miles away for a call change as some do. I am sure Bruce and Mark do not want to give up their TA DX. Although the signal from TAs are much stronger than most of the TP/DU DX. Yes, AM DX will still be around is some form, but this is a very very drastic change. Much more than the graveyarders boosting power or a station going 24/7. Those problems you can get around. But powerful sideband noise covering up the dial is going to be darn tough to get around even if it is possible. I don't mean to be doom and gloom, but after hearing the KIXI test, is sure doesn't look good. If we did have the Eureka system, the US band would be vacated and we woiuld then have foreign stations once again like we once had. Latins all over the dial. They would not be buried by US stations. Of course no one cares about the DXer. We are about as useful as a wind up phonograph. There are not enough of us to count. 73s, (Patrick Martin, ibid.) http://www.nab.org/scitech/amibocevaluationreport04062002.pdf Take a look at the spectrum plot on p. 15. You'll see that the "IBAC" monicker is even more appropriate for AM IBOC. Nearly all of the digital power is in the "primary" sidebands at 10-15 kHz from the carrier frequency. The nominal power in each primary sideband is 16 db below the analog power, and Clear Channel is proposing to reduce this to 22 dB. Overall, the digital power is -12.4 dB wrt to the analog signal (before the proposed power reduction). Apparently they were trying both digital power levels during the WLW tests last month. I did not observe any significant difference in the adjacent channel effects - WOR was wiped out anytime the digital sidebands were on. It's hard to believe that the WLW CE thinks that the power reduction solves any problems, especially where nighttime IBOC operation is concerned. It's also worth noting that there is dissension in the ranks: ABC has lined up with CC in supporting the 6 dB digital power reduction, but most other broadcasters are against it, due to the impact on digital coverage (which is already fairly anemic compared to the analog coverage when the full digital power is used). (Barry McLarnon, Ont., ibid.) Boy, the debate on IBOC is sure getting interesting. I'm afraid that David Gleason has hit the whole thing right on the head, like it or not. Us DXers are going to have to realize that our hobby, as we know it, is doomed to go away sooner or later. Perhaps sooner than we realize. We are kind of in the position of the "horse and buggy" users who were gradually pushed literally right off the road. We do not have enough numbers to make a difference and I think David is right about that. My feeling is that we had better enjoy our hobby while we still have it and then when the new stuff comes along find ways to use it. If we have to build satellite dishes instead of beverages to DX with than so be it! I hate to see the end of an era but I can see it out there and it is getting closer! And as the technology improves I'll bet that the digital artifacts will not be an issue and that a new kind of DXing Digital might come into being. Nothing stays the same and those that realize it and adapt will be better off for it. Now having said that I'll turn on my flame filters and brace myself (Chuck Boehnke, Keaau, Hawaii, ibid.) I Bleed Over Channels ]:> (Powell E. Way III, ibid.) I call it In-Band Adjacent Channel, IBAC (Kevin Redding, AZ; all part of a thread on NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. BROADCAST POWER HELD BY TOO FEW, CRITICS SAY By Taha Ebrahimi, Seattle Times staff reporter The National Association of Broadcasters, meeting in Seattle this week, is drawing fire from groups condemning what they see as a corporate takeover of the public airwaves.... http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=134535546&zsection_id=268448406&slug=nab14&date=20020914 (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. FCC'S REVIEW OF OWNERSHIP RULES HAS RADIO INDUSTRY, CRITICS ALL ABUZZ Saturday, September 14, 2002 By BILL VIRGIN, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER The Federal Communications Commission's decision Thursday to open a sweeping review of ownership rules for radio and television stations was echoing loudly yesterday in the meeting rooms of the radio industry's convention in Seattle and on the streets outside. While radio executives, two FCC commissioners and demonstrators outside the National Association of Broadcasters annual radio show agreed on the contentiousness of the ownership issue, there was little agreement on what the commission will do, much less what should be done. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps called consolidation and ownership regulation second only to homeland security in importance for the agency. "At stake is how this industry is going to look in the next generation," he said. "We need to get it right." The commission ordered a review, to be completed by spring, of six major rule groups: cross-ownership of newspapers and radio stations in the same market; limits on the number of stations that can be owned in one market; owning more than one TV network; the amount of a TV audience a broadcaster can control nationally through local stations; owning radio and TV stations in the same market; and owning multiple TV stations in one market. FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy said the rules review will study whether they continue to advance the goals of diversity, competition and local content, and whether the rules "drive up costs for broadcasters without delivering benefits." Copps said deregulation of the radio industry in the 1990s did deliver some benefits to broadcasters since it "kept some of you in business and kept some stations from going dark." But a question now looming for the commission is whether consolidation produced any benefits for the public. Copps said he is hearing bipartisan concern from members of Congress about the effects of consolidation, and public interest in the issue is growing. The FCC has ordered a series of studies into the question of whether consolidation increased or reduced choices and local content. Said Copps: "We don't know." But a number of critics say they do know, and that the answer is that consolidation has hurt listeners and consumers. A coalition of groups under the umbrella name of Reclaim the Media has been having a shadow convention this week on the consolidation issue, and held demonstrations outside the Washington State Convention and Trade Center yesterday. Critics of earlier rounds of deregulation say consolidation concentrates too much power in the hands of a few , and reduces local content and diversity of opinions and musical styles on the airwaves. The prime target of their wrath is Clear Channel Communications, the nation's largest radio station group (which recently purchased Seattle-based Ackerley Group). "We don't want Clear Channel to own newspapers and we don't want Clear Channel to own more stations," said Hannah Sassaman with the Philadelphia-based Prometheus Radio Project, one of those protesting outside the convention center yesterday. Sassaman said it's unlikely that large groups would be forced to divest stations, but she said those unhappy with the consolidation trend want to make sure there's no further deregulation and that public access to the airwaves is maintained. NAB President Edward Fritts said the association supports the elimination of rules banning same-market ownership of newspapers and broadcast properties. As for rules on ownership of stations in a single market, "I'd be surprised if they loosened the regulation on radio any further," he said, adding that the NAB wants to make sure the FCC doesn't roll back previous deregulation moves. During a panel discussion of top radio company executives, Entercom Communications Corp. President David Field called consolidation "a completely false issue." He said other business and media are far more uniform and concentrated and less local than radio, but "we're the guys getting bashed for having cookie-cutter 'formats.' " Consolidation has been "absolutely good for the listener," added Mark Mays, Clear Channel's president. "There are more formats than there would be without consolidation." The other major issue at the radio convention this week had to do with two men far away from the convention site, who in fact aren't working in radio at the moment: nationally syndicated shock jocks Opie & Anthony, who were fired after a stunt in which two listeners allegedly had sex at St. Patrick's Cathedral while the show broadcast a description of what was going on. That has reignited the debate over the trend toward ever more crude material on radio, and where broadcasters should draw the line between what is indecent and what is objectionable to some. The Opie & Anthony mess was mentioned in at least three of the day's major presentations, and Copps warned broadcasters that the public is getting "sick and tired" of what appears to be the industry's race to the bottom in what is allowed on the air. "I really wonder if there is a bottom," he said. Copps urged broadcasters to adopt voluntary codes of conduct. (via Mike Terry, DXLD) ** U S A. I couldn't sleep so was tuning around the dial around 0630 UTC and stumbled upon Art Bell and his gang on 3830 LSB. They were talking antennas and it was very interesting but what made it more fun is that there was some drunk guy interjection and swearing at them every couple minutes. It was so good I recorded it! I couldn't find any pirate activity but this was a close 2nd! (Adam Christian Smith, Pacific Northwest USA SWL -- WA7005SWL, Sept 15, ShortWaveRadio yahoogroup via DXLD) ** U S A. Spectrum seems to be back with new shows, UT Sun Sept 15 on WWCR, not at 0300 but 0305 after WWCR filled with TSSB and part of BHOTR. Started with Harold Ort plugging P`pc`m features in Oct issue, 20th anniversary, and Dave Marthouse is back doing features (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WJIE, 7490, has gone missing again, as of sometime on Sept 13; not heard day or night into Sept 15 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A [and non]. R. Free Asia told EDXP that it has donated 1000 radio receivers to women's groups in Cambodia, including a monastery, for broadening of the audience base for the Khmer broadcasts. New arrangements are also being explored for further enhancement of the Khmer coverage using alternative technology. RFA has just recently set up phone-in shows in Mandarin, Tibetan, and Khmer. The Mandarin and Tibetan shows originate from studios in Washington, with Khmer coming out of studios in Phnom Penh. These are all tape-delayed; the Mandarin show has resulted in about three callers per day, Tibetan and Khmer one caller each per day. RFA stressed to EDXP that due to political sensitivities it is unable to indicate transmitter sites on its QSLs, or in its public Internet or printed schedules. Reception reports are welcomed and will be acknowledged with a QSL letter, schedule and sticker. QSL cards are being considered. Current program languages are Burmese, Cantonese, Khmer, Korean, Laotian, Mandarin, the Wu dialect, Vietnamese, Tibetan, and Uighur. RFA produces a monthly printed publication titled ``RFA Reports``, giving highlights from its broadcast services (Bob Padula in EDXP Aug 31, via DSWCI Sept 11 DX Window, Sept 13 via DXLD) ** U S A. R. Sawa: see CYPRUS! ** URUGUAY. 6010, Emisora Ciudad de Montevideo, Sep 8, 1523-1532, program about the Carnaval. Interview of a member of IMM (Intendencia Municipal de Montevideo). Local ads: Gomería Walcar, La Favorita, Confitería La Ópera, etc. Complete ID by male at 1532 as: ``En su receptor, CX42, Emisora Ciudad de Montevideo, Uruguay, transmitiendo en 1370 kilohertz. La frecuencia, que se sintoniza con mayor frecuencia``. 35543 (Arnaldo Slaen listening in a rural zone near San Antonio de Areco, at 112 kilometres north of Buenos Aires, DSWCI Sept 11 DX Window, Sept 13 via DXLD) ** VIETNAM. 6380.3, R. Lai Chau, Lai Chau, Aug 6, 2300-2400, ID in local dialect, hill tribe music, but their evening broadcast was not heard at 1315. 24432. 6497, Cao Bang, Aug 6, 1315-1400*, Vietnamese and dialects, folkmusic, IDs, transmitter problems. 35532. 6665.3, Lào Cai, Aug 6, 1255-1335, Hill tribe music, interval signal, national anthem, ID by woman, talks. Transmitter problems with spurious signal also heard on 5443. 35433 (Roland Schulze, Philippines, DSWCI Sept 11 DX Window, Sept 13 via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Dear Glenn, I picked up the following broadcast yesterday evening. Could WOR readers help with its identification? thanks 3355 kHz 1950 UT : unidentified station - Language sounded like Russian - SIO 233 (Patrick VIGNOUD, near Chambery, French Alps, JRD 545 DSP with Wellbrook ALA-100 loop antenna, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See DXLD 2-142 under BELARUS Zapper: 0001-0006, 13-Sep; 4375-4395, 4525-4545, 4775-4795, 4805-4825, 4895-4915 (Harold Frodge, MI, Cumbredx via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED 18990: September 14, 1230 UTC: Heard two stations operating on 15 meters, one was VOA using 19010 kHz in Uzbek and was part of a long mix of VOA and RL services to Central Asia which started recently; the other was on 18990 and it was heard in an undetermined language, and another station was underneath it...does the 18990 outlet have an IBB connection or is it from another country? Reception was good on both frequencies using the Sony ICF-SW7600G connected with an AN-LP1 active loop antenna, monitored in an open location away from any electrical noises (Joe Hanlon in Philadelphia, USA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###