DX LISTENING DIGEST 4-110, July 19, 2004 Incorporating REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING 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 RADIO 1238: Tue 1600 on WBCQ after-hours http://wbcq.com repeated weekdaily Wed 0930 on WWCR 9475 Mon 0330 on WSUI 910, webcast http://wsui.uiowa.edu 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 1238 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1238h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1238h.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1238.html WORLD OF RADIO 1238 (low version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1238.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1238.rm WORLD OF RADIO 1238 in the true shortwave sound of 7415: (stream) http://www.piratearchive.com/media/worldofradio_07-14-04.m3u (d`load) http://www.piratearchive.com/media/worldofradio_07-14-04.mp3 MUNDO RADIAL --- INFORME DX DESDE NORTEAMÉRICA POR GLENN HAUSER Nueva emisión de julio-agosto disponible del 19 de julio: (corriente) http://www.w4uvh.net/mr0407.ram (bajable) http://www.w4uvh.net/mr0407.rm (texto) http://www.worldofradio.com/mr0407.html También en WWCR 15825, desde el 23 de julio, viernes 2115, martes 2130, miércoles 2100; en segmentos por Radio Enlace de Radio Nederland, los viernes y domingos ** ARGENTINA. FEEDER: 5400L Radio Continental, Buenos Aires, 2240+, July 17, Spanish, in // with 590 khz. Football transmission between Peru-Argentina, from Chiclayo, Peru, for the America Cup. Ads: "Quilmes Rock 2004....."; ID & ann. as: "Estamos siguiendo el partido de la Argentina con Peru desde los estudios de Radio Continental", 44444 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, Cumbredx mailing list via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. Hola Björn, lamento haberme equivocado con el correo electrónico de Radio Illimani; el correcto es: llimani @ comunica.gov.bo Además la emisora me comentó que ha incrementado la potencia de sus transmisores de onda media, corta y frecuencia modulada, pero sin indicarme cuál es la nueva potencia de los mismos. Su aniversario 71 se cumplió el pasado 15 de julio. El incremento de potencia en los 6025 se nota pues la señal es clara y estable durante toda la noche y no la interfieren sus canales adyacentes como Radio Martí que aquí es potente. Un abrazo y nuevamente mis disculpas. 73's (Daniel Camporini, Argentina, via Björn Malm`s site via DXLD) ** BRAZIL. Os ajustes feitos no transmissor da Rádio Municipal, de São Gabriel da Cachoeira (AM), noticiados na coluna passada, não deram certo. A freqüência de 3375 kHz permanece fora do ar, após poucos testes. As informações são de Paulo Roberto e Souza, desde Tefé (AM). (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX July 18 via DXLD) ** CANADA. Tem colaboradora nova no programa Canadá Direto, emitido em português, pela Rádio Canadá Internacional. É Gisele Dutra, que passa a trabalhar ao lado de Chris Medeiros e do diretor e apresentador Hector Vilar. O programa vai ao ar em três oportunidades: nas sextas- feiras, ente 2100 e 2129, em 15165 e 17740 kHz. Nos sábados e domingos volta a ser apresentado, entre 2330 e 2359, em 11825 e 15455 kHz. Prestigie o empreendimento da RCI que valoriza o idioma português e os ouvintes do Brasil! (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX July 18 via DXLD) ** CANADA. CRTC "approves" Al Jazeera --- CRTC's approval of Al Jazeera sets a precedent for censorship in Canada. The big cable distributors in Canada are Shaw, Rogers and Videotron. Shaw has already announced that it will not carry AJ. The CRTC's complete decision on AJ is at http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Notices/2004/pb2004-51.htm It wants BDUs to monitor and record all AJ broadcasts and to alter/delete "abusive" content (Carlos Coimbra, Ont, July 17, DX LISTENING DIGEST) BDUs?? See next article ** CANADA. Glenn: Talk about freedom of speech in Canada with Arabic Al-Jazeera television system being cleared to be on Cable/Satellite systems while a Radio station licence renewal is denied for what they have being saying! By the way, the largest system provider in Canada (Rogers) has no plans to carry it due to the 24 hours of monitoring that would be required to eliminate anything hateful etc. (Anthony Markewicz, Canada, DXLD) Fri, July 16, 2004 Arabic station takes to the air By JIM BROWN, THE CANADIAN PRESS FEDERAL BROADCAST regulators have cleared the Arabic Al-Jazeera television network for viewing by Canadians via cable and satellite. But in a decision released yesterday, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission set stringent rules designed to keep anti-Semitic or other inflammatory comments off air. The application by Canadian TV distributors to carry Al-Jazeera -- which regularly receives video and audio tapes from al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden and other terrorists -- had generated intense controversy. 'HATRED AND CONTEMPT' Charles Dalfen, chairman of the CRTC, agreed that Al-Jazeera has broadcast objectionable material. Some of the remarks cited at commission hearings held Jews up to "hatred and contempt on the basis of religion." But, he said, Al-Jazeera met the test of being a credible news service, and the commission had a legal duty not to unduly infringe freedom of _expression. CONTENT EDITED Instead the CRTC set rules requiring cable and satellite operators who distribute Al-Jazeera in Canada to guard against the broadcast of "any abusive comment." That could mean editing or deleting program content. Distributors will also have to record programming and keep copies so material can be assessed in the event of later complaints. If the CRTC rules for Al- Jazeera are violated, the consequences could range from a reprimand to revoking permission to air the service (via Anthony Markewicz, Canada, DXLD) July 15th, 2004 The CRTC approves nine new non-Canadian satellite services and begins a process to review its approach to authorizing non-Canadian third- language services OTTAWA-GATINEAU - The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) released three public notices today approving the addition of nine new non-Canadian third-language services to the lists of eligible satellite services and denied six others. The authorized services will enable Canadians to benefit from new programs, principally in Spanish, Arabic, German and Romanian. The Commission also released today a call for comments on various questions related to its assessment of requests to add non-Canadian third-language services to its lists of eligible satellite services for distribution on a digital basis. The Commission wishes to determine whether there are ways to improve access by Canadians to non-Canadian third-language programming, while continuing to foster Canadian third-language and other ethnic services, in accordance with the objectives set out in the Broadcasting Act (the Act). The Commission's approach The Commission's approach to authorizing the distribution of non- Canadian services in Canada aims to strike a balance among the objectives of the Act. For example, the Act states that the Canadian broadcasting system should, through its programming, serve the needs and interests and reflect the circumstances of Canadians, including the multicultural and multiracial nature of Canadian society. The Commission's policy precludes the addition of non-Canadian services to the lists if the Commission determines them to be either partially or totally competitive with Canadian specialty or pay television services. This serves to ensure that the Canadian licensed services are in a position to fulfil their commitments and obligations regarding the airing of Canadian programming, a responsibility that their non-Canadian competitors do not have. Canadian services make an important contribution to fulfilling the objectives in the Act, for example by airing Canadian programs that enrich Canadian culture and encourage the development of Canadian _expression. When it deals with requests to add non-Canadian services to the lists, the Commission takes a case-by-case approach in assessing competitiveness. Many factors are taken into account. Such factors include the nature and genre of programming, the target audience, the language or languages in which the programming is broadcast, the source of programming and any relevant competitive concerns raised by parties during the proceeding. The Commission weighs these factors as they relate to the relevant Canadian services and the sponsored non- Canadian service in order to determine the amount of overlap between the services, and thus the extent to which they might compete with each other. Approved services The services approved today will increase the range of services in a third language that are already offered to Canadians of various origins: German TV: German-language general interest service Canal SUR: Spanish-language predominantly news and non fiction service with programming by independent broadcasters from Latin America CineLatino: Spanish-language movies from Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela and Peru Grandes Documentales de TVE: Spanish-language documentaries Utilisima: Spanish-language programming service originating from Argentina directed to women Eurochannel: Spanish and Portuguese subtitled European movie service Romanian Television International: Predominantly Romanian-language general interest programming service ART Movies: Arabic-language movies Al Jazeera: Arabic-language news and public affairs service The authorization to distribute Al Jazeera is subject to the broadcasting distribution undertaking (BDU) wishing to offer the service having a condition of licence governing its distribution. The Commission has decided that distributors must record Al Jazeera programming and keep the recordings for a specific length of time. This measure will enable the Commission and licensees of BDUs to verify and assess the context of the programming in the event of any future concerns about abusive comment on Al Jazeera's programming. The Commission is also requiring that BDUs distributing Al Jazeera not distribute, as part of that service, any abusive comment. Finally, the Commission will allow BDUs to alter or delete the programming of Al Jazeera solely for the purpose of ensuring that no abusive comment is distributed. The Commission found that this condition is necessary to prevent, to the greatest extent possible, the distribution of abusive comment on the service pursuant to the Commission's statutory responsibility to regulate and supervise all aspects of the Canadian broadcasting system with a view to implementing the broadcasting policy set out in the Act, while at the same time minimally impairing freedom of expression. Denied services The following services were denied on the grounds that they would be competitive, either in whole or in part, with one or more Canadian pay or specialty services: Azteca 13 International: Spanish-language general interest service GOL TV: Spanish and English-language soccer programming service LBC America: Arabic-language general interest service TV Chile: Spanish-language general interest service TVE Internacional: Spanish-language general interest service RAI International: Italian-language general interest service With its request to add RAI International, Rogers, RAI's sponsor, filed an undertaking from RAI that the service would not hold, obtain, nor exercise preferential or exclusive rights in relation to the distribution of programming in Canada. However, based on other statements made by RAI and its sponsor on the record of this proceeding, the Commission was not persuaded that RAI would not exercise preferential or exclusive rights to at least some of its programming. Call for comments The Commission also released today a call for comments on various questions in order to review its approach to authorizing non-Canadian third-language services for distribution on a digital basis. Statistics Canada data indicates that Canada's already considerable level of ethnocultural diversity will continue to grow. The Commission therefore considers that it is essential to ensure that the Canadian broadcasting system provides adequate service to Canada's increasingly diverse population, particularly those communities that may not have sufficient access to programming in third languages. The Commission further considers that the availability of additional third-language services within the Canadian broadcasting system could serve to reduce the appeal of services offered through the "grey market", which offers services from distributors unauthorized to operate in Canada. Comments should be sent to the Commission on or before 13 October 2004. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is an independent public authority that regulates and supervises broadcasting and telecommunications in Canada. Reference documents: Broadcasting Public Notice CRTC 2004-50 [.htm] [.pdf] Broadcasting Public Notice CRTC 2004-51 [.htm] [..pdf] Broadcasting Public Notice CRTC 2004-52 Broadcasting Public Notice CRTC 2004-53 [.htm] [.pdf] - 30 - (via Anthony Markewicz, Canada, DXLD) ** CANADA. Media --- The Gazette Thursday, July 15, 2004 Anne-Marie Dussault, the president of the Federation professionnelle des journalistes du Québec, had the sentiment just about right when she said that defending CHOI against a government-ordered shutdown made her feel somewhat like a lawyer defending a serial killer. The fact is there's very little to love about CHOI, even if it is Quebec City's most popular radio station. In its relentless search for the lowest common denominator, it has plumbed ear-popping depths of bad taste and abusiveness. Its two morning talk stars - Andre Arthur and Jeff Fillion - make Rush Limbaugh and Michael Moore, the right- and left-wing loons of American media, sound like champions of reasoned debate. Guys who think it's a joke to suggest that mental patients be gassed or that African students at Université Laval are the children of cannibals are hardly likely to be mistaken for Lister Sinclair or Bernard Derome. So when the CRTC decided Tuesday that it wouldn't renew CHOI's broadcast licence, many people didn't mind at all. Those people should think again. Do we really want nine little-known commissioners appointed by the federal cabinet to decide what we can and can't hear? That the radio station with the biggest audience in Quebec City can be permanently silenced simply because some people with nice offices think it's tasteless or offensive sets an alarming precedent. The cure here is worse than the disease. At most, a licence suspension of, say, a month would have focused the attention of the station's ownership. Clearly the CRTC acted within the letter of its mandate and just as clearly, CHOI appeared to be begging for a showdown by violating its own ethics code and ignoring CRTC warnings, but all that changes nothing: The ruling is an unwarranted intrusion on free speech, and if this station can be muzzled, who's to say that someday, disrespect for elected leaders might also be deemed offensive? CHOI's commentators might be boorish troglodytes, but they're troglodytes with a right to speak and troglodytes with an enormous audience that has a right to hear them. If they break the law, prosecute them; if they commit libel, sue them. But Canada is too mature a democracy to use state power to silence them. The Broadcasting Act and the CRTC are in truth relics of a bygone age; using them to regulate media in the age of the Internet and satellite TV and radio is like using the Railway Act to regulate traffic on Highway 40. Liberal MP Liza Frulla - a former radio-station manager herself and a candidate to become heritage minister - is quite right to suggest that the ruling offers an opportunity for Canadians to discuss just how far freedom of _expression should be allowed to go on the public airwaves. Such a re-examination is long overdue. If this case were to spark a serious debate about regulating the electronic media, CHOI's defiant potty-mouths will have done us all a service. To read the ruling, check the Web at http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2004/db2004-271.htm © The Gazette (Montreal) 2004 (via Anthony Markewicz, Canada, DXLD) ** CANADA. TRASH RADIO PUTS CANADIAN STATION IN JEOPARDY The New York Times July 19, 2004 by IAN AUSTEN http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/19/business/worldbusiness/19radio.html?pagewanted=print&position= To turn around its money-losing last-place radio station in Quebec City, Genex Communications used a familiar formula. Genex brought in program hosts with a talent for provocative, lewd and offensive commentaries. But the trash radio format that transformed CHOI-FM into a profitable market leader may have led to its demise. Last week, the Canadian broadcast regulator said it would not renew the station's broadcasting license, a move that was likely to force CHOI to close by the end of next month. The unusual decision by the regulator, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, immediately provoked widespread criticism as a limitation on free speech. "It's with great reluctance we do this because we are all supporters of freedom of expression," said Charles M. Dalfen, chairman of the commission. "This wasn't about controversial programming. This was about abusive programming." The main source of CHOI's trouble is a morning show whose host currently is Jean-Francois Fillion. Until a few months ago, his co-host was Andre Arthur, an experienced broadcaster popularly known in Quebec as "le roi Arthur" or King Arthur. Mr. Fillion once described a severely handicapped girl who was at the center of a news story as a "trash can" and suggested releasing poison gas into the hospital rooms of psychiatric patients. Mr. Arthur specialized in attacks on prominent figures in the Quebec City area, including suggesting that a politician was involved in a sex scandal with under-age prostitutes. Patrice Demers, president of the privately held Genex, said his company had made extensive efforts to meet the regulator's concerns. He said that CHOI had established an advisory council and offered to put Mr. Fillion's program on a 16-second time delay. It also moved Mr. Arthur to another station that it owns. "It was difficult to control the show when two announcers were together," Mr. Demers acknowledged. Genex will seek a court injunction to extend its license until the end of any legal appeal. Mr. Demers also anticipates that the commission will not renew the license held by Genex's other radio station. But even if all of the Genex stations are shut down, Mr. Demers is confident that Mr. Fillion will remain on the air. "He's No. 1 in the market," Mr. Demers said. "If he's not working for us, he's going to work for someone else. I'm sure he's talking to my competitors right now." © 2004 The New York Times Company (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** CANADA. While the FCC and Congress pursue a strategy of regulating broadcast content through driving station owners into bankruptcy, broadcast regulators in CANADA pulled out the big gun last week, declining to renew the license of Genex's CHOI-FM (98.1 Quebec City) when it expires at the end of August. As you may recall, the modern rock station had been operating on a short-term (two years instead of seven) renewal after initially running afoul with the CRTC over the usual Canadian issues of missing logger tapes and too much English-language musical content. More recently, as we've been reporting here in NERW, the CRTC put the station under tough scrutiny over the comments of its top-rated morning host, Jeff Fillion. Fillion is a sort of Quebecois Howard Stern (though the Quebecois might prefer to think of Stern as an Anglo Fillion), taking on pretty much any target that pleases him in a take-no-prisoners fashion. Most notably, at least where the CRTC is concerned, he'd been feuding on the air with Robert Gillet, former morning host of rival CJMF (93.3 Quebec City), attacking Gillet for his role in a widely-publicized teen prostitution scandal that's been the talk of tout Quebec for a while now. The Gillet incident prompted several dozen complaints to the CRTC - and while Fillion's fans (egged on by Fillion himself) responded with more than 9,000 interventions in support of the station, the CRTC doesn't go by public opinion on such matters. Indeed, its chairman said the agency felt it had "no other option" but to pull CHOI's license, forcing the station to go silent on August 31. Genex owner Patrice Demers - who also owns CKNU (100.9) in the small town of Donnacona, west of Quebec City, says the move will leave 35 people jobless and cost him C$25 million (the estimated value of the station he bought in 1996 for C$2 million, when it was at the bottom of the ratings), and he's getting ready to go to court - and to Parliament - to fight the CRTC's move. Meanwhile, the CRTC has already posted a call for applications for what it now considers a vacant 98.1 facility in Quebec City. This promises to be one of the more interesting media battles North America has seen in a while; we'll be following it closely (Scott Fybush, NE Radio Watch July 19 via DXLD) BTW, NE Radio Watch may be endangered, since breadwinning Mrs. NERW has lost her job at a miserable Rochester newspaper; see http://www.fybush.com/nerw.html (gh, DXLD) ** CANADA [and non]. CRTC To Jam All US Radio Station Signals "Listening to US broadcasters will be illegal, subject to penalties outlined in the criminal code of Canada," said commission chair Charles Dalfen. http://www.dailyhog.com/crtc_07192004_8221.asp It's OK, this is a satirical magazine. But I found the article quite amusing :-) (Andy Sennitt, Holland, ODXA via DXLD) ** CHINA. A Rádio Internacional da China chegou ao número de 40 sítios transmissores usados na emissão de seus programas. Em relação aos idiomas em que transmite, a emissora só fica atrás da Trans World Radio, segundo informações do programa de dexismo da Rádio Bulgária, monitoradas por Oséias Fantinelli, em Jacutinga (RS). (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX July 18 via DXLD) ** COLOMBIA. POLITICAS PARA LA RADIODIFUSION EN COLOMBIA Hola Amigos, Les envío un enlace a la página del Ministerio de Comunicaciones de mi país; allí encontrarán un documento que será la guía para la radiodifusión colombiana una vez que se convierta en norma. http://www.mincomunicaciones.gov.co/article.php?sid=129 Además hay algunos datos interesantes sobre la realidad de la radio colombiana, historia y perspectivas. A modo de ejemplo, según este doumento en Colombia existen 1338 emisoras distribuidas así: Modalidad. FM AM TOTAL Comercial 259 400 659 Interes Publico 126 69 195 Comunitaria 484 TOTAL FM 869 TOTAL AM 469 (Rafael Rodríguez, Bogotá, July 19, Conexión Digital via DXLD) ** CUBA. ``Para los diexistas`` é o nome do programa que aborda as ondas curtas na Rádio Rebelde. Tem regular sintonia, no Sul do Brasil, nas segundas universais, às 0330, em 6120 kHz. A condução é do Manolo de la Rosa, que também apresenta o ``En Contacto``, pela Rádio Havana Cuba. A dica é do Oséias Fantinelli, de Jacutinga (RS). (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX July 18 via DXLD) 5025 is a far better frequency; not sure 6120 is even on the air at this time. I tuned in about 0338 UT Monday, but unseemed DX program (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [non]. RADIO MARTI on 9735 kHz: Dear friends: Greetings from Peru; I have been catching RADIO MARTI on 9735 in the 19 mts band at nights from 2300 UT // 6030. Does anyboy know about it. Thanks and 73´s (CESAR PEREZ DIOSES, CHIMBOTE – PERU, July 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) I suppose you mean the 31 m band, and it really was on 9735; but when checked July 18 after 2300 nothing there here. I can`t figure out how this could be a receiver image or mixing product, either (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hola Glenn, Saludos desde Catia La Mar, Venezuela. Este 18/07, a las 0134 UT, pude sintonizar con una fuerte señal la retransmisión de Radio Martí, a través de la estación de las Islas Vírgenes Estadounidenses en 1620 kHz. SINPO 4/4. Emitía un partido de beisbol de las Grandes Ligas. A las 0304, captada con noticiero y programa de opinión. Como es usual, PURA BASURA. Aparte de ser un instrumento de la mafia mayamera anticubana, la radio en cuestión también le hace el juego a los apátridas que desean desestabilizar el proceso bolivariano en Venezuela. Pura visceralidad, pero nada de argumentación SERIA. 73s y buen DX (Adán González, Catia La Mar, Venezuela, July 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECH REPUBLIC. USA TO RELOCATE RFE/RL IN PRAGUE - press Text of report in English by Czech news agency CTK Prague, 17 July: The US government will finance the construction of a new building for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), daily Pravo writes today referring to Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda. The radio station will be moved from the building of the former Federal Assembly (parliament) in the centre of the capital for security reasons first of all, the paper writes. The relocation of RFE started to be considered after the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001. "The situation will be solved by the construction of a new building and this in a locality where security risks to both citizens of the Czech Republic and RFE/RL employees will be minimized," Svoboda told Pravo. Svoboda discussed RFE's future in Washington this week. He did not say where the new building would be located. Svoboda told Pravo that US "Secretary of State Colin Powell has confirmed the US commitment to relocate RFE/RL by end of 2007 at the latest." Svoboda said that the United States is also ready to pledge to secure the organization and funding of the moving, and that the timetable of gradual steps has been agreed on. The moving of the radio station depends on the US government and on consent of the two houses of US Congress. "The approving [of the sum for the construction of a new building and relocation] will take place as soon as the construction of the new building starts," Svoboda said. RFE/RL, which was founded by the US government in 1949 to broadcast to the Communist bloc, moved from Munich to Prague in 1995 and has been broadcasting from the former Czechoslovak Federal Assembly building since September of that year. The current rent contract expires at end of 2004, but it is almost sure to be extended. Source: CTK news agency, Prague, in English 1126 gmt 17 Jul 04 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** GABON. [Re previous report of an impending strike at ANO; threat to cut off RFI and NHK relays on Tuesday if no progress is made:] Le personnel de la radio panafricaine Africa numéro 1, basée à Libreville, a entamé jeudi (NDR : le 15 juillet) une grève illimitée pour des revendications liées à l'application d'une nouvelle convention d'entreprise, a-t-on appris de sources concordantes. "Africa numéro 1 a cessé de diffuser ses programmes depuis 12h00", a indiqué à l'AFP un journaliste, précisant que toutes les catégories du personnel (journalistes, techniciens, personnels administratifs) participaient au mouvement. La radio ne diffusait que de la musique jeudi après-midi. Selon le président du Syndicat des communicateurs d'Africa numéro 1 (Syca), Jean-Claude Miyindou, le personnel s'est mis en grève car les négociations entamées le 2 juillet sur l'application de la nouvelle convention d'entreprise étaient dans l'impasse. "On était en train de stagner (...) ce qui nous a obligé à passer à la vitesse supérieure", a-t-il déclaré à l'AFP, précisant que les principaux blocages concernaient les "classifications du personnel, avancements et promotions", les contrats de piges et la "problématique de la gestion des ressources humaines à Africa". Selon le directeur général adjoint de la station, Michel Koumbagoye, les négociations sur la convention devaient reprendre jeudi mais l'inspecteur du travail, attendant des consignes de sa hiérarchie, a repoussé cette reprise au 20 juillet, déclenchant la colère des salariés et la grève. A partir de vendredi, un service minimum constitué de quelques bulletins d'information sera mis en place, mais toutes les émissions sont suspendues, a indiqué un journaliste. "Ce régime sera valable jusqu'à mardi. S'il après cela il n'y aucune évolution, on devra tout arrêter, descendre les émetteurs et couper nos clients, notamment RFI (Radio France internationale) et (la radio- télévision publique japonaise) NHK", a-t-il ajouté. Les émetteurs d'Africa numéro 1 à Moyabi (700 km à l'est de Libreville) sont loués par des médias internationaux pour relayer leurs ondes courtes sur la partie occidentale de l'Afrique (AFP via http://www.voila.fr - 15 juillet 2004, informations issues de http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jm.aubier via DXLD) STRIKE AT AFRICA NUMBER 1 --- The personnel of Pan-African broadcaster Africa Number 1, based in Libreville, Gabon, started an unlimited strike on Thursday. "Africa Number 1 ceased broadcasting its programme at 12h00 on Thursday," said a journalist, who confirmed that all categories of staff - journalists, technicians, administrative staff - are taking part in the action. The station broadcast only continuous music on Thursday afternoon. According to the president of the Trade Union of Africa Number 1 (Syca), Jean-Claude Miyindou, the personnel went on strike because the negotiations started on July 2 on the application of the new company convention had reached deadlock. The Assistant General Manager of the station, Michel Koumbagoye, said negotiations were due to begin again last Thursday, but have been put back to 20 July. From Friday, a minimal service made up of some news bulletins was set up, but all the normal programmes are suspended, said a journalist. This situation will be valid until Tuesday. If there is no progress after that, the transmitters will be switched off, affecting the relays of Radio France international and NHK-Radio Japan. # posted by Andy @ 10:54 UT July 19 (Media Network blog via DXLD) This could backfire on the union. One of the main reasons people tune to Africa N1 is for the music. All music all the time always works. (Lou Josephs, 07.19.04 - 3:51 pm, ibid.) ** GREECE. You might think the Olympix would provide a golden opportunity for Voice of Greece to expand its external service with more foreign languages or at least more time for the existing languages. Quite the contrary! This item says all foreign language services are being suspended for the month of August, and Epsilon Rho Alpha on shortwave will only be carrying the Sigma Pi Omicron Rho Tau network in Greek for the duration (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) GRÉCIA – Atenção! Durante todo o mês de agosto, os programas em línguas estrangeiras da Voz da Grécia vão sofrer uma pausa. As freqüências da emissora serão usadas para emitir detalhe por detalhe das Olimpíadas, sempre em grego, é claro! Conforme informações enviadas pela estação ao dexista Marcelo Xavier Vieira, de Itambé (PR), a mudança é creditada ``ao grande interesse dos gregos e helenófilos de todo o mundo por informações dos jogos``. Entre 1º e 31 de agosto, a Voz da Grécia – ERA-5 estabelecerá uma rede com o canal de esportes ERA-SPOR. De acordo com o Marcelo, o melhor horário para sintonia na América do Sul e o seguinte: entre 2000 e 2200, em 7475, 9420, 15630, 15650, 17565 e 17705 kHz. Também em 15630 e 17705 kHz, a partir das 1800. Ele indica, ainda, pela manhã, entre 1200 e 1400, em 15650 kHz. Lembrando que a cerimônia de abertura dos jogos ocorre no dia 13. Confira! (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX July 18 via DXLD) ** GUINEA. 7375, Radiodiffusion Guinéenne, 0610, Programa en francés y vernáculo, Música africana. A las 0645 noticias en francés. Noticias de Guinea. 34333. (Julio 16). (Manuel Méndez, Lugo, Spain, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Is 7375 correct? Guinea never before there (gh) ** HUNGARY. The July edition of Radio Budapest`s ...AND THE GATEPOST featuring DX MIX AND TIPS has finally appeared, currently archived at http://real1.radio.hu/nemzeti.htm (click July 18 and then click listen or download on the 2100 broadcast, which corresponds to the 1900 UT broadcast). This is five weeks after the previous one, so perhaps the next will appear August 22. This particular version, unlike June`s, did not open with a brief news bulletin. All Budapest transmissions are archived for a four-eight week period which varies according to the time of the month (I suspect June`s programs will disappear August 1, July`s September 1, etc.) (John Norfolk, dxldyahoogroup, DXLD) I hope after all this, that the DX Mix and tips are worth the trouble (gh, DXLD) ** ICELAND. Re DXLD 4-108: This is indeed the transmitting site which belongs to the US Navy Base in Iceland. The base has the official designation "U.S. Naval Air Station", website: http://www.naskef.navy.mil It is a regular military utility transmitting site owned by the US Navy, and two of these utility transmitters are used to feed AFN to Navy vessels in the Atlantic Ocean. Rikisútvarpid has no SW transmitters; it leases air time on a utility facility of Iceland Telecom in Reykjavík. See: http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/features/html/iceland020111.html (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, July 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KUWAIT. [Continued from 4-109] Hello Everyone, Yes, Bernd's point re the war is a very good one. The copy of TDP I was quoting from is dated 1998, and 6 X 500 kW ABB SK55C3-2P transmitters are listed with a symbol which indicates that they came into service in 1990/91 so could have been ones that were destroyed - or maybe they were not delivered due to the war? Two more of the same type and power are shown as coming into use in 1992, and the 3 from THC in 1995. I'm not sure how to read the information listed in the book which appears above those entries. It shows 4 X 250 kW and 6 X 500 kW BBC units installed and coming on air (according to the symbol used) in various years between 1968 (the 250 kW units) and 1988, and all of them had been taken out of use/scrapped, but the date when that happened is not specified. So, it's just possible that these were destroyed instead. I agree that the dates are critical in knowing for sure what KWT was using when the Iraqis invaded --- and evidently removed --- and what was destroyed by aerial bombing. But transmitters installed in 1979, 1981 and 1988 should theoretically still be capable of operating and not ready for the scrapyard. Hopefully, we will eventually find out! 73s from (Noel Green, UK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The "1 x 250" and "9 x 500 kW" entry appeared for the first time in WRTH 2000. More details on the Kuwait transmitters during the Iraqi occupation in 1990-91. It appears that Iraq actually removed four 500 kW transmitters from Kabd; the question is whether these were SW or MW units. Pre-war WRTH 1990 gives 6 x 500 kW and 3 x 250 kW for Kabd SW. TDP http://www.tdp.info/kwt.html lists 6 x 500 kW and 4 x 250 kW BBC transmitters delivered before 1990. (NB. Jiwan is a MW site). ``The buildings of the Kabad station for short- and medium-frequency wave transmission, the transmitters (500 kilowatts), the antenna networks and power generation station were damaged. Four modern transmitters (500 kilowatts) were disassembled and moved. There was slight damage to the Jiwan transmission station. All the broadcasting devices were plundered and two floors of the broadcasting station were burned. All the old and new buildings of the radio station were destroyed, almost all the equipment was disassembled, and there was damage to the main transmission tower. Almost all of the TV Building equipment and videotapes (about 45,000 tapes) were plundered.`` http://demo.sakhr.com/diwan/emain/Story_Of_Kuwait/Occupation/Iraqi_regime_Crimes/distruction-infrastructure.html I should have added perhaps that I was refering to the online version http://www.tdp.info/kwt.html (which in this case has the same details as the 1998 printed version). 73s, (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, July 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) From Office of Inspector General U.S. Department of State and the Broadcasting Board of Governors MONTHLY REPORT OF A C T I V I T I E S audits, inspections, testimony, and special activities March 2004 http://oig.state.gov/documents/organization/30847.pdf Inspection of the International Broadcasting Bureau's Kuwait Transmitting Station (IBO-I-04-04) The purpose of this inspection was to assess the general operations of IBB's transmitting station in Kuwait, including its program management, program performance, and management controls. The Kuwait Transmitting Station is strategically located, has very low operating costs, and performs well. This enables BBG to achieve its objective of effectively reaching target audiences of the Middle East and South Asia, especially with regard to the war on terrorism, with a daily 24- hour flow of information from the agency's broadcasting entities that are relevant to these audiences. The Kuwait station is expanding its transmitting capabilities to make better use of the advantages afforded by its location and low operating costs. This sound decision by BBG management will increase the impact of the agency's scarce resources. A major project to support shortwave transmissions to Afghanistan, for the first time from the Kuwait Transmitting Station, has experienced difficulties that have delayed the scheduled February 2004 project completion. However, the delays appear to be attributable to the contractor rather than to station management or its monitoring of the project. To save the cost of purchasing new units, IBB reprogrammed three 250-kW shortwave transmitters from the closed Glória Transmitting Station in Portugal. Although generally well managed, the Kuwait Transmitting Station needs to improve on a number of its procedures in order to strengthen management controls, including time and attendance and inventory control. Staff possessing contract warrants do not meet federal certification standards for performing such work. They need to have the training and certification required by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. The Kuwait Transmitting Station initiated FM broadcasts of Radio Sawa to Kuwait City in January 2003. This was done on the basis of verbal and written assurances, in principle, of being granted an additional new frequency. The station did not have formal approval from the government of Kuwait, which may jeopardize the continuation of those broadcasts (via Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, DXLD) ** MEXICO. 920 is gone. The trio is 620, 5 KW directional, 1700 (ex- 560) 10 kw, daytime license but running nights, and 1030, 5 kw non- directional unlimited. 1020 in LA is filing a complaint on 1030 this week (David Gleason, CA, July 12, Corazón DX via DXLD) XESDD-920 is still on while XESDD-1030 is testing Disregard previous information. XESDD-920 is still on the air while they get the 1030 outlet ready. They are easily heard here all day. KURS-1040 appears to have reduced their day power (maybe down to the level they're actually SUPPOSED to use?!). They are not slopping XESDD-1030, and XED-1050 is coming in with good midday signals for the first time in a long time. XEMO-860 continues to behave itself. There is less slop on 850 and 870 now than I can ever remember. XEZF-850 and KRLA-870 are audible middays in some parts of town. XESDD-1030 is still simulcasting XESS-620 "la tropical 6-20" for now. They have an excellent daytime signal but not so hot at night so far. 73, (Tim Hall, Chula Vista, CA, July 17, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) ** MOROCCO. MARROCOS, 1638.0 kHz, 2319-... 01 July, RTM-A, Rabat. A, Ar. songs. Harmonic of 819. 25342 (Carlos Gonçalves, Portugal, @tividade DX July 18 via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS. SPECIAL OLYMPICS PROGRAMMING FROM RADIO NETHERLANDS Radio Netherlands will carry special programming in Dutch for coverage of the Olympic Games between 14 and 29 August. As well as relays of the NOS service RadiOlympia, there will be a daily Olympic news programme produced by Radio Netherlands. Programming will be carried worldwide on the Internet (RNW1) and in Europe on shortwaves as follows: Mon-Fri 0800-1000 and 1200-1500 UT Sat 0800-1100 and 1200-1500 UT Sun 0600-1100 and 1200-1500 UT To Central Europe on 5955 kHz, South West Europe on 9895 kHz, South and South East Europe on 13700 kHz. Sun 0600-0800 on 11935 instead of 13700 kHz. # posted by Andy @ 12:08 UT July 19 (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. I often let closed captioning run even tho I`m not hearing-impaired. Sometimes it helps me catch something I could not make out audibly, or keep an eye on one set while listening to another. But something very strange happened on the Friday acting ex- president Reagan was laid to rest. I taped The Red Green Show off OETA at 10 pm, and am just getting around to watching it. The captioning is for the local news in Tulsa on KTUL, Newschannel 8! With Reagan stories, local Tulsa angles, etc. Once in a while it would switch back to a few captioned words from Red Green. OETA is one of the few channels still getting into Cox Cable, Enid, off the air. Apparently the wrong captioning was being fed to OETA; thing is, the captioning on Red Green, which finally resumed after 15 minutes, is obviously polished and on the original program tape, not done on the fly like the newscast was, with numerous mistakes, back-up correxions, etc. Oops, at 17 into Red Green, captioning is back to KTUL. How could this happen, exactly? Does someone at OETA do the captioning for KTUL, and wires got crossed? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN. Radio Aap ki Dunya: see USA! ** SAINT HELENA. !!! Waarde BDXC-ers, Vandaag mocht ik, dankzij de medewerking van Robert Kipp/DSCWI-member, ontvangen de QSL "Radio St. Helena Day-1998" van de "nieuwe" station-manager van Radio St. Helena, de heer Ralph H. Peters. 2 Stickers van Radio St. Helena en een brief van genoemde Ralph en een "afscheidsbrief" van Tony Leo waren bijgevoegd. In plaats van de "Award-1998", wat achteraf gezien een "doodgeboren kindje" is, ontving ik als compensatie de officiele "First Day Cover 500th Anniversary discovery St. Helena". 73, (Jan van der Aa, July 19, BDXC via DXLD) ** SOUTH AMERICA. RPI, 6307.21 kHz --- Creo que quizás la mejor hora para recepcionarnos seria por la mañana. 4 días de seguido hemos transmitido hasta almenos las 15 UT. Sábado y ayer, inclusive hasta más tarde. El viernes estaremos emitiendo desde otro QTH donde la antena estará más elevada; además estarmos prácticamente con servicio de 24h hasta el lunes 15 UT. Hemos recibido informe desde EE.UU con grabación de recepción de nuestra emisión. Por cierto muy, pero muy baja la señal, pero es impresionante que el colega diexsista George Maroti nos haya podido sintonizar con esta baja potencia. Él nos ha escuchado en dos oportunidades, en horas que la potencia había bajado hasta 13 vatios! Saludos de (Jorge R. García, Radio Piranha Internacional, July 19, Conexión Digital via DXLD) ** SUDAN. SUDANESE RADIO DROPS MAJOR NEWSCAST TO PLAY SONGS IN PRAISE OF DARFUR PEOPLE Republic of Sudan Radio (the main channel of state-owned radio, broadcasting from Omdurman) was not observed to broadcast its scheduled news bulletin in Arabic at 0400 gmt on 18 or 19 July. Instead, a programme in praise of the people of Darfur, including poetry and patriotic songs, was broadcast. This is the first time that the 0400 gmt bulletin (a major newscast) has been observed not to have been broadcast. Source: BBC Monitoring research in Arabic 0400 gmt 18 and 19 Jul 04 (via DXLD) ** SUDAN. Did not check for V. of New Sudan UT July 19, but UT July 20 at 0300 and 0400, nothing heard on 9310. Remember, they plan to start testing there quite soon (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SYRIA. 13610, R. Damascus, full data QSL, "Aleppo City" card with power (500 kW), schedule, newspaper and sticker in 48 days for 1 IRC. V/S, Illegible (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R75, MLB-1, RS longwire with RBA balun, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 13610, R. Damascus, 7-11 2012, Arabic vocals and English news. Best heard in years, despite WEWN 13615 (Sheryl Paszkiewicz, WI, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** TAIWAN. Kuokuang Radio --- Interesting story from 2002 at the Taipei Times website. WRTH 2004 still lists Kuo Kuang BS in Taipei on 936 with 5 kW as inactive. If it's the same station, what's so secret? The transmitter location or the audiolines connected to the Presidential Office? (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, DX LISTENING DIGEST) From http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/archives/2002/05/10/0000135427 PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE FORMERLY HOUSED A SECRET RADIO STATION By Tsai Ting-I, STAFF REPORTER, Friday, May 10, 2002,Page 3 The Presidential Office revealed yesterday that it used to house the Kuokuang radio station ( ê¥ú¹q¥x), and that the station was established for the primary purpose of ensuring that the president, vice president and top military personnel would be able to address the nation in the event of war. It also acknowledged for the first time that President Chen Shui-bian (³¯¤ô«ó) closed the radio station in 2000. "The Kuokuang radio station was established for wars and emergency purposes. There are lines connected to the offices of president, vice president, minister of national defense and chief of the general staff, to enable them to talk to the people in the event of war and or other emergencies," said a report published yesterday in President A- bian's Electronic Paper, the president's Web-site. Presidential Office spokesman James Huang (À§ÓªÚ) told the Taipei Times that the office was releasing the previously classified information as part of its effort to educate the public about the post of president and the Presidential Office. Chen closed the radio station in 2000 as part of a reform of the military and in pursuit of his policy of removing Ministry of National Defense offices from the Presidential Office, the electronic newspaper said. The station, set up in June 1963, had belonged to the still operational Voice of Han Broadcasting Network, a propaganda station owned by the defense ministry that continues to broadcast to China. Huang also said that the government believed that there was no longer any need to keep the station for emergency purposes, given the highly advanced current state of communications technology (via Savolainen, DXLD) ** TONGA [and non]. TONGAN DOMAIN IN WORLD'S TOP 10 FOR WEB PORNOGRAPHY | Excerpt from report by Tongan magazine Matangi Tonga web site on 18 July Nuku'alofa, 16 July: Tonga has a new reputation as a leader in world web pornography, this week being ranked as one of the top 10 country suffixes for web porn publishing. It's a status that Tongans view as ironic since their government late last year used the excuse that it wanted to set a high moral and Christian national code of conduct when it amended the Tongan constitution to suppress the local print media. The release this week of the first global study on web porn publishing in 100 countries claimed Tonga's .to domain was hosting 846,800 pages of porn (10th place on the list of worst offenders), but outranked by Niue's .nu which the report claimed hosts nearly 3 million pages of porn (fourth place). The report made by the Secure Computing Corporation was the first study of the global distribution of pornographic web pages by the top 100 individual country domains. [passage omitted] The study found that the domain suffixes of a number of small islands in the Pacific host a large number of pornographic web pages. Apart from Niue, other island domains each hosting hundreds of thousands of pages of pornography are the suffixes of Tonga, Christmas Island, the Cocos Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. However, its findings are being challenged by J. William Semich, the president of .nu Domain Ltd, who says the Secure Computing report is false because it has included thousands of inactive and expired domain names, and the millions of web pages associated with them. Semich said .nu had revoked or removed about 6,000 names for violating its policies or US laws. In Tonga, the secretary of Tonga's Department of Communication, Paula Ma'u, said that the finding by Secure Computing Corporation of USA came as no surprise to him at all, "because the allocation of a domain name is a bit like the allocation of orbital slots, it is first come, first served." He said that the other problem that is facing government is that the technology is well ahead of capability of government to regulate and administer these new technologies. Paula said that the establishment of his department in 2001 was the first major move by government to introduce legislation and to establish a reputed regime for its communication assets, such as orbital slots and Internet domain name. "But the Newspaper Licensing Act came along and distracted us from the IT work that we were doing." With regards to the thousands of pornographic pages on the .to domain, Paula said that recently his department had established a closer working relationship with Tonic, the company that has been administering the .to domain for the Tongan government ever since it was created more than 10 years ago. Paula said that his department is drafting a legislation to try and have some control on who should be given the domain name .to. [passage omitted] Source: Matangi Tonga web site, Nuku'alofa in English 18 Jul 04 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** U K. Proms began Friday night --- I don't know what the shortwave schedule is on the various streams but you can see the concert/radio schedule on http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/ Of course, it's live on Radio 3. You can listen again (realaudio on demand) for a week (Joel Rubin, NY, Swprograms mailing list via DXLD) Previous years, the first week or two has included video webcasts, but nothing about that this year (gh) ** U K [non]. REINO UNIDO VIA ASCENSÃO – Desde 14 de julho, os programas em português da BBC de Londres, produzidos especialmente para o público brasileiro, estão anunciando uma troca de transmissores. As mudanças serão feitas até agosto. A BBC Brasil sugere uma monitoria em todas as freqüências com o objetivo de conseguir sempre uma boa recepção. Vale lembrar que a BBC Brasil transmite em português para o Brasil, às 2230, em 9865, 11965 e 15390 kHz. As informações são de Oséias Fantinelli, de Jacutinga (RS), e Leônidas dos Santos Nascimento, de São João Evangelista (MG). (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX July 18 via DXLD) ** U K [non]. BRITISH FORCES BROADCASTING DOCUMENTARY Found a fascinating documentary (made last year in fact) on the history of British forces broadcasting which is the training ground for many of the better British broadcasters. They do some really creative stuff. And now you can listen on line. Interesting to hear that one of the first forces broadcasting was the SEAC, South East Asia Command. The transmitter was in Sri Lanka and if, like me, you visit the transmitter site at EKLA, the photos of Lord Mountbatten are still on the wall. BFBS 60th anniversary documentary in Real Audio http://www.bfbs.clara.net/60th.ram posted by Jonathan Marks @ 11:23:29 AM July 9 (Critical Distance blog via DXLD) ** U S A. POSTCARD USA: O WHAT A SWEETHEART DEAL! --- Khalid Hasan http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_18-7-2004_pg3_4 [abstract:] The current VOA philosophy is simple: if you are below 15 or over 39, get lost. We are not interested in you. Some jokers have sold its governors the utterly ridiculous idea --- insofar as the Islamic world goes --- that the way to a potential suicide bomber`s heart is through pop music, interspersed with snappy sound bites packaged as news and information Be it newspapers, makers of soap or broadcasting organisations, it takes a long time for them to establish a distinct image, put a stamp of their own on what they do, but it takes little to knock it all down. Self-destruction is an inexplicable phenomenon. ``What is doing well, is best left alone,`` may be a sound adage but it is quite amazing how often the contrary gets done, no less by organisations than by individuals. The latest instance of such self-demolition is the venerable Voice of America. Under the utterly mistaken notion that its worldwide listening audience is more interested in pop, bee bop and hip hop than in good, old-fashioned news, current affairs, discussions and magazine programmes, it has begun to dismantle itself. The current VOA philosophy is simple: if you are below 15 and over 39, get lost. We are not interested in you. Some jokers have sold its governors the utterly ridiculous idea --- insofar as the Islamic world goes --- that the way to a potential suicide bomber’s heart is through pop music, interspersed with snappy sound bites packaged as news and information. It took VOA more than 60 years to win universal recognition and admiration for its call signal and it has taken it just months to assume several new and ridiculous identities. Its Persian service is now called Radio Farda, its Arabic service Radio Sawa and its Pakistan service, Radio Aap ki Dunya, if you please. A more irrelevant name could not have been invented. I suggest that the genius who thought it up should be put on a donkey back to front and paraded through the streets of Washington and Islamabad. VOA is controlled by the federally appointed Broadcasting Board of Governors which has been creating these new media groups at the rate of one every few months. The 500 permanent VOA staffers, as fine a group of professional broadcasters as you can gather under one roof, have been up in arms at the destruction of something they have spent their lifetimes building. A petition submitted to Congress last week said the new autonomous units focused too much on music and entertainment at the expense of hard news and spoken word programmes. They said the Board was ``dismantling the nation’s radio beacon piece by piece``. But let me turn to Pakistan and what the scene is, on air and on ground. Radio Aap ki Dunya is aimed at age group 15 to 39. God alone knows on what research the decision to launch this pop-goes-the-weasel service is based, but who told these worthies that people in this age group remain awake from 7 pm to 7 am, the hours Dunya is on the air. It is Pakistani pop and Indian pop and itsy bitsy news in between. How many times can even the admirers of her looks and voice listen to Hadiqa Kiyani for instance? And how will Miss Kiyani`s music help the ``war on terrorism`` and fight radical Islam? Will it get the Americans Osama bin Laden? On July 9 at a special ceremony here, the Board signed a deal with Clarity Communications (Pakistan), known to one and all as a proxy much favoured by the indestructible federal Information Secretary. Clarity will broadcast Dunya programmes during the day on FM101 on leased time segments. FM101 is owned by Radio Pakistan. The honest and logical thing would have been to sign the deal direct with Radio Pakistan. That the Information Ministry did not favour. It was discreetly suggested to the VOA Board that business could only be done with Clarity. The strangest part of this entire charade is that neither the Board nor Clarity is willing to disclose what the financial basis of the deal is. The buzz in Washington is that Clarity is going to be paid two million dollars. For what? For broadcasting its and bits of Dunya from FM101`s eight city stations, none of which has a range of more than 12-15 miles. Eighty-five percent of Pakistan’s population that lives in rural areas will not be able to listen to these programmes. Even in large cities like Lahore and Karachi, there will be areas where the FM101 signal will not reach. If ever there was a ``sweetheart deal`` this is it. Radio Aap ki Dunya will not only be supplying the programmes but also paying FM101 for broadcasting them in limited time slots during daylight hours. Why does nobody ever make such a proposition to me? And I live in Washington. --- Khalid Hasan is Daily Times’ US-based correspondent (Pakistan Daily Times via DXLD) ** U S A. Informed Comment --- Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion --- Juan Cole is Professor of History at the University of Michigan [NOTE: Some extraneous content has been deleted] Sunday, July 18, 2004 VOICE OF AMERICA IMPERILED Alan Heil, author of an important history of the Voice of America, sends along dire news about the service. For Arabic broadcasting, this development is rather as if the government abolished National Public Radio and replaced it with Mr. Pattiz's Westwood One pablum and top 40 list. Americans should please communicate with their members of Congress about this fiasco in American public diplomacy. Radio, if it is to serve and survive, must hold a mirror up to the nation and the world. The mirror must have no curves, and be held with a steady hand." ---Edward R, Murrow Murrow's statement as warclouds gathered over Europe in the late 1930s might well apply today to the nation's largest overseas network, the Voice of America (VOA). The situation at the Voice is deteriorating quickly, despite steadfast efforts on the part of its professional staff to retain its place as a globally respected source of news and information about Middle East, U.S. and world events. VOA News Director Andre de Nesnera was transferred from his position to senior diplomatic correspondent of VOA July 1 by VOA Director David Jackson. This was no routine personnel move. De Nesnera is an award- winning journalist who had been a steadfast shield against efforts of the presidentially-appointed director over the past two years to second guess VOA news copy, particularly on Iraq. No VOA chief executive has taken such a hands-on approach to the newscasts in at least half a century. De Nesnera's removal occurred just four days before 450 employees of the Voice (managers, journalists, producers and engineers --- about half its staff) circulated a petition on Capitol Hill calling for an investigation of the Voice's oversight board, the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors. The BBG since 2002 has: --Closed VOA Arabic and replaced it with Radio Sawa, a 24/7 pop music service aimed at youth, rather than intellectuals, government leaders, educators and movers and shakers in Arab society, --Reduced VOA's global English service from 24 to 19 hours a day, with more cuts to come next October on the eve of the U.S. presidential election. VOA can barely be heard in the Middle East in English as a result of these cuts and it will get worse: there will be only 14 hours on the air daily next winter. --Abolished ten VOA language services to central and eastern Europe last February 14: Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Czech, Slovak and Slovene. The inevitable consequence of these reductions (some of which were made to reprogram funds for the Board's new Radio Sawa and Alhurra TV services) is to weaken significantly the Voice of America's reach around the world. In technical as well as programming terms, VOA is being reduced to a shadow of its former self --- especially in the Middle East. Board member Norman J. Pattiz, chairman of its Middle East subcommittee, wasted no time after Sawa went on the air on March 20, 2002 in ordering reallocation of VOA frequencies in the region to enhance his pet project. He directed the powerful 500-kilowatt Kuwait and Rhodes medium wave relay stations to serve only Sawa in Arabic, 24/7. That meant that VOA English, Persian, and Kurdish had to rely solely (at least for nearly a year) on less accessible shortwave transmissions to reach their listeners. This was also the case on the Kuwait facility for RFE/RL's Persian Service and its in-depth Arabic language program, Radio Free Iraq. In 2003, however, a much weaker medium wave transmission (105-kilowatts) was added in Kuwait to broadcast parts of VOA Persian, VOA English and Radio Free Iraq. The Board, meanwhile, abolished RFE's widely listened to Persian Service (Radio Azadi) on December 1, 2002, and replaced it with a Persian language pop music sibling of Radio Sawa named Radio Farda. Farda also was given a place on the weaker Kuwait medium wave frequency, and has gradually been able to increase its substantive news content. But unlike the old RFE Persian Service, it was given a 24/7 schedule on shortwave which still consists of about two thirds music. (The Board decided, in launching Farda, to retain VOA Persian, but only three hours daily --- strengthened a year ago with daily hour long TV transmissions including call-in programs to Iran.) Now, the Board is abolishing Radio Free Iraq, the U.S. government's last really substantive radio voice in Arabic to the Arab world. RFI will go off the air on September 30, at a time of great uncertainty in Iraq's transition and three months before the deadline for holding the first elections there. It is true that VOA Arabic used to be on what Pattiz has called "scratchy shortwave" as well as medium wave facilities before the service was abolished in 2002. The big (and costly) innovation has been in leasing terrestrial FM facilities in the Arab world to get Sawa's signals out there in FM and medium wave --- much more popular among listeners than shortwave. VOA Arabic was on the air 7 hours a day. Sawa is on 24/7. VOA Arabic cost the taxpayer $4 million dollars in its final year; Sawa cost $34 million in its first year. Most surprisingly perhaps, Pattiz insisted on the reallocation of many of those "scratchy shortwave" frequencies to Sawa, which devotes about three quarters of its airtime to pop music. The Board also negotiated a contract for a 500-kilowatt medium wave transmitter in Cyprus, greatly enhancing Sawa's reach during nighttime hours into Egypt. (Egypt, unlike Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Djibouti and many of the Gulf emirates, so far has refused to permit Sawa to broadcast on a local FM frequency.) In terms of expenditures though, these radio initiatives are dwarfed by Pattiz's investment in U.S.-originated satellite TV in Arabic. The Board launched Alhurra TV last February 14, entering a field of more than 170 mostly indigenous channels in the Arab world. The first year cost of Alhurra (The Free One, in Arabic) exceeds $100 million, including $40 million from a Department of Defense supplemental. Thus, in the current budget year, the Board is spending more than a fourth of its total budget for worldwide broadcasting on Sawa and Alhurra-TV. The early returns on Alhurra are mixed. Although e-mails and some surveys have been favorable, there also have been criticisms of its professionalism in the region and in the West. As one Lebanese- American editor in Washington noted: "The training wheels came off when Alhurra carried cooking and fashion shows during live coverage by Al Jazeera, Al-Arabiya and others of violence in Fallujah and during the Israeli assault on Rafah. It's ridiculous," the editor added, "and Alhurra was not being taken seriously during a recent visit I made to the region. There's nothing worse than not being taken seriously when you are a journalist." Small wonder, then, that the VOA staff has called for a Congressional investigation of the Board and its oversight of the Voice. That seems overdue. In the post 9/11 world, with anti-American sentiment at its peak, the nation has not a moment to lose in getting its international broadcasting to the Arab and Muslim worlds right. It can do so by reinforcing --- rather than destroying --- the time honored principles of timely, accurate, objective and comprehensive reportage and programming to reformers in those countries yearning for a brighter day. Alan L. Heil Jr. is a former VOA deputy director and author of "Voice of America: A History" (Columbia University Press, 2003)' (from a University of Michigan blog via DXLD) ** U S A. Annotated WBCQ Program Guide Anomalies and Recent Observations - July 17 From Jen: Frankie V cancelled his broadcast from 7 to 8 PM ET Saturdays on 9330. In Frankie V's place, WBCQ will be presenting the "Mystery Babylon" series of broadcasts from the late Bill Cooper. First broadcast was on Saturday, July 17, introducing the series. This is from a 20-CD set of quintessential Bill Cooper material that Jen found in the archives at the studio in Monticello (via Larry Will, dxldyahoogroups and the WBCQ Program Guide) By the way, I did a check of their complete schedule and found that they no longer have 17495 listed for the first airing of World of Radio Wednesday at 2200 (John Norfolk, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I guess you mean this version: http://www.zappahead.net/wbcq/main.php?fn=show_program&id=18 Hope this is an oversight and the transmission will still happen; it was missing for some time from the published schedule before (Glenn, ibid.) ** U S A. Glenn: We also observed a similar noise [to that interfering with WRMI in 7385] this evening on 7555 kHz (Jeff White, Miami, DX LISTENING DIGEST) While KJES was on? (gh to Jeff) Glenn: I'm not sure if KJES was on at the time of the noise, because all we could hear was the noise. I believe we first noted it around 6 or 7 pm ET [2200 or 2300 UT] but it was still there much later in the evening (Jeff White, UT July 18, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Surprised to hear RTE Ireland`s `morning` show on 15725, July 19 at 1310 with feature on Calcutta children`s photo exhibition; break for WRMI ID at 1330. Contrary to WRMI`s posted schedule dated June 9, which shows Christian Media Network M-F starting at 1200, with WRN only on weekends. 1400 (not 1359) another canned WRMI ID interrupted FSN News from Washington via WRN (Feature Story News), and into DW as in the WRN North American sked. Less CMN, more WRN, yayyy! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn: Unfortunately for us, CMN has had to cut back, and is no longer on at 1200-1600 UT Mon-Fri. It's nice to be able to run some more WRN, but it's a huge financial problem for us (Jeff White, WRMI, July 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, a mixed blessing. Stations\programs and their listeners inadvertently benefiting from this situation, from M-F WRN schedule: 1200 R. Netherlands 1300 RTE, Ireland 1400 Deutsche Welle 1430 R. Vlaanderen Internationaal 1458 Earth & Sky 1500 R. Romania International 1528 Earthwatch 1530 R. Korea International (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. HISTORIC RADIO BROADCAST TO BE RECALLED IN MAINE Monday July 19, 2004 Bangor, Maine (AP) A groundbreaking event in radio history will be recalled next week in Belfast, the small Maine city that played a key role in an overseas broadcast that took place nearly 80 years ago. On March 14, 1925, an experimental station of the Radio Corporation of America received and retransmitted to the rest of the nation the first live, trans-Atlantic long-wave radio broadcast. A presentation titled ``Waldo County: Ear of America'' is scheduled next Monday at the Belfast Museum, which has a recording of the historic broadcast. The program, which consisted mostly of John Philip Sousa military marches and other music, was picked up by microphone in London's Savoy Hotel and transmitted by the British Broadcasting Corp. At the time RCA had a station in Belfast, whose coastal location allowed stronger reception than the company's Long Island, N.Y., station. The Maine station retransmitted the program by way of short wave to RCA studios in New York and Washington, D.C. The 1925 broadcast helped stake out RCA's position as a communications leader. It operated a station in Belfast, which now has about 6,400 residents, from 1921 to 1929, when the stock market crashed. Receiving and transmission equipment was located in a complex of small buildings. The complex also included a Beverage wave antenna, a series of aboveground wires fanning out from Belfast to sites in surrounding towns of Brooks, Searsmont and Northport. The antenna was named for Harold Beverage of North Haven, an electrical engineering graduate from the University of Maine whose advances enabled the antenna to pick up live broadcasts. A Beverage antenna on Maine's Mount Desert Island received the first word of the armistice ending World War I on Nov. 11, 1918. Harold Nelson, an engineering technician for the state Transportation Department, will present a talk on the 1925 event next Monday. Nelson collects information and writes about obscure and forgotten engineering projects that have taken place around Maine. http://cbs4boston.com/menews/ME--HistoricBroadcast-en/resources_news_html (via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** U S A. SHOCK-JOCK HOWARD STERN MAY PLAY HUGE ROLE IN ELECTION Posted on Sat, Jul. 17, 2004 BY DICK POLMAN, Knight Ridder Newspapers PHILADELPHIA - (KRT) - To the naked ear, Howard Stern is still our regent of raunch. Lately, he has groused to his loyal listeners about the zit on his nose and the cellulite on his butt, dished about his morning trysts with his model-girlfriend, and opined on the watchability of DVD porn. But Stern has also ushered in the era of shock-jock politics, so when he split for a long vacation at the start of July, he minced no words: "I'm not only anti-Bush, I support John Kerry. ... He's going to be the guy who gets us back on track. ... Our audience is really making a difference in this upcoming election. ... It turns out everyone listens to us, especially a lot of dudes who are swing voters." This might seem a bit outlandish, the idea that Stern, who features a 30-second audio clip of flatulence on his Web site, would fancy himself a presidential power broker. After all, this is a guy whose ill-fated 1994 New York gubernatorial bid was based on only two issues: "Fix the roads at night, and kill the criminals." . . . [More] http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/nation/9179975.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. [continued from CANADA] Meanwhile in MASSACHUSETTS, we have a fascinating example of just how different broadcasting regulators really are across the US/Canadian border. While Canadian regulators barely blush at sexual content, they come down hard on anything that they find demeaning to an individual or an ethnic group. But even as the FCC works itself up over the slightest hint of sexual content that might be offensive to some community, somewhere, it's letting WTKK (96.9 Boston) off the hook for the comments made by Jay Severin back in April. According to the complaints the FCC received, Severin told listeners, "I believe that Muslims in this country are a fifth column...You believe that we should befriend them. I think we should kill them." The FCC declined to act on the complaints, saying that no court had ruled that Severin's comments posed a "clear and present danger" to public safety - and that they're thus covered under the First Amendment (Scott Fybush, NE Radio Watch July 19 via DXLD) ** U S A. READERS TURN UP VOLUME ON DEBATE OVER RACE, RADIO By ERIC DEGGANS, Times TV/Media Critic, Published July 16, 2004 http://www.sptimes.com/2004/07/16/news_pf/Floridian/Readers_turn_up_volum.shtml Want to get a spicy conversation started in the community? Write about radio and race. That's the lesson I've learned following a story last week, in which I outlined how the Clear Channel radio show The Monsters was broadcasting a host of slurs in its morning comedy bits airing on radio stations in Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville, including words such as "nigra," "jigaboo," "spic" and "fag." The response from readers was tremendous, delivered mostly by e-mail, and close to the largest public response I've gotten on anything I've written for the St. Petersburg Times. Not surprisingly - at least to someone who has been writing about these issues for a while - opinion among the 40 or so electronic missives I received in the first few days was split almost down the middle, with 17 readers criticizing The Monsters and 20 or so in general support (once Clear Channel decided Friday to force the team into a week of sensitivity training sessions, e-mail from the public turned almost exclusively negative). Indeed, such letters were more notable for what they forced me to do: explain why racism doesn't belong on mainstream radio. Those who supported The Monsters generally fell in two categories. The first, I began to call the "change the channel" crowd: buying The Monsters' mantra that all their epithets are slung in good humor, these fans branded as silly "political correctness" any suggestion that such terms are unfit for mainstream radio. "By the sound of your voice, we now all know that you're obviously a gay negro, so you must have been offended on multiple levels by The Monsters' behavior," read one particularly pungent e-mail, which the courageous sender only signed "J." "Look, grandmas get cancer, rednecks beat their wives, and black men rob liquor stores. It's just as natural as rain on a g- d-- Sunday morning." These objections were easy to handle - even coming from people who didn't resort to such cartoonish racism - because criticizing racial slurs on the radio isn't about protecting someone's feelings. It's about ensuring that mass media never again become vehicles for oppressing people of color. Once upon a time, radio, TV and movies were filled with horribly stereotypical depictions of minorities. White men would sit behind a radio microphone and adopt thick dialects, creating a universe of black and brown people who were childishly simple, lazy and unaccomplished. In this world, built and perpetuated by white institutions, the shortcomings of black people seen through racist eyes were fodder for great comedy. As these depictions influenced casting in movies and television, great talents were forced to re-create white America's fantasy of a fumbling and servile people who somehow deserved their second class status enforced through segregation and Jim Crow laws. The other category of Monsters supporters brought up a better question: Don't comics of color indulge in the same sorts of stereotyping? True enough, some of the hottest comics of color have created caricatures of their own culture and others', from the Wayans brothers' White Chicks movie to Chris Rock's legendary diatribe about the difference between black people and n---. But there's no racial oppression involved in making fun of your own culture (which is why The Monsters' redneck jokes go down a lot easier). And though it may sound a bit unfair, there's no history in America of black people oppressing white people through a network of horrible media stereotypes. That doesn't mean black and brown people can't be racist against white people; it does mean that racism among a white majority against a historically oppressed black minority has a special resonance, even today. And racial slurs remain the ultimate expression of that awful legacy. The lasting effect of such terms came to mind as I read a recent Scripps Howard News Service story published by the Times last week, noting there are 13 location names across the state that still include the word "negro," such as Negro Head cape in Fort Myers. Often, the story noted, "negro" location names are the legacy of a 1963 federal decision to change place names from the more offensive epithet, known these days as "the n-word." Of course, old school locals usually keep using the original language, perhaps wary of bowing to "political correctness." Imagine a single word that can sum up centuries of mistreatment and oppression for you, your family and your culture - the central link in a stereotype used to disenfranchise people like you for centuries. Then imagine having to face it every day on a map, street sign or TV program. Now imagine a radio show that traffics in such language every day, claiming to use the words in good fun. Just turning off the radio when you hear it does little to mitigate the damage. Russ Rollins, The Monsters' leader and creator, asked a telling question when I agreed to speak with him on air last week. He had been saying all morning that, because I didn't speak in some sort of dialect when I interviewed him, he didn't know I was black. I'm still not sure why that mattered. "Does that offend you?" Rollins asked me, referring to his assumptions. No, I replied. But such thinking is the legacy of his work, building an image of minorities among himself, his staff and his listeners that leaves little room for black and brown people who aren't butts of an awful joke. Racial slurs cross a line of humiliation and oppression that many Americans thought we left behind a long time ago in mainstream media. And though some people wondered if it might not have better things to do, the St. Petersburg City Council seemed to agree, voting last week to send a letter to Clear Channel complaining about the show's use of such terms. The council didn't ask for the program to end or for the hosts to be fired, by the way. If that eventually happens, blame a gutless Clear Channel, which often avoids taking direct responsibility for what its shock jocks air, despite a much-ballyhooed initiative to curb sexually offensive conduct on air after incurring hefty federal fines. As the nation's largest radio station owner, Clear Channel uses the public's airwaves to earn millions. But it won't explain why The Monsters were allowed to air racial slurs for years in Orlando and elsewhere before complaints from a St. Petersburg NAACP chapter president and City Council prompted the company to send the jocks into "sensitivity training." What are the company's policies involving the use of racial slurs on air? Will other jocks throughout the company be required to follow similar policies? And if the company does find such language unacceptable, why is it forcing reporters, the public and public officials to police content instead of doing it on its own? By avoiding the issue, Clear Channel forced the community - in the form of City Council members and NAACP president Darryl Rouson - to take a stand instead. Whether it will bring lasting change, and keep mainstream radio from devolving into a new school version of Amos "N' Andy remains to be seen. © Copyright 2003 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved (via Brock Whaley, DXLD) ** U S A. CLEAR CHANNEL SCALES BACK AD TIME --- Radio Industry Leader Aims to Raise Spots' Value; Others Could Follow Suit --- By SARAH MCBRIDE Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL July 19, 2004; P. B4 http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109018737288866819,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace In an effort to revive flagging radio advertising sales, Clear Channel Communications Inc. plans to cut the number of available spots in many markets in hopes of eventually getting a higher price for the remaining inventory. By reducing inventory, the company is trying to stem the price-cutting that has plagued the industry for the past few years and pave the way for future price increases. The company has dubbed the plan "Less Is More." Under its new rules no station can run more than 15 minutes of advertising in a single hour. In addition, no commercial break will run longer than four minutes or contain more than six commercials. In many markets that would represent a significant cut. A recent study from J.P. Morgan showed that some shows, particularly news talk shows during the morning and afternoon consumer drives, cram in as much as 22 minutes of advertising an hour. Radio averages 15 minutes of advertising an hour, compared with 12.5 minutes for television. For months analysts have been calling for better inventory management, to help turn around radio stock prices. Clear Channel's stock has slid 25% since the start of the year; Cox Radio, a majority-owned unit of Cox Enterprises, has lost 33%. Sluggish advertising has hurt the industry hard, with advertising in May up just 1% compared with last year, and weak projections for the rest of the summer. [Image] As the market leader with 1,200 stations around the country, Clear Channel will likely be copied by smaller radio groups. Most radio companies have complained about a glut of advertising inventory, but no station wanted to be first in its market to reduce advertising slots. Media buyers say the problem began with the increased demand for advertising that came during the dot-com era. "You didn't want to tell people, 'I don't have room for you,' " says Natalie Swed Stone, U.S. director of national radio investment for OMD, a unit of Omnicom Group. When demand fell back, they tried cutting pricing to retain market share. Clunking up the airwaves with so much advertising creates a double whammy. It turns off listeners, sending them scrambling instead for CD players and iPods. It also dilutes the impact of the messages they do hear. Those negatives make it harder for radio companies to extol radio's advantages, such as a cheaper price and greater flexibility. "If you're an advertiser, and you're 7th, 8th, 9th or more [in the lineup], it's difficult to feel like you're getting the value you're paying for," said John Hogan, president of Clear Channel Radio. The new policy "is going to give listeners much more content, and it's going to give advertisers a more valuable environment." Clear Channel also plans to cut promotional inventory -- those spots that advertise contests, or segments coming up later. Clear Channel stations must comply with the promotional limits by Oct. 1, and the commercial limits by Jan. 1. Mr. Hogan says many stations will put the changes in place well in advance of those deadlines (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) A RADIO GIANT MOVES TO LIMIT COMMERCIALS The New York Times July 19, 2004 ADVERTISING By NAT IVES http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/19/business/media/19adcol.html?pagewanted=print&position= Clear Channel Radio plans to announce today that it will begin limiting the number of commercials its more than 1,200 stations can play, in a move that analysts say may ripple through the industry even before it takes effect on Jan. 1. John E. Hogan, chief executive at Clear Channel Radio, which is based in San Antonio, said the sprawl of commercials throughout radio was causing clear harm. "If you have listened to the radio at all, you know that there is an amazing amount of commercial and promotional inventory," he said. "So much so that we have run the risk of diluting our product." Reaching for the tuner as soon as a D.J. says "Don't touch that dial" is almost instinctual for many listeners, a fact that radio executives could accept when revenue was soaring, like it last did during the dot-com boom. But revenue since then has expanded with something like the speed of a sloth, with combined national and local ad spending growing 4 percent in the first five months of the year, compared with the same period a year earlier, and rising 2 percent in all of 2003, according to the Radio Advertising Bureau. The slow growth comes despite a long-term run-up in the number of minutes in each hour devoted to commercials, said Laraine Mancini, a broadcasting analyst at Merrill Lynch. "Radio wanted to take every dollar that was getting thrown at them," she said. "And you didn't have to produce more to do it; just take a song off and add commercials." Solid figures on radio commercials are hard to come by because of the difficulty in monitoring thousands of stations across the country, but Ms. Mancini and others offered rough estimates. Where 10 to 12 minutes of advertising each hour was perhaps the norm a decade ago, some talk-radio stations now broadcast more than 20 minutes of ads an hour, they said. Many music stations probably play more than 15 minutes. The expanding volume of commercials has bred frustration among advertisers and radio audiences, Ms. Mancini said. "People don't want to spend a quarter of their time listening to the radio listening to ads," she said. The proportion of people who turn on the radio at least once a week remains high. It was 94.2 percent last winter, compared with 95.8 percent 10 years earlier, according to data on the top 100 markets compiled by Arbitron. But the average time that people actually listen each week has slid downward during the same period, to 19 hours and 30 minutes from 22 hours and 30 minutes. Mr. Hogan of Clear Channel Radio, which is a unit of Clear Channel Communications, said the company's new ceilings on ads, while national in scope, would vary according to format and time of day. For example, during the morning drive, Clear Channel's country-music stations will broadcast no more than 12 minutes of commercials an hour, take no more than 4 minutes for any single commercial break and pack no more than six commercials into a break. Such stations have been playing 18 minutes to 24 minutes of ads during the morning drive, Mr. Hogan said. "This is a way for us to go to advertisers and say we've heard you. We're going to give you a better environment," he added. Enforcement efforts will rely on proprietary technology that will monitor what Clear Channel stations broadcast, he said. Joseph W. Lenski, executive vice president at Edison Media Research, said the new Clear Channel limits might create pressure for others to do something similar. "Since they are the 800-pound gorilla, when they make a public stand on this, I think other groups in the industry will have to take notice," Mr. Lenski said. "It's a lot like when one airline cuts prices, the other airlines have to match." But Joel Hollander, president and chief operating officer at the Infinity Broadcasting unit of Viacom Inc., said the Clear Channel model would not fit Infinity stations. "We leave decisions of inventory in the hands of station managers," he said. Mr. Hollander said, however, that Infinity had placed new limits on certain stations since his arrival last summer. At KILT-FM, a country-music station in Houston, for example, commercial time was reduced to 12 minutes each hour from about 15 minutes or 16 minutes. "We've seen positive results," he said, citing higher ad prices and stronger ratings. Another competitor, the Emmis Communications Corporation, could not be reached by deadline, but it described its view during a June 30 conference call on its first-quarter earnings. "We have acknowledged over the last two or three years that we think spot loads, whether you look at Emmis radio, or other groups, are pretty much at their absolute max," said Rick Cummings, president at the radio division. Guy Zapoleon, president at Zapoleon Media Strategies, called the Clear Channel move well-timed given threats like satellite radio and proliferating sources of music and information. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. VERMONT Public Radio officially launches its new service on Tuesday morning. "VPR Classical" is on WNCH (88.1 Norwich), with plans to expand across the rest of the state in the years to come; most programming will come by satellite at first, though VPR music host Walter Parker will be heard mid-morning and VPR head honcho Mark Vogelzang will be heard on Sundays with "Sunday Bach." The folks behind wolf1490.net, the tribute site to one of America's great little top 40 voices (WOLF 1490 Syracuse, of course), are working on an August 7 reunion of the jocks who made that little 250- watt (directional!) teapot sing through the fifties, sixties and seventies. The event will include a three-hour on-air reunion on WOLF, now a Radio Disney affiliate, as well as a full-fledged get-together. (Get in touch with Bob Mitchell at the site if you're a "lost alum" of the Big 15!) (Scott Fybush, NE Radio Watch July 19 via DXLD) ** U S A. Clampitt v. WAMU http://www.washtimes.com/business/20040713-094322-3629r.htm Susan Clampitt, who was fired Oct. 30 as general manager of WAMU-FM (88.5), is suing the NPR station's owner, American University, and its president, Benjamin A. Ladner, for wrongful termination. She is seeking more than $12 million in damages, including $3 million for "severe physical, emotional and psychological distress." Mr. Ladner dismissed Ms. Clampitt after published reports about financial and morale problems at WAMU. In a complaint filed June 30 in D.C. Superior Court, Ms. Clampitt's attorneys stated that Mr. Ladner approved her "financial and budgetary recommendations" and failed to "claim any responsibility for the policies and practices that caused staff discontent." The document also states that WAMU host Diane Rehm "informed several individuals" in July 2003 that she intended to force Ms. Clampitt from her job. Mr. Ladner's spokesman and Mrs. Rehm could not be reached yesterday (Washington Times [Moony], July 13 via Current via DXLD) ** U S A. An interesting Archive Hour coming up: The Archive Hour: Free Radio - The Pacifica Story Channel: BBC Radio 4 Date: Saturday 31 July Time: 8:00pm to 9:00pm [BST = 1900-2000 UT] Review --- Mike Marqusee pieces together a history of Pacifica Radio. Since 1949 Pacifica has been a unique voice of dissent, an arena for protest and a space to imagine an alternative American dream. Raided by the FBI, blown up by the Klu Klux Klan and frequently torn apart by internal troubles, Pacifica has both reported and reacted to the major social upheavals of American life and liberty (via Phil Attwell, MW Circle via DXLD) ** U S A. NETWORKS GRANT AFFILIATES POWER TO PRE-EMPT --- SHOWS CAN BE REJECTED, SUBBED --- By Paul Davidson USA TODAY http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040719/6375545s.htm The big TV networks have quietly agreed to give their affiliates more power to pre-empt network shows, largely resolving the affiliates' long-standing complaint to federal regulators. In letters to affiliates in recent weeks, ABC, NBC and Fox loosened contract provisions that limited the affiliates' right to reject network shows for local substitutes. CBS dropped such limits in 2001. ''We've had large steps forward'' says Alan Frank, chief of Post- Newsweek Stations and head of the Network Affiliated Stations Alliance (NASA). ABC and NBC also agreed to drop provisions allowing them to end affiliation deals if a station is sold. The progress appears to have been prompted by a belief that the Federal Communications Commission was poised to act on a 3-year-old NASA complaint about the restrictive contracts, Frank says. The development could shift some power back to the independently owned affiliates. Recent relaxation of media ownership rules has let the networks buy more stations, giving them more control over programming and, critics say, stifling local diversity and voices. The move also could make it easier, amid a furor over indecency, for affiliates to pre-empt network shows they deem offensive. FCC rules allow affiliates to reject network shows they deem ''unsuitable'' or that they want to replace with programs of ''greater local or national importance.'' The affiliates say that gives them latitude to pre-empt virtually any show and that network contracts illegally limited that discretion. NBC barred affiliates from rejecting shows similar to ones they've aired before. ABC demanded 14 days' notice for most pre-emptions. Fox reserved the right to end affiliations for more than two unauthorized pre-emptions a year. Also, all three networks have narrowly interpreted what substitute programs had ''greater local or national importance.'' NBC, for instance, said that applies only to live coverage of breaking news. All three networks have dropped or revised the offending provisions. ''We didn't change our policies,'' says NBC spokeswoman Shannon Jacobs. ''We reworded some sections for clarity.'' ABC would not comment. Fox spokesman Andrew Butcher did not return a phone message. NASA still wants the FCC to set new rules clarifying the affiliates' right to reject network programs, partly because it's unclear if the changes apply only to current contracts or to future deals as well. Also, Fox still requires that affiliates reserve all their new digital channels for Fox shows, NASA says. (c) Copyright 2004 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. 5062.34, unID LA, 127 kb. 1055 UT 18/7 2004. This morning Sunday I had an unID station on 5062.34 kHz with talk/OM in quichua(?) and music. Could it be reactivation of Radio Progreso, Loja, Ecuador? Comments and recording at: http://www.malm-ecuador.com 73s (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, DX LISTENING DIGEST) [Later:] 5062.34, unID LA, 144 kb. 1100 UT 19/7 2004. Better signal this Monday morning from my unID LA on 5062.34 kHz. Rogildo Aragão, Bolivia, is thinking of South Ecuador or North Peru and Christer Brunstroms, Sweden, guess is Peru. My own guess after listening to the station this morning is Peru. Comments and recordings at: http://www.malm-ecuador.com 73s (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, DX LISTENING DIGEST ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ NTSC until 2009 or 2010? RF@NAB: DTV Reception And Interference --- At NAB2004, broadcast engineers were focusing on getting ready for the shutdown of analog TV. At past NAB conventions, the date was uncertain. Some engineers believed analog TV would never be shut down, and I don't think anyone thought the Dec. 31, 2006, date set by Congress and the FCC was realistic. The consensus at this year's NAB seemed to be analog TV broadcasting will end sometime in 2009 or 2010. This realization had broadcasters concerned about DTV reception and coverage issues, both before and after the transition. I'll look at some of the papers that focused on these issues this month. Most of them were not in the NAB2004 Broadcast Engineering Conference Proceedings and are based on notes I took during the sessions. . . http://www.tvtechnology.com/features/On-RF/f_rf_technology-07.07.04.shtml (via Curtis Sadowski, IL, Jul 18, 2004 07:42 PDT, WTFDA via DXLD) POWERLINE COMMUNICATIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++ FIRST BPL PROJECT LAUNCHED IN TEXAS Link: http://www.telecomweb.com/news/1089846280.htm A pilot project to deliver broadband over power lines (BPL) is now under way in three Texas communities, courtesy of Central Texas-based Broadband Horizons. The project is important in that it further demonstrates that existing infrastructure -- other than ``twisted pair`` copper wire or coaxial cable -- can facilitate high-speed connections to the Internet. Texas is now one of a handful of states, including Virginia, Indiana and Kentucky, that are experimenting with BPL. The Texas project is serving the communities of Blanco, Burnet and Weimar. However, Broadband Horizons said Wednesday (July 14) that it’s preparing to launch BPL in more than 50 additional Texas communities over the next few years. Internet connections using BPL technology work very much like those provided by cable and DSL (wireline telephony). The difference is BPL uses an existing power line, which is a wire that goes into virtually every home in the nation. A high-speed connection to the Internet is achieved simply by plugging a small modem into any outlet and then plugging a computer into the modem. No other installation is required. Advancement of this emerging technology is especially important for rural and other under-served portions of the nation, places where high-speed Internet access is often unavailable (This article was mentioned on the front page of RadioIntel.com http://www.radiointel.com/index.htm via Steve N5WBI, Houston TX, July 15, NRC-AM via DXLD) ###