DX LISTENING DIGEST 5-078, May 9, 2005 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 2005 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 1273: Tue 0600 WOR WPKN Bridgeport CT 89.5, WPKM Montauk NY 88.7 Tue 1600 WOR WBCQ after hours Wed 0930 WOR WWCR 9985 Wed 1600 WOR WBCQ after hours MORE info including audio links: http://worldofradio.com/radioskd.html See also JAPAN; NEW ZEALAND WRN ON DEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO [also for CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL] WORLD OF RADIO 1273 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1273h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1273h.rm WORLD OF RADIO 1273 (low version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1273.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1273.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1273.html WORLD OF RADIO 1273 in true shortwave sound of Alex`s mp3: (stream) http://www.dxprograms.net/worldofradio_05-04-05.m3u (download) http://www.dxprograms.net/worldofradio_05-04-05.mp3 DX/SWL/MEDIA PROGRAMS May 10: http://www.worldofradio.com/dxpgms.html DXLD YAHOOGROUP: Why wait for DXLD? A lot more info, not all of it appearing in DXLD later, is posted at our yg. Here`s where to sign up http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dxld/ ** AFGHANISTAN. TALIBAN RADIO BACK ON THE AIR --- A good overview of all the recent reports, plus some stuff I haven't seen before. http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/5/CE6C0EC5-EBE3-47EE-A543-1F3A8F357F3D.html (Andy Sennitt, Netherlands, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) But, WTFK? ** ALAND ISLANDS. News from 603 AM: Sedan den 20 April är 603 kHz igång reguljärt. Sändningsplats, Mariehamn, Åland, Finland. Effekt: ca 1 kW. Radiostationen drivs och förvaltas av Mike Spenser. För kontakter till Spenser; mobil 040-8787 686. International; ++358-40-8787 686. Studio; ++358 (0)18 199 40. E-mail: mikespenser @ hotmail.com Kontakter till huvudkontoret i Sverige: ++46 (0)40-49 50 00, fax ++46 (0)40-59 72 54. Radio 603 AM, Box 14006, 200 24 Malmö, Sweden. English: Radio 603 AM is on air. The station is runing by Mike Spenser. Phone, ++358 (0)40-8787 686. Local calls Advertisers, please contact, Mike Spenser Malmö 9/5 2005. Radio 603 AM, Licence holder of 603 kHz Åland. News from us. We want receptions reports from our listeners, too.... Roy Sandgren Radio Scandinavia 603 AM Box 14006 S-200 24 Malmö, Sweden. ++46-(0)40 49 50 00. +358-0(18) 199 40. Åland Studio Mobil 010-200 00 00 Calls inside Sweden, only fax++46(0)40 59 72 54 (via Jouko Huuskonen, Finland, May 9, DXLD) ** ANGOLA. Olá pessoal, Eis um sítio interessante se desejarem conhecer a história da radiodifusão angolana. http://angolaradio.aminharadio.com (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, May 8, radioescutas yg via DXLD) Has loads of old photos, many apparently clipped from WRTH, as well as historic WRTH entries for each station (gh) O site é realmente interessante. Dá uma ideia muito clara sobre o nascimento da rádio em Angola e sobre a sua evolução durante a colonização portuguesa. De todas aquelas estações de rádio, restam agora apenas duas: a Rádio Ecclésia -- Emissora Católica de Angola -- e a Rádio Nacional de Angola, que é a continuadora da antiga Emissora Oficial de Angola. A rádio que se começou a fazer em Angola no tempo colonial era uma rádio que pouco ou nada diferia da que se fazia então em Portugal. A sua música era igual à que se tocava na rádio portuguesa e o seu estilo de locução era também praticamente igual ao que se usava em Portugal. Quase nada de africano transparecia nas suas emissões. Era uma rádio feita por colonizadores e para colonizadores. Este facto não é de surpreender, pois os colonizados angolanos não tinham poder de compra suficiente para adquirir um rádio e, mesmo que o tivessem, não dispunham de electricidade nas suas habitações. Por isso, só os colonizadores é que ouviam rádio. Esta situação alterou-se ao longo da década de sessenta com a vulgarização dos rádios portáteis a pilhas. Em África, nomeadamente, em finais dessa mesma década, começaram a ser lançados no mercado rádios portáteis extremamente baratos e extremamente simples, que tinham um número de componentes electrónicos tão baixo quanto possível e que estavam equipados só com ondas curtas. Estes rádios a pilhas eram tão baratos que ficavam ao alcance do poder de compra das populações nativas mais pobres. Surgiu assim um novo auditório africano, que ouvia rádio de uma forma extraordinariamente ávida, pois subitamente tinha passado a ter o mundo inteiro ao alcance do seu ouvido. Com a finalidade de atingir este novo auditório, o governo colonial de Angola criou uma nova rádio oficial, que se chamava Voz de Angola. Esta rádio transmitia em diversas línguas nativas, além do português, e tocava exclusivamente música angolana. Era uma rádio feita por africanos e para africanos, embora se mantivesse sob a égide do poder colonial. Foi um enorme sucesso. A Voz de Angola tornou-se rapidamente na rádio mais ouvida em Angola. Por todo aquele sertão angolano adentro, quase não escutavam outra rádio. Diversos rádios clubes aperceberam-se deste sucesso e resolveram atrair também para si os ouvintes africanos das respectivas regiões. Passaram a transmitir, também eles, durante uma ou duas horas por dia, programas que eram falados nas línguas locais e que tocavam música angolana e também alguma música congolesa, que era muito apreciada. Entre estes rádios clubes estão os de Malange, Bié, Benguela e outros ainda. O Rádio Clube do Uíge, inclusive, chegou a transmitir relatos de futebol em quicongo, que é a língua falada no noroeste de Angola. O Rádio Clube do Huambo foi mais longe ainda e criou um segundo canal -- simultâneo com o seu canal "português" --, que durante o dia transmitia em umbundo (a língua falada no planalto central de Angola) e à noite tocava música clássica. Nos inícios da década de setenta, o governo da colónia decidiu instalar estações de rádio locais naquelas regiões que ainda não tivessem nenhuma. Em todo o vastíssimo Cuando-Cubango, no sudoeste de Angola, por exemplo, não existia nenhuma rádio. Foi por isso criado, na cidade de Menongue (que na época colonial se chamava Serpa Pinto), o Emissor Regional de Menongue. Na pequena cidade do Cubal, foi criado o Emissor Regional do Cubal. Em Saurimo (que na época colonial se chamava Henrique de Carvalho), foi criado o Emissor Regional de Saurimo. Em Ndalatando (que na época colonial tinha o nome do próprio ditador português, Salazar), foi criado o Emissor Regional do Cuanza Norte. Em Cabinda existia um rádio clube, o Rádio Clube de Cabinda, que nunca se preocupou em transmitir programas próprios para a população africana do enclave; por isso, o governo da colónia criou uma estação de rádio especificamente para esta população, estação a que pôs o nome de Voz de Cabinda. Em M'banza Kongo (que no tempo colonial se chamava São Salvador do Congo), foi criada a Voz do Zaire. E mais nenhuma rádio foi criada pelo governo colonial, porque entretanto o regime foi derrubado (em 25 de Abril de 1974) e Angola tornou-se independente em 11 de Novembro de 1975. De entre as fotos de radialistas que se vêem no web site em referência, estão algumas fotos que pertencem a profissionais que ainda hoje estão em actividade, não já em Angola, mas sim em Portugal. Por exemplo, Jaime Marques de Almeida, que foi até há poucos dias director da RDP Internacional, foi profissional no Rádio Clube do Lobito. David Borges, que é o director da RDP África (um canal da RDP que é transmitido em FM em várias cidades africanas, assim como em Lisboa), trabalhou no Rádio Clube da Huíla. Fernando Alves, que está agora na TSF, trabalhou no Rádio Clube de Benguela. Carneiro Gomes, que é agora repórter da Rádio Renascença, esteve no Rádio Clube do Huambo. Há dois ou três dias faleceu um outro profissional de rádio, que não tem a sua foto no site, mas que começou, também ele, a sua actividade profissional em Angola; chamava-se Jorge Perestrelo e foi, concerteza, o maior locutor de futebol que alguma vez existiu na rádio portuguesa, empolgando todos quantos o ouviam na TSF. Paz à sua alma. (Fernando de Sousa Ribeiro, Portugal, http://community.webshots.com/user/f_s_ribeiro radioescutas yg via DXLD) ** ARGENTINA. HCJB se quita de 11710: see ECUADOR. 2350 UT May 9, RAE indeed no longer with HCJB co-channel, the latter having moved to 11720. But Weak RAE evidenced only by the het it still makes on 11710.9 or so with some equally weak other 11710.0 station. I trust RAE is more audible in Brasil and elsewhere in SAm now, anyway. Per EiBi A-05 there are other stations somewhere on 11710 around this time, where else but: 11710 0000-0030 CHN China National Radio 1 M CHN b 11710 2000-2400 CHN China National Radio 1 M CHN b 11710 2200-2400 TWN CBS 1 Taiwan M CHN Whilst the censored A-05 HFCC just shows: 11710 2000 0030 42,43N BEI 100 285 1234567 270305 301005 D CHN CRI RTC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BOLIVIA. 4498.1, Radio Estambul, ¿Guayaramerín?, 1003-1023, Mayo 08, Español. Anuncio por locutora a las 1003, breve canción y anuncio y saludos por OM: "6 de la mañana con 6 minutos, 6 de la mañana con 6 minutos... tenemos las mejores felicitaciones para los 15 años de...". Vals de Strauss. Anuncio e ID.: "compartiendo momentos inolvidables, aquí en Radio Estambul, para que puedas pasar un día inolvidable... Radio y Television Estambul... que están junto a nosotros y los saludamos con todo cariño en este amanecer...". Canción. Anuncio e ID: "venga para acá... en la Radio Estambul, véngase para acá....".- Otro reporte de la hora: "las 6 de la mañana con 20 miniutos, las 6 con 20...", 24432 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, Noticias DX via DXLD) Thanks to Gert Nilsson, I can now report that Radio Estambul has made it across the pond. Gert heard them s/off 0207 on May 6, promising to be back on the air by 0900. Interestingly, and in an apparent contradiction to previous info, the owner was not mentioned as "Sr. Yamal" but rather as "Señora" something & sons. I won´t venture transcribing her name from just one mention which coincided with a QRN outburst. Time will tell (Henrik Klemetz, Sweden, May 8, dxing.info via DXLD) Latest Recordings 9/5: The Estambul Story goes on..... Quito 9/5 2005 *** Monday edition: *** New recording of Radio Estambul 4498.12 kHz QTH "Estambul"? QTH "Guayaramerín"? QTH "XXX"? New recording, without interruption, from this Monday morning. 2 minutes 25 seconds and 597 kilobyte. (".tmp" recordings, will be removed). Comments, photos and recordings at: http://www.malm-ecuador.com 73s (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, DX LISTENING DIGEST) You do not beleive me but this is the first time I have "worked" more concentrated with my recording. I have also listened to my first recording of unID(thought it was some harmonic) I made some week/weeks ago. Méxican music and several times "Guayaramerín" and once "...aquí en Guayaramerín..." beetween the tunes - but it´s easier when you already know. I also heard ad/prom for "Radioomunicación Yamal(?) - it sounded something like that. Thank you very much to Henrik Klemetz and Jan Erik Osterholm for helping me solving this thrilling "problem". 73s Bjorn Malm, Quito, Ecuador Part 1 of my clip: ".....estamos trabajando en la frecuencia de los 4496 kiloherzios en onda corta.....banda de 60 metros. (Buena música?) de Guayaramerín, Beni". Part 2: "....Radio Estambul en.....radiocomunicación..... . Part 3: ....(muy buena?) potencia ...muchas comunidades rurales, tenemos reportes de diferentes comunidades......" Part 4: Just seconds: "....donde se sintonizan..." Part 5: ....Alaska...., Carmen Alto + some more comunidades (Björn Malm, May 9, dxing.info via DXLD) [Later:] Quito 9/5 2005 *** Monday edition: *** New recording of Radio Estambul 4498.12 kHz The Radio Estambul Story goes on. I have made this monday morning a new recording of Radio Estambul 4498.12 kHz. ID for a FM station "Radio San Borja"(San Burga??), prom for "Radiocomunicación Yamal" etc. Det "Radio San Borja/San Burga" jag tyckte mig hora ar egentligen "Radio Estambul la frecuencia amiga". Klemetz har dar helt ratt nar detta papekas i en mal. Comments, photos and recordings at: http://www.malm-ecuador.com New recording, without interruption, from this Monday morning. 2 minutes 25 seconds and 597 kilobyte. (".tmp" recordings, will be removed). "sec. 2" YL-DJ: "Radiocomunicación Yamal" "18" presenta............ "28" más información...... "33" Loreto la ciudad de Guayaramerín..... "37" ...55..4..5..... "51" OM-DJ: (la provincia de??) ...96 kilociclos de frecuencia onda corta tropical banda de 60... Radioemisora(difusora?)....(Yamal?), (La Paz, América????)... desde... la frecuencia (cristiana diferente??) "1:34" somos la Radioemisora(difusora?)... la potente onda tropical... "1:55" desde sus estudios... "2:08" 5 de la mañana con 56 minutos 4 para las 6 en la mañana 2:11" Radio San Borja(Burga ?????) frecuencia modulada. 73s (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, May 9, dxing.info via DXLD) {Later2:] Quito 9/5 2005 *** Monday evening edition: This recording is the "hard-proof". Henrik Klemetz has said, via a friend in Bolivia, that a man called "Yamal" has started a radiostation in Guayaramerín. On one of my recordings there is ad/prom for "Radiocomunicación Yamal". Perhaps the name of the company that owns Radio Estambul? Thanks to Henrik Klemetz for help. Thanks also to Jan-Erik Österholm for his comments. 4498.11 Radiodifusora Estambul. 0100 UTC. 05/2005. Radiodifusora Estambul, Avenida Prinero de Mayo, esquina Loreto, Guayaramerín, Beni, Bolivia. Comments, photos and recordings at: http://www.malm-ecuador.com 73s (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, DX LISTENING DIGEST) A lo que hemos llegado ¿No?... Radio Estambul en Guayaramerin... !!!! Lo único que falta ahora es que a algún turco se le ocurra instalar una emisora en Ankara que se llame algo así como Radio Tiawanaku o Patacamaya. Para matizar esta humarada, les digo a los colegas extranjeros... en Argentina hubo un turquito durante más de una decada (1989-1999) haciendo cosas que no tienen nombre. Disculpen, me salieron ganas de chacotear un rato. Saludos! (Rubén Guillermo Margenet, Argentina, condiglist via DXLD) ¿El palindromo? (gh) O "Radio Yupanqui", ¿quién sabe? Después de escuchar por la TRT una cuidada versión turca de "Los ejes de mi carreta" pienso que nada es imposible en el mundo. Tampoco es imposible que haya clarividentes en el mundo... "En la revista Sucesos, que se editaba en Valparaíso, en 1914 se anuncian los Polvos de Mennen," ¿Pero cómo? ¿si no habían nacido ni él ni la Bolocco? Siguiendo en el texto vi que no era por ahí la cosa. No coincidía el nombre, no era Menem sino Mennen, y además decía que era un "talco", y no un "turco", mirá: "un talco boratado que prometía mantener el cutis terso. ¿Serán estos polvos los antepasados de los actuales desodorantes y perfumes Mennen?" Cualquiera sabe... Hay más infoooormación en: http://www.nuestro.cl/opinion/columnas/consumo3.htm Saludos (Henrik Klemetz, ibid.) ** BRAZIL. BRASIL – Tão logo Luiz Ignácio Lula da Silva tomou posse, a Radiobrás reativou as emissões da Rádio Nacional do Brasil para o exterior. Como o interesse da administração atual é uma maior convergência com os países de fala portuguesa da África, a emissora transmite, duas horas diárias, em português para aquele continente. Ocorrem entre 1900 e 2100, em 9665 kHz, com repetição entre 0500 e 0700. Contatos com a emissora pelo e-mail: radionacionaldobrasil @ radiobras.gov.br BRASIL – Após vários dias de ausência, a Rádio Tupi, de Curitiba (PR), voltou a ser captada, na freqüência de 6060 kHz, em 49 metros. A informação é do sítio http://www.soradio.blogspot.com BRASIL – Não há previsão para a Rádio Nove de Julho, de São Paulo (SP), entrar no ar pela freqüência de 9820 kHz, em 31 metros. A informação é do Domingos Alfredo Loss, de Colatina (ES), que entrou em contato, recentemente, com o pessoal da Fundação Metropolitana Paulista, entidade que administra a estação. Atualmente, a Nove de Julho pode ser sintonizada, apenas em ondas médias, na freqüência de 1600 kHz (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX May 8 via DXLD) ** CANADA. Temporary nostalgia station CJML-580 here in Winnipeg now has a website. You can find it at http://cjml.cjb.net There is no live audio but you can get schedules, info on announcers etc. They will be on until May 14 but per website only from 0700-2200 CDT, Power is 99 watts. CJML can also be reached by phone at (204)-895-2565. I phoned them to let them know that I was receiving them with a somewhat scratchy signal in West Kildonan (Northern part of Winnipeg). The lady I talked to said some people across the Red River from me in North Kildonan were not getting them at all! She seemed interested in the fact that I was using tube era radios (Hallicrafters S-38 and Zenith Trans-Oceanic) to listen to them. Station is located at Deer Park Lodge, Portage Avenue in Winnipeg's west end (Morris Sorensen, Winnipeg MB, May 8, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) ** CHINA [non]. China`s new relay at Cerrik, Albania verified for the third time with a laminated pennant and two paper cuttings. They must really be happy with this new relay because they are constantly sending me replies for my one reception report! (Richard a. D`Angelo, PA, Musings, May NASWA Journal via DXLD) See also ARGENTINA ** COLOMBIA. Radio Líder, escuchada en los 6139.77 kHz, a la 0106 UT, el 07/05, con SINPO 54444. Señal fortísima y canal completamente despejado (Adán González, Catia La Mar, VENEZUELA, May 9, Yaesu FT- 890, Antena TH3 MK3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CROATIA [non]. CROÁCIA VIA ALEMANHA - Para os ouvintes que ficaram órfãos da emissão da BBC Brasil, aqui vai a dica do José Moacir Portera de Melo, de Pontes e Lacerda (MT): diariamente, ele escuta a Voz da Croácia, em espanhol, às 2230, em 9925 kHz. Lembrando que a Voz da Croácia é uma das emissoras que mais tem investido nas ondas curtas, em espanhol. Antes os programas eram de apenas cinco minutos e, agora, têm a duração de meia-hora. A ênfase da emissora é a relação entre a Croácia e os países de língua espanhola. Não são esquecidos os assuntos ligados ao Brasil! O único senão é que a emissora não prioriza o contato com os ouvintes. Não há um espaço específico para as cartas e inquietudes dos que querem interagir com a emissora. Nem mesmo um endereço eletrônico é anunciado nas jornadas da estação! (Célio Romais, Panorama, @tividade DX May 8 via DXLD) ** CUBA [and non]. MABEL WILLIAMS ``TAKES FIVE`` CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER`S MESSAGE HEARD ANEW --- Posted: March 24, 2005 http://www.jsonline.com/onwisconsin/movies/mar05/312159.asp Robert F. Williams was an iconoclast and, in many ways, one of the most misunderstood and unsung heroes of America`s civil rights movement. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran and president of the Monroe, N.C., chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Williams was enlisted to uphold the belief that the civil rights strategy against segregation of the times was to work through the legal system with non-violent protests. But Williams rejected conventional beliefs and made headlines across the country in 1959 when he armed himself against the Ku Klux Klan. His actions got him expelled from the NAACP, and later he moved to Cuba, where he championed the Cuban revolution. While living there in the 1960s, he created a shortwave radio broadcast called ``Radio Free Dixie`` before moving to China. Williams died in 1996, but the question of whether he was a villain or hero remained. Williams` widow, Mabel Williams, and their son, John, are raising renewed interest in Williams` contributions to the civil rights movement with the screening of ``Negroes With Guns: Bob Williams & Black Power,`` a documentary about a black community that armed itself against the KKK. Mabel Williams will be in Milwaukee Friday for a 6:30 p.m. free showing of the film at the Wisconsin Black Historical Society, 2620 W. Center St. Mabel Williams talked with Journal Sentinel urban affairs reporter Leonard Sykes Jr. about her late husband. Q: Is Robert Williams, in your view, one of those figures whose contribution to the movement is still overlooked? A: Definitely, yes. The government forces kept a curtain of silence around our movement and attempted to isolate him from the rest of the civil rights movement. Robert was deliberately isolated, especially after he made the statement about meeting ``violence with violence`` and protecting women and children in the homes. After we got back into this country (from China) and received our files under the Freedom of Information Act, it was verified that they were doing everything possible not to let him come back in the first place and then not to allow him to fill the void in the black nationalist movement. Since (Martin Luther) King (Jr.) was dead and Malcolm (Shabazz) was gone, they did everything possible to keep Robert Williams from filling that void. So yes, there was a deliberate disconnection that was imposed, certainly nothing that he did. Q: Whites, and even some blacks within the movement, saw Williams as a menace. A lot of blacks revered him. Did that lead to his estrangement with the NAACP? A: His estrangement with the NAACP came about because of the open stance (of self defense) . . . that caused them to fear the loss of revenues from white liberals and even white conservatives who were in support of doing things just on a legal basis, or supporting the NAACP. But they did not want any radicals or radical ideas coming from the NAACP. That too was brought out in the files that we obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Q: Tell me about Radio Free Dixie? A: It was beamed from Cuba over Radio Progresso under shortwave (radio). That was Robert`s own idea. He had listened for many years to Voice of America and all other kinds of broadcasts. And when we got to Cuba, he thought about what we could do to continue our struggle and to help our people in the United States. He came up with this idea of a radio program, Radio Free Dixie. When Fidel asked him what they could do to help him, he told them, ``I`d like to have a radio program.`` After much consideration and wrangling and struggling, Fidel finally got him on the radio station. Bob wrote his own script and got jazz and protest records from listeners, most of them through Canada. People who came to Cuba would bring us records, and protest albums and newspapers. So we kept up with what was going on. We had a news broadcast on what was going on in the civil rights movement, and Robert had a commentary on every session. Q: How far was the reach of Radio Free Dixie? A: We got letters from listeners as far away as Los Angeles, New York City and all up and down the East Coast in 1962 and 1963. (Does anyone remember this program? --- Fred Waterer, ODXA ed.) (Programming Matters, May ODXA Listening In via DXLD) I do. And I`m pretty sure it was NOT on shortwave, but on R. Progreso, 690 MW only. This was only a couple years after the inauguration of RHC on SW and those transmitters were not used for anything else. Perhaps the author could not conceive of such an international broadcast being on MW. Unless someone can cite a SW frequency reference for RFD (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DEUTSCHES REICH [non]. WARNING: POTENTIAL NEW HATE RADIO PROGRAM I came across this on the Web while searching for something else entirely. http://www.stormfront.org/archive/t-180571Shortwave_Radio.html NS greetings, I am forwarding a fundraising appeal letter from a veteran NS and Klan activist Capt. Rick Remer. As many of you know, the NSM would like to further expand the listenership base of NSM Radio/Vonbluvens show which is wildly popular on internet Radio, and is going into production as we speak for Cable Access television. The next step is Shortwave Radio, and Capt. Remer gives a full report on this project, and the History Behind this endeavor below. ..... I am working with the National Socialist Movement in attempt to produce a one hour shortwave radio program, to be broadcast a shortwave radio station, once a week. We have approached another station and have now reduced the cost of each hour from $160.00 to $60.00 an hour! We would like to raise enough to pay for several weeks in advance. Then we can ask the listeners to also help support the program. BUT, in the end we hope to have some of you my friends and Comrades support the program, so that the Nationalist Movement can reap the rewards of the fundraising (via Andy Sennitt, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Any guesses as to which US SW station would even consider airing this vile tripe? (gh, DXLD) ** ECUADOR [and non]. Gracias a la amabilidad del encargado de frecuencias de HCJB, Doug Weber, tengo el gusto de informarles que a partir de mañana lunes 9 de mayo, la RAE se contará nuevamente con una frecuencia 11710+ libre de interferencia pifeña. Las emisiones argentinas deben alcanzarles con claridad. Después de una búsqueda para otras frecuencias, y una semana de propaganda radial para que todos sus oyentes se enteren del cambio, La Voz de los Andes utilizará en vez de 11710: 2100-2300 TU 12000 para Sudamérica 2300-0100 TU 11720 para Norte- y Sudamérica Lástima que el otro choque se prolonga aún, es decir Voz Cristã en 15475 entre 16 y 21 TU, a pesar de Gabón y Antártida. Nos esforzamos para promover otra resolución amena. 73, (Glenn Hauser, Oclajoma, May 8, condig list et al., via DXLD) Excelente noticia!!! Gracias por la información Glenn! (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, ibid.) Saludos Glenn. Esto es una muestra mas de que los diexistas pueden lograr acuerdos con las grandes cadenas radiales, creo que HCJB se merece que les escribamos agradeciendoles este gesto. Y para usted mis felicitaciones por lo logrado (José Elías, Venezuela, ibid.) As promised, HCJB confirmed May 9 on 12000 before 2300, and 11720 after 2300, both ex-11710, clearing that for ARGENTINA [q.v.], and HCJB no longer with a het. Very strong and clear here on 11720 when on NAm beam. However, at 2359 UT still announcing as 11710 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. Doug, Have been hearing DRM again on 15375 in the mornings around 1430 UT. Would this be you, or Santiago, or ?? Not on any DRM schedule. Are you doing any (other) DRM currently? 73, (Glenn, May 6 to Doug Weber, HCJB, via DXLD) Hi Glenn, Yeah, apparently you are correct. We have been talking to our Elkhart Engineering Center about doing some more tests soon with our DRM transmitter. We thought that might happen last week, but it did not. However, apparently the engineers in Pifo were running up the transmitter on 15375 kHz in anticipation of the upcoming tests. It is not certain yet what frequency we will use when we actually start the tests. I am waiting on Elkhart to tell us the schedule that they want us to broadcast during. I will file the frequency for the tests once we have that info. Pretty good of you to catch us on those sporadic transmissions (Douglas Weber, Radio Director, HCJB, La Voz de los Andes, Quito, Ecuador, May 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ECUADOR. Radio Chaskis del Norte --- On an audio file received from Gert Nilsson, I have been hearing various reporters being mentioned on the air in a program last Friday morning UT, at approx. 0120, on their frequency of 4909.27 kHz. One of the reporters was Dave Valko, from Pennsylvania, USA. "A los oyentes de Estados Unidos, thank you very much", said the speaker at one time (Henrik Klemetz, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GREECE [and non]. ERA5 - Network Without Borders (In Greek) Description of program The Voice of Greece news bulletin for Greeks living abroad. A daily program, Monday to Friday from 1700-1900 UT (2000 to 2200 Greek local time), transmitted live from Greek State radio 3A studio on 7475, 9420, 15630 and [via Delano] 17705. Content: Politics and culture, news and events- touching the about 7 million Greeks of the diaspora, seamen, the large number of philelenes, native Greeks as well as world citizens speaking the Greek-language, are the basic points of reference of the daily ERA5, 2-hour news program. Noe Parlavantzas and Giorgos Pentarakis through a network of world correspondents [ Apostolis Zoupaniotis in NY, Stamatis Asimenios in Bonn, Themis Kalos in Sydney and Nikos Katsikas in Cairo] present and comment with objectivity on political, social and cultural news - always giving priority to national news and special weight to issues concerning Greeks living abroad. Basic collaborators of the program are Natasa Vissarionos and Dimitra Gounaridi in charge of the program's daily agenda and music as well as communication and secretarial work. Producers: Noe Parlavantzas: news editing, research, presentation. Giorgos Pentarakis: news editing, research, presentation. Natasa Visarionos: news editing, secretarial work organization. Dimitra Gounaridi: news and music selection. (VOG Web Site via John Babbis, Silver Spring, MD) ** ISRAEL. 6973.11, Israel Army Radio (// 1287) 2308 UT. 73 (Steve Whitt, UK, 1012 UT May 7, MWC via DXLD) ** JAPAN. To all listeners & program contributors of Radio LavaLamp: I apologize for this overdue message regarding the status of the station. If you have tuned-in recently, you are aware that programming hasn't been updated for a few months. Several occurrences have made it impossible to run the station on a regular basis. The work schedules of myself and key volunteers have become such that little time can be devoted to updating programs. We have also been concerned about Live 365's continued plans to make the audio stream "pay-for" only for the domestic Japan audience. Lastly, our web page is currently missing following the sudden and untimely passing of our "web page coordinator" at the end of 2004. This was followed by an upgrade of internet cable service wherein the old page was deleted. I am beginning to revamp the station as follows: 1) A new web-page will be created in conjunction with a Canadian web- hosting company. 2) Radio LavaLamp will focus primarily on World Music on its main, Live 365 stream. Most political, spoken-word and other music genres will no longer be on this stream, but. . . 3) A 2nd stream used for Live webcasts will be set-up using software unrelated to Live 365. Here is where most program contributions will appear although webcasts may be less frequent -- perhaps once a week. 4) It is possible that an "audio-on-demand" page will be created for spoken word projects. Currently several poets and writers are showing interest in this idea. In the near-future I hope to put up a block of about 4 hours of World Music & World Fusion. Will hopefully be including the Putumayo World Music Hour and WoodSongs ol' time radio show. If you don't care to receive these very occasional updates, please let me know & I'll remove your email address. Thanks! (Ralph Famularo, Osaka, Japan, May 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) WOR had been on the Lavalamp schedule 4 times each weekend, but now removed pending further word on whether it will be included in the new setup (gh, DXLD) ** LITHUANIA. 9875, R. Vilnius wiith music/ID's every 8 to 10 seconds. No programming, from 2244 to 2255, then abrupt sign-off on 4/22/05 (Tim Davisson, Norton OH, NASWA Flashsheet May 8 via DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS [non]. RADIO NETHERLANDS RELAY VIA SPECTRUM RADIO TO END We have been advised by WRN that as from 15 May 2005 the Radio Netherlands English service will no longer be broadcast on Spectrum 558 in London between 1300-1400 UTC. This has been a free and pre- emptible slot on Spectrum while they relayed WRN Europe as a filler. This, of course, does not affect the Radio Netherlands programme on WRN itself, only the mediumwave relay. # posted by Andy @ 08:10 UT May 9 (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** NEW ZEALAND. World FM, Tawa, has added web streaming in ogg format; and the current schedule shows WOR: UT Thu 1000, 2300 only. http://www.worldfm.co.nz (Glenn Hauser, May 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NIGERIA. STATE MEDIA RESUME WORK AFTER STRIKE OVER UNPAID ALLOWANCES | Text of report in English by French news agency AFP Lagos, 6 May: Thousands of workers in Nigeria's state media organizations resumed work on Friday [6 May] after a three-day strike to protest what they said was government's failure to pay 18 months of allowances. Three unions representing journalists and producers launched the nationwide strike on Tuesday to press for payment of the money which government promised them under a policy of replacing benefits in kind with cash allowances. Radio Nigeria and the Voice of Nigeria (VON) - a radio station which goes out across Africa and broadcasts programmes in English, French, Portuguese and Swahili - which went off air during the strike, resumed broadcasting Friday. "We are on air fully today. All the staff are back to work," VON's director of news, Ben Egbuna, told AFP. Workers at the News Agency of Nigeria also resumed work Friday, according to its deputy editor-in-chief, James Bello. Representatives of the strikers would meet next week to decide whether or not to resume the strike, a unionist said. An official of the federal ministry of information, the parent ministry of these parastatals, said that efforts were being made to settle arrears of the workers' allowances. "The problem of payment is purely administrative. We are making effort to pay the arrears. We plead for workers' understanding," he said on condition of anonymity. Source: AFP news agency, Paris, in English 1529 gmt 6 May 05 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** PALESTINE. PALESTINIAN INFORMATION MINISTER DETAILS NEW BROADCASTING STRUCTURE | Excerpt from report by Palestinian news agency Wafa web site Gaza, 6 May: Dr Nabil Sha'th, deputy prime minister and information minister, said today that the second phase of the municipal elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip was a new step towards democracy. The elections also emphasized the credibility of this government in adopting a democratic line and holding [free] elections to rebuild the Palestinian National Authority's [PNA] institutions in preparation for the coming Legislative Council elections. [Passage omitted] [At a news conference on 6 May in Gaza during which he talked about, among other things, the development of official media outlets] Sha'th said that the Information Ministry was taking rapid steps in this direction, that those in charge of media outlets were displaying good responses and that positive initiatives were emerging. He said that all media outlets were now affiliated with the Information Ministry in terms of a decision from the PNA president and the prime minister. He noted that the General Information Authority and the Palestinian News Agency, Wafa, would be unified, and that wikalat al-anba al- falastiniyah, Wafa, would have the new name of al-wikalat al- falstiniyah lil anba and al-ma'lumat, the Palestinian News and Information Agency, Wafa. He noted that a decision had also been made to merge the satellite and terrestrial TV channels, and stressed that we were moving swiftly to unify the radio and TV networks. Sha'th said that the UAE would complete the building of the broadcasting transmission network in Palestine and that main broadcasting stations would be established in Ramallah and Gaza and three secondary radio stations would be built in Nablus, Hebron and Khan Yunis. He noted that preparations were under way to establish a TV transmission network and that studios for this network would arrive shortly. [Passage omitted] Source: Palestinian news agency Wafa web site, Gaza, in Arabic 1320 gmt 5 May 05 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** PERU. 5939.30, Radio Melodía, 0013-0030 May 10. Mainly man in Spanish comments which was probably news. Others joined in periodically. Signal was fair. 6193.37, Radio Cuzco, 0050-0102 May 10. Noted a man in comments. Live ID on the hour "... Cuzco ...". Signal was poor with splatter (Chuck Bolland, Dipole, R390A, Clewiston, Florida, USA, DX LISTENING DIGEST) La Voz del Campesino, sintonizada en los 6956.93 kHz, el 09/05, a las 0211 UT, con música autóctona de los Andes y locutor de guardia. SINPO 23322 (Adán González, Catia La Mar, VENEZUELA, May 9, Yaesu FT-890, Antena TH3 MK3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. ANALYSIS: PUTIN DENIES KREMLIN CONTROLS RUSSIAN MEDIA | Text of editorial analysis by Peter Feuilherade of BBC Monitoring Media Services on 9 May Assertions that the Kremlin fully controls the mass media in Russia are an exaggeration, President Putin said in an interview with the US network CBS on 8 May. "Russia has 3,200 registered and operating broadcasting companies and only 10 per cent of them are government-owned. Russia has 46,000 registered and published newspapers and magazines. Even if the authorities at the federal or regional level wanted to control this entire body of the mass media and those who work at them - as you and I understand - it would be practically impossible," Putin told CBS presenter Mike Wallace, in remarks quoted by Russian news agency Interfax on 9 May. In its account of Putin's CBS interview, Russian news agency ITAR-TASS added that Putin had told the US network that only one TV channel in Russia (Russia TV) was government-financed and run. He added that the government was involved in another TV channel (Channel One), which is a "joint stock company with a major government share, but the state does not have a controlling stake in it". And a third channel - NTV - did not belong to the state, but was owned by the national gas giant Gazprom, in which the government had a 38 per cent stake. "Claims that all the three TV channels are purely state-run ones have nothing to do with reality," Putin said. World concern over media freedom In recent months international media freedom watchdogs have repeatedly expressed concern that the media in Russia are coming under increasing pressure from the authorities. On 6 May, the Paris-based organization Reporters Sans Frontieres sent a letter to President Bush, ahead of his meeting in Moscow with President Putin two days later, to express "its concern about a worsening crackdown against journalists in the country since Vladimir Putin came to power." After the US president criticised Russia's media freedom record during his summit meeting with President Putin in Slovakia in February 2005, the Russian leader responded testily, telling President Bush: "First of all, I am not the minister of propaganda... We, and I in particular, do not think that this has to be pushed to the foreground, that new problems should be created from nothing." Journalists' leader blames oligarchs Voices inside Russia itself have joined the international chorus expressing concern about the state of media freedom. "The actual nationalization of federal TV channels has led to the monopolization of the electronic media and mass media in general," Igor Yakovenko, the general secretary of the Union of Journalists of Russia, said in a live interview broadcast by Ekho Moskvy radio on 3 May. Yakovenko went on: "Putin has liquidated NTV, independent business and independent judiciary. All major companies forming the core of the Russian economy are headed by Kremlin officials. The oligarchs are now sitting in the Kremlin. The oligarchic censorship is flourishing. No politically important figure can be given airtime on Channel One, Russia TV and NTV without approval by Kremlin oligarchs." No return for oligarchs, Putin vows In his 8 May interview with CBS, President Putin maintained that "rumours about the Kremlin's full control over the mass media in Russia... are greatly exaggerated". Although the state has the opportunity "to control everything it wants," the question is to what extent the law permits it to do so, Putin went on. He added: "I think that if we want to guarantee the independence of the mass media, the main thing is to create conditions for their economic independence, so that they can be independent of the state and of major oligarchic groups, as we call them, that are protecting their groups, not national interests. And we will surely be working to create these, primarily economic and legal conditions, to guarantee the independence of the mass media." In warning against oligarchs regaining control over Russia's media and civil society institutions, the president was echoing a theme he had taken up a few days earlier in an interview with two German TV channels. Russian news agency Prime-TASS reported Putin as telling the ARD and ZDF channels on 6 May: "It is impossible to return Russia to the past... The state should support business, develop mass media and create a economic base for media development." Prime-TASS recalled that Russian oligarchs had controlled many media outlets and had "enormous political power" under Boris Yeltsin, Putin's predecessor. Now, in the view of media analysts, most of those outlets are now under de facto government control. Meanwhile, other oligarchs who became more friendly towards the Kremlin still control, or are believed to control, many other media outlets in Russia. Source: BBC Monitoring research 9 May 05 (via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. RADIO STATION PACIFIC OCEAN NEW ON WEB, RETURNS TO SHORTWAVE BBC Monitoring observed Radio Station Pacific Ocean on 12065 kHz shortwave at 0835-0900 gmt on 9 May 2005. The programme is also broadcast on Primorye Radio (also known as "Radio 810") on 810 kHz mediumwave, which is streamed online from the web site of GTRK Primorye at http://www.ptr-vlad.ru Radio Station Pacific Ocean (Radiostantsiya Tikhy Okean) is a Russian- language programme aimed at fishermen and other seafarers in the Pacific, produced by GTRK Primorye, the Vladivostok-based state broadcaster for Primorye Kray (Maritime Territory). It was first aired on 13 April 1963, broadcasting on mediumwave and several powerful shortwave transmitters. The shortwave transmission was dropped in 2002 however, returning on 17 April 2005. Source: BBC Monitoring research 9 May 05 (via DXLD) ** RUSSIA. KABARDINO-BALKAR RADIO OBSERVED ON SHORTWAVE On 8 May 2005 BBC Monitoring observed Kabardino-Balkar Radio on 7325 kHz shortwave at 1730-1800 gmt, broadcasting its Kabardian-language external service to the Middle East. The programme is aired only on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday, on this frequency and 1089 kHz mediumwave, from transmitters near Krasnodar. Winter timings are one hour later according to Greenwich Mean Time, and for the past few winters the shortwave frequency has switched to 6005 kHz. Kabardino- Balkaria is a constituent republic of the Russian Federation, situated in the North Caucasus region in the south of the country. Source: BBC Monitoring research in English 8 May 05 (via DXLD) ** TURKEY. TURKISH WATCHDOG UNDER FIRE FOR BANNING EROTIC CHANNELS Sun May 8, 6:52 AM ET http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050508/ennew_afp/afpentertainmentturkey_050508105206 ANKARA (AFP) - Turkey's broadcasting watchdog has come under fire for banning four adult television channels, with critics charging that the move flouted the country's efforts to expand individual liberties in its quest to join the European Union. The Higher Board of Radio and Television announced its decision to take off air Playboy TV, Adult TV, Exotica TV and Rouge TV last Friday, saying that broadcasts should "conform with the public interest... and the national, moral, human, spiritual and cultural values of the Turkish nation." The board chairman denied suggestions that the ban might have been imposed under pressure from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government, a conservative movement with Islamist roots, while officials from Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) also joined the critics. The four banned channels were broadcast late at night on a private network and were available only to subscribers. "If certain people pay money to watch programs with sexual content, this is their personal choice," senior AKP member Faruk Celik told the mass-selling Hurriyet newspaper on Sunday. "This choice concerns not the society but the people who buy that service," he said. "Their liberty should not be restricted." Saner Ayar, manager of the popular television station Show TV, said the ban would tarnish the country's image abroad. "We would allow Turkey to be seen as a secluded society. It would be impossible to make up for that," he told Hurriyet. A commentator in the popular daily Aksam, Burhan Ayeri, warned that the ban would draw EU criticism, comparing the move to a government plan to outlaw adultery last year, which was abandoned following harsh reactions from Brussels. The head of the broadcasting watchdog, he wrote tongue-in-cheek, now deserves "to become a member of the Tehran Sharia court." Turkey, scheduled to start EU accession talks in October, is predominantly Muslim but has a strictly secular state system (via Sheldon Harvey, DXLD) see also BOLIVIA ** TURKEY. CONCURSO DE LA VOZ DE TURQUIA --- Hola amigos, Ayer tuve ocasión de escuchar por primera vez el servicio en español de la Voz de Turquía hacia las 1640 por los 13720 kHz; lo interesante fue que pude escuchar la convocatoria a la "Competición 2005" que consiste en elaborar una composición de máximo tres páginas donde se trate el siguiente tema: Los logros de la Unión Europea y Turquía con la adhesión de esta última" la fecha máxima para el envío es el 11 de julio del 2005; es importante adjuntar todos los datos personales y se participa por un viaje a Turquía durante 12 dias en septiembre y con todo pago. Habrá 8 ganadores. Las participaciones a: LA VOZ DE TURQUIA Seccion Española GK 333 06443 Ankara, Turquia. Un saludo (Rafael Rodríguez, Colombia, May 9, condiglist via DXLD) ** U K. New BBCWS program schedule listing --- As part of the newly redesigned, now-weekly BBCWS programming highlight e-mails, there's a listing of program airtimes for all streams, sorted by program title: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/programme_times/a_d.shtml Helpfully, all times and days are strict UT. You can marry that information to the shortwave frequency information shown here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/schedules/frequencies/index.shtml for a quickly-loading guide to BBC programing by day, time and frequency. This is a lot quicker than the slow-to-load schedules-by- city database (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, May 9, Swprograms mailing list via DXLD) ** U S A. KVOH horribly distorted spurs are back from the 17775 transmitter: May 9 at 1623 bandscan, found very strong one, 15 over 9 around 17921. Frequencies approx.; matching on 17630 but quite a bit weaker; also further afield on 17485, 18068 or so. Recheck at 2215: gone from 17921, but the fundamental was also quite a bit weaker then (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Glenn, Bosley (Naked News Anchor) has a web site if you are interested. She gives her side of the story. http://www.thecatherinebosley.com/ (Artie Bigley, OH, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. NEW FEM-FORMAT STATION IN UTAH STARTS TODAY Sr. Glenn Hauser, saludos cordiales. En estos momentos estoy viendo la página Web http://tv.ksl.com, y anuncia una nueva emisora de radio en Utah (U.S.A.), que comienza sus emisiones hoy lunes 9 de mayo de 2005 por la frecuencia de 820 KHz, con una potencia de 50 Kw, y pertenece, según el sitio Web a la Bonneville International Corporation, siendo su formato el de estación de radio sobre charlas femeninas. La página Web de dicha emisora es: http://Utaham820.com 73's y buenos DX (Ángel José Nicolás Esteve (EA5-0957), Redactor de la Sección OL-OM de EL DIAL (AER), Valencia (España), May 9, AER, http://www.aer-dx.org DX LISTENING DIGEST) Program sked on above site includes these seemingly afemale shows M-F: 3pm to 6pm The Rabbi Shmuley Boetech Show 6pm to 9pm The Clark Howard Show And there`s a KUTR .rm webcast (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 48-second video report: http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=39&sid=203724 (via Sheldon Harvey, DXLD) AM820 HITS THE AIRWAVES --- May. 9, 2005 (KSL News) -- Monday morning at six , a new radio station went on the air in Utah: AM-820, KUTR. It's fifty thousand watts of daytime talk radio aimed at women. Rod Arquette, Vice President of Operations: "Talk radio as it is today is really a man's world. They talk a lot about politics and alot about sports, but nobody's talking to women and that's exactly what this radio station's going to do. AM 820." Rod says the morning show has already received phone calls, so the word's getting out. Rebecca Cressman [caption] Though the station is designed with women in mind, men are always welcome to tune in too. The day will begin with "Wakin' Up with Rebecca and Kurt": That's Rebecca Cressman, veteran broadcaster with long-time ties to BYU's Broadcasting department, and local music composer and performer Kurt Bestor. "Rebecca have a great day." Rebecca: "Thank you. You have a great day too. We want to let you know that Monday is a very exciting day for us here at AM 820." The new AM 820 is Bonneville International Corporation's latest broadcasting venture. Chris Redgrave, KUTR V.P., Station Mgr.: "Because we decided that there was a need. This is the third station of its format in the United States. And it's targeted towards females. So it's a female talk radio station." From the station logo, the programs, and ultimately its content, AM 820 will cater to Utah women. The subjects will run the gamut. Kurt Bestor [caption] Chris Redgrave, KUTR V.P., Station Mgr: "So we'll be talking about kids, families, husbands, jobs, politics, what's it's like to live in Utah... Everything that women value." The programming line-up offers a variety of formats; morning talk, mid-day call-in and advice; job discussions, consumer and health news, primarily presented by local Utah personalities. There will be some nationally syndicated programs too. Chris Redgrave, KUTR V.P., Station Mgr.: "Yes the key demographic is going to be women, but we hope men listen too." You can check the entire KUTR programming line up on-line at http://utaham820.com (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) Tomorrow's listing on 100000watts.com says KUTR-820 Taylorsville (Salt Lake City) UT is signing on with talk aimed at a female audience. They are 50 kW day/ 2.5 kW night / 50 kW critical hours DA-2 (Dennis Gibson, May 9, ABDX via DXLD) ALL-WOMEN TALK RADIO WILL DEBUT By Bob Mims, The Salt Lake Tribune, 4-22-05 In launching itself into a male-dominated realm, Utah's first talk station of, by and for women, AM 820 (KUTR), might take solace from career American politician and diplomat Faith Whittlesey. "Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but she did it backwards and in high heels," she once said. That might ring especially true for Chris Redgrave, vice president and station manager for both KSL 1160 and the AM 820. The new station, with its Federal Communications Commission license pending, hopes to launch by month's end. "It's been a tremendous team effort to bring this station together for the women of Utah," Redgrave says. "Our goal is to provide a place for women to listen, reflect, respond and react - all in a conversational environment." Julie Kilgore, president of the Utah Women's Alliance for Building Community, sees the new station as providing an opportunity to "sensitively address women's issues. "This has generated a lot of interest among the members of our organization," she says of her 100- member-strong group. "What we didn't want was another cooking show," Kilgore says. "But this radio format sounds like it will further the mission and vision of promoting the extensive talent and diversity of our women professionals." In addition to a full lineup of local and syndicated call-in shows, ranging in topic from politics and relationships to education and family history, AM 820 will offer its own Web page http://www.utaham820.com and interactive e-mail links to station staff and personalities. Parent Bonneville International, the Salt Lake City-based and LDS Church-owned radio/television corporation, says it spent months studying listener demographics and preparing content in anticipation of adding AM 820 to its lineup. Says Amanda Dickson, assistant program director: "We think we are only the third station [just for women] in the country. There really is an audience out there that has been ignored, at least on the AM dial." Leading the station's initial program is the "Waking up with Rebecca and Kurt" show. Scheduled to run 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Monday-Friday and 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. Saturdays, it features veteran broadcast personality Rebecca Cressman and musician Kurt Bestor. "The Dr. Liz Hale Show" follows, running to noon weekdays. It offers the former Seattle-based marriage and family therapist who now manages an eating disorders clinic for LDS Family Services. "Ask a Woman" takes the noon to 3 p.m. slot and will feature a show- sharing format. Hosts will include former Republican Rep. Enid Green, at-home author and broadcaster Connie Sokol and Salt Lake Tribune columnist Holly Mullen. The weekday 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. slot offers "The Rabbi Schmuley Boteach Show." The syndicated broadcast features the lecturer and writer of the same name. Schmuley is followed (6 p.m.-9 p.m.) by former travel agency magnate and now consumer rights advocate Clark Howard. Wrapping up the 9 p.m. to midnight slow is "The Dr. Joy Browne Show." Another nationally syndicated offering, it features its namesake, a licensed clinical psychologist known for her quick wit and practical advice. Weekend fare will range from a home shopping show with domestic decorating, remodeling and organization guru Marie Hicks to "Cultural Connections" with educational and cultural diversity activist Joanne Miner and technology-knowhow shows such as "Satellite Sisters" and "The Family Tech Show." "Mom Talk Radio" adds a mix of "real life" mothers with co-host Roni Leiderman, a specialist in early childhood studies. The Sunday lineup will feature several religious, inspirational and musical shows aimed at women of faith (via Dennis Gibson, ABDX via DXLD) MDT = UT -6 ** U S A. 890, KDJQ, Meridian ID is "testing" their 50 KW non- directional day pattern site 6:15 am to 9 pm MDT [1215-0300 UT] with oldies (deep 50's , 60's and some later stuff) and legal ID's scattered in. They're not on with their night-site until the program circuits to it are working. FCC details at http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?list=0&facid=129380 (Bill Frahm - Boise, May 8, amfmtvdx at qth.net via DXLD) ** U S A. IT'S TO LAUGH (OR CRY) ABOUT TRAGEDY OR FARCE? EITHER WORKS FOR TV By Howard Kurtz, Washington Post, Sunday, May 8, 2005; B01 The runaway bride has turned into a runaway television embarrassment. . . http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/07/AR2005050700153_pf.html (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. COLOR BARS/TEST TONE ON CHANNEL 6 IN NYC --- Heard right now [0213 UT May 10], Monday evening in Astoria, Queens. The signal seems as strong as any over-the-air TV station has been since the collapse of the north WTC tower with its antenna complex on 9/11/2001. No ID. Murdoch/Fox has WNYW on Channel 5 in NYC (interesting call letters for a non-newbie SWL) and the closest known stations on channel 6 are in Philadelphia, about 90 miles away and Schenectady, NY, about 150 and, of course, they'd be making money, running programs and commercials during prime time, not running test patterns. WBGO is on 88.3 MHz in Newark, NJ. By the way, the Yankee over-the-air TV games are now off WCBS-TV (They are on WWOR, 9, also owned by Murdoch/Fox but affiliated with UPN. So if someone wants to use WCBS-TV as a source of CBS network programs they can. Some history of WWOR: WOR-TV was part of the RKO / General Tires scandal and New Jersey fought to get a commercial VHF TV station in the state. (WNET, the big PBS station, in NYC, is licensed to Newark and was a commercial TV station in Newark, WAAT, which went out of business.) So WWOR was licensed to Seacaucus, NJ where it had its studios. But since Murdoch bought WWOR, he moved its studios to the old Trans Lux Theater at 267 E. 67th St. in Manhattan, where WNYW has been since back when it was Dumont's WABD. WWOR's New Jersey facilities are now used by the UPN station in, of all places, Baltimore. Your home town station, not. That's a bit like Clear Channel's doing a morning radio show in Indianapolis by having a DJ in Tampa with an Indianapolis newspaper recording the bits between the music (Joel Rubin, NY, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Getting back to your channel 6: New York, NY WNYZ-LP 3.00 0.00 + 40 44'50"N 73 56'38"W TX-CP S:/ethnic And map shows it just across the East River from mid-Manhattan http://tiger.census.gov/cgi-bin/mapgen?lon=-73.9438&lat=40.74722&wid=0.5&ht=0.5&mark=-73.9438,40.74722,redpin,WNYZ-LP (from http://www.w9wi.com/tvdb/channels/6.htm via DXLD) ** U S A. Okay, if IBOC is too touchy a topic, let's try this one. I recently came across some data on current formats on AM stations in the US. It was broken down into numerous categories, and it was hard to see the forest for the trees, so I decided to consolidate it into a smaller number of categories, work out the percentages, and see how it looked. In cases where stations had multiple formats, I assumed that the first one listed was the dominant one, and used that to determine the category. Here's the result: News/talk 16.2% Country 12.7% Gospel 8.8% [meaning music? As opposed to Religion = talk???] Spanish 8.6% Sports 8.6% Religion 8.3% [meaning talk? As opposed to Gospel = music???] Oldies 7.3% Talk 7.0% Standards 6.9% AC/MOR/EZL 4.6% News 2.6% Ethnic 2.0% Urban/R&B 1.8% Variety 1.2% Pre-Teen 1.1% Full service 1.0% Other 1.3% One thing that surprises me is that talk has not completely taken over AM radio. It looks like around 40% of AM stations still have music as at least part of their programming lineup. Are there any other surprises/ revelations in these stats? (Barry McLarnon VE3JF Ottawa, ON, May 8, NRC-AM via DXLD) It's interesting that in your findings News stations are at a 2.6% while in many markets the 24 hour all news station does extremely well such as in New York where 1010 WINS over the past number of years has been in the top five in the quarterly Arbitron ratings (Lawrence Stoler, ibid.) Wouln't it be more accurate to combine 3 categories into 1 (e.g. News/Talk, Talk, & News) and call the combined category News/Talk? If we did that, News/Talk would have a very impressive percentage of 25.8 - more than double its nearest competitor of Country at 12.7 (Marc DeLorenzo, South Dennis, MA, ibid.) I'm not sure where Barry's data comes from, but if it's from the M Street database, we restrict the label "News" to stations that are 24- hour all-news, and there are VERY, VERY few of those. It's a phenomenally expensive format to program, requiring far more staff than even a news-talker or an all-sports format, and as a result it makes economic sense only in the very largest markets. Even in Boston, which was in the low ranks of the top 10 in market size when I was at WBZ, there wasn't enough revenue to be had by running news all night or all weekend, so we switched to talk at 7 each night and for much of the weekend. Yes, all-news draws a tremendous amount of revenue (WINS is often the highest-billing station in the U.S.), but that balances against the costs of operation, which are immense. The most recent M Street data I have at my fingertips is from June 2003. For AM, it shows 1170 news/talk stations (24.1% of the total), far outstripping the second category, country (632 stations/13%). This listing doesn't break all-news stations out separately, but I'd be surprised if it even amounted to 2.6%, which would be about 125 stations. That likely includes affiliates of AP's All News Radio, which is going away mid-July. Taking those stations out of the picture, you can just about count the true local all-newsers on both hands: WINS, WCBS, WTOP/WTOP-FM/WXTR, KYW, WBBM, KFWB, KCBS, WWJ, KOMO, CINW, CINF, CFTR, CKWX. A few others are nearly all-news, but with significant interruptions for talk or sports: KQV, KNUU in Las Vegas, etc. As for Barry's data showing music formats still surviving on AM, a note of caution: many of those are "forgotten" simulcasts of FM stations, often with little or no audience and minimal signals (except when they appear on Saul's list!) The number of stations *originating* music formats on AM is likely much smaller. s (Scott Fybush, NY, ibid.) You left out KNX. It's true that they fill in with old radio serials and other stuff, but KFWB has the Dodgers now, so neither one is a true 24 hour news station using the most restrictive definition (Brian Leyton Valley Village, CA, ibid.) I meant to include KNX in the second category - nearly all-news with significant interruptions for talk. Especially on the weekends, it seems like KNX's daytime programming is more talk (food show, computer show, etc.) than news. And didn't they ditch the old radio serials a couple of years ago? I think they moved to 1260 for a while and are now off the air in the market completely... There are two all-newsers with major league baseball: KFWB and WCBS. It's a pretty significant disruption, yes, but mostly at night and of course seasonal. WTOP, WINS, KYW, KOMO, KNX, KCBS and the Canadians have no sports p-b-p. WBBM and WWJ do - or at least did - have football. If there's ever NHL hockey again, WBZ still has the Bruins rights, for whatever good that does now... I don't hear much coordination of the KNX and KFWB schedules, especially on weekends. KNX seems to be all talk from 8 in the morning until late afternoon, which is almost guaranteed to run up against a Dodgers game on KFWB during the season. In fairness to KNX, though, a careful review of their schedule shows that they are now all-news on weekdays, so I guess I can't begrudge them 7 hours a day on the weekends of talk, especially since there are frequent news and traffic breaks within those shows (Scott Fybush, ibid.) ** U S A. CONFESSIONS OF A LISTENER --- by GARRISON KEILLOR [from the May 23, 2005 issue of The Nation] [only excerpts here: see it all:] http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050523&s=keillor The sports talk station gives you a succession of men whose absorption in a fantasy world is, to me, borderline insane. You're grateful not to be related to any of them, and yet ten minutes of their ranting and wheezing is a real tonic that somehow makes this world, the world of trees and children and books and travel, positively tremble with vitality. . . I enjoy, in small doses, the over-the-top right-wingers who have leaked into AM radio on all sides in the past twenty years. They are evil, lying, cynical bastards who are out to destroy the country I love and turn it into a banana republic, but hey, nobody's perfect. And now that their man is re-elected and they have nice majorities in the House and Senate, they are hunters in search of diminishing prey. There just aren't many of us liberals worth banging away at, but God bless them, they keep on coming. . . The reason you find an army of right-wingers ratcheting on the radio and so few liberals is simple: Republicans are in need of affirmation, they don't feel comfortable in America and they crave listening to people who think like them. Liberals actually enjoy living in a free society; tuning in to hear an echo is not our idea of a good time. . . I don't worry about the right-wingers on AM radio. They are talking to an audience that is stuck in rush-hour traffic, in whom road rage is mounting, and the talk shows divert their rage from the road to the liberal conspiracy against America. Instead of ramming your rear bumper, they get mad at Harry Reid. Yes, the wingers do harm, but the worst damage is done to their own followers, who are cheated of the sort of genuine experience that enables people to grow up. The best of what you find on public radio is authentic experience. It has little to do with politics. . . (via Current via DXLD) ** U S A. SFGATE: COMCAST CUTS BACK ON FM SERVICE/LISTENERS IN 31 NORTH AND EAST BAY COMMUNITIES OBJECT TO CABLE COMPANY'S DECISION Greetings once again, Glenn! Here's another example of media conglomerates jackin' their customers! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/05/09/BUGSDCLDD61.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday May 9, 2005 (SF Chronicle) Todd Wallack, Chronicle Staff Writer For decades, Don Schwartz tuned in to local FM radio stations nearly every week for hours -- listening to everything from NPR storyteller Garrison Keillor to the Grateful Dead. But Schwartz recently turned on his stereo and heard only silence. Like many other area residents, Schwartz relied on Comcast, the Bay Area's largest cable TV provider, to provide FM signals because he had trouble picking them up over the airwaves. But Comcast abruptly stopped providing the service in dozens of local communities three months ago. "I'm absolutely furious," said Schwartz, an actor and writer who lives in Larkspur. "I'm totally lost having no access to FM, which was a huge part of my life." Comcast said it turned off the service in 31 area cities, mostly in the East Bay and North Bay, in February to make room on the cable system for other offerings, like more high-definition TV channels, expanded video on demand, faster high-speed Internet service and telephone service. A spokesman said Comcast found that customers ranked FM radio service near the bottom of most-wanted services. Many told The Chronicle they didn't even know the service existed. "We found there was extremely low usage of the FM audio service," said company spokesman Andrew Johnson. Comcast still provides the service in a few dozen cities, like Concord, Clayton and Santa Rosa, where it is required to do so under its franchise agreement. But some customers insist the service is essential in other areas, like Marín County, where steep hills block many residents from picking up their favorite stations over the airwaves. The Marin Telecommunications Agency, which oversees cable TV in the county, received 500 complaints about Comcast's decision to cut off the service. Hundreds of people packed an agency board meeting two weeks ago when the topic was discussed even though Comcast and its predecessors had done little to promote the service through the years. "People are pretty upset about it," said Assemblyman Joe Nation, D-San Rafael. "I think Comcast was surprised at the volume and number of complaints." Several customers said they were even more annoyed because they did not find out in advance that the service would be cut off. Comcast said it placed notices in local newspapers, but did not notify every customer directly. Since then, state lawmakers and local officials have tried to pressure Comcast to restore the service, but admit their clout is limited. While the franchise agreement in Marin County refers to FM service, it doesn't explicitly require that Comcast provide it. And it's just one item on a lengthy list of items the agency hopes to secure in a new franchise agreement. "There's relatively little we can do at this point of time," said Martin Nichols, the agency's executive director. "Comcast has pretty much told everyone they are not going to restore FM over cable." Meanwhile, Comcast has offered to work on alternatives, such as building a new antenna to better serve the community. A spokeswoman also noted that many customers can already listen to radio stations via the Internet or their own antenna. That hasn't satisfied everyone. "I want it back," said Stewart Miller, a financial consultant in San Rafael, who listened to the FM service almost every day. "If they asked me to pay some extra money for it, I probably would." Comcast recently stopped providing FM radio service in the following communities, mainly north and east of San Francisco: Albany Antioch Bay Point Berkeley Bethel Island Brentwood Byron Cloverdale Discovery Bay Dublin El Cerrito Half Moon Bay Healdsburg Hercules Kensington Knightsen Livermore Marin County Napa Novato Oakley Petaluma Pittsburg Pleasanton Richmond San Pablo San Rafael San Ramon Sunol Windsor Yountville ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2005 SF Chronicle (via Ed Gardner, Sactown, DXLD) ** VATICAN. Re 5-076: Hi Glenn, thanks for the heads up on the Vatican. As far as we are aware that is the only one that has suffered any problems. It was due to the amount of formatting that had to be done to get their ghastly spreadsheet into a useable form, these ones just got missed - can't blame a program I'm afraid just operator blindness!! They have already been inserted into the next update file so which will be posted at some point in the not too distant future. These are the missing entries from Vatican radio: 7300 2200-2245 Chinese irk 250 *May-Aug 7300 2200-2245 Chinese smg 500 **Sept-Oct 9600 2200-2245 Chinese smg 500 11830 2200-2245 Chinese khb 100 **Sept-Oct 11830 2200-2245 Chinese smg 500 *May-Aug 7300 2315-2400 Vietnamese smg 500 SEA 9600 2315-2400 Vietnamese smg 500 SEA (Sean Gilbert, WRTH, May 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VATICAN [and non]. RADIO VATICANA CONDANNATA PER INQUINAMENTO ELETTROMAGNETICO ROMA - Sono stati condannati a dieci giorni di reclusione due dei responsabili di Radio Vaticana accusati di aver provocato l'inquinamento elettromagnetico nella zona di Cesano, a nord di Roma. Sono padre Pasquale Borromeo, direttore generale e il cardinale Roberto Tucci, presidente del comitato di gestione. Ecco il testo completo dal quotidiano La Repubblica del 9 maggio (....su coraggio) da http://www.repubblica.it DIECI GIORNI DI RECLUSIONE PER PADRE BORGOMEO E IL PORPORATO ROBERTO TUCCI Esulta il Codacons: "Ora papa Benedetto XVI sposti le antenne" Radio Vaticana, cardinale condannato per inquinamento elettromagnetico Continua l'indagine della procura sull'aumento di tumori a Roma nord ROMA - "Getto pericoloso di cose". Con questa motivazione il tribunale di Roma ha condannato a dieci giorni di reclusione due dei responsabili di Radio Vaticana accusati di aver provocato l'inquinamento elettromagnetico nella zona di Cesano, a nord di Roma. Sono padre Pasquale Borgomeo, direttore generale e il cardinale Roberto Tucci, presidente del comitato di gestione. Il terzo imputato, il vicedirettore tecnico Costantino Pacifici, è stato invece assolto per non aver commesso il fatto in quanto la sua opera è stata limitata all'esecuzione degli ordini relativi al funzionamento dell'impianto di Radio Vaticana. La sentenza è stata emessa dal giudice Luisa Martoni dopo una camera di consiglio durata circa mezz'ora. All'uscita dall'aula alcuni cittadini di Cesano hanno accolto con applausi i pm, Gianfranco Amendola e Stefano Pesci. Per condannare padre Borgomeo e il cardinale Tucci, quest'ultimo limitatamente a fatti avvenuti entro il 2000, il giudice Martoni ha disposto il risarcimento dei danni alle parti civile costituite nel procedimento: 5.800 euro a Legambiente, 850 a Cittadinanzattiva; ai Comitati Roma-Nord 5.120 euro e al Codacons 5.800. Nell'udienza del 18 novembre dello scorso anno i magistrati Amendola e Pesci avevano sollecitato una condanna degli imputati a quindici giorni di arresto con sospensione condizionale della pena subordinata alla eliminazione della situazione di pericolo e al risarcimento dei danni. Per loro il giudice ha oggi stabilito la sospensione della pena. Secondo l'accusa sarebbero stati sforati, tra il 2001 e il 2003, i limiti precauzionali nelle emissioni di onde elettromagnetiche fissati dall'apposito decreto ministeriale a tutela della persona umana. La responsabilità degli imputati, secondo la pubblica accusa, sarebbe dimostrata da una serie di testimonianze dibattimentali, che hanno ribadito l'esistenza di onde magnetiche in quantità tale da interferire con apparecchiature tecniche, la presenza in alcuni casi di malesseri fisici e stati di ansia nei cittadini. A questo proposito, i pm nel corso della loro requisitoria avevano anche ricordato alcuni dei fenomeni che sono stati segnalati nel corso delle indagini: citofoni dai quali si sentivano i programmi di Radio Vaticana, disturbi a telefoni, fax e computer, fino a vibrazioni di lampadari. Sul presunto inquinamento elettromagnetico a Nord della capitale, la procura di Roma ha da tempo aperto un altro fascicolo nel quale, sulla base di alcune denunce, si ipotizza il reato di omicidio colposo a carico di sei indagati. Nell'ambito di questa inchiesta, lo scorso 18 marzo, lo stesso procuratore Amendola, ha ottenuto dal gup Zaira Secchi di far svolgere, tramite incidente probatorio, una perizia per accertare se sia possibile stabilire un nesso tra l'emissione di onde elettromagnetiche e l'incremento di tumori e leucemie a Cesano e La Storta. In queste aree si trova, oltre agli impianti di radio Vaticana, anche un sito radar della Marina Militare. E il Codacons parla di sentenza rivoluzionaria "perché per la prima volta la magistratura italiana condanna un Cardinale per la violazione dell'articolo 674 del codice penale dopo che la Cassazione aveva respinto l'eccezione di difetto di giurisdizione sugli alti prelati dirigenti della radio. Grazie a questa sentenza - prosegue l'associazione - adesso anche l'indagine della Procura di Roma per omicidio, legata alle onde elettromagnetiche di Radio Vaticana, subirà un positivo impulso". Il Codacons si appella infine al nuovo papa Benedetto XVI "affinché le antenne di Radio Vaticana siano spostate lontano dalle zone abitate, onde tutelare la salute dei cittadini". (9 maggio 2005) (Da: "Gianvito Tornisiello" Talk Media Radio Yahoo Group Italia via Dario Monferini, DXLD) So the perps got ten days in jail (or is that house arrest?) No.. (gh) CARDINAL, PRIEST SENTENCED FOR VATICAN RADIO WAVES http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L0955030.htm ROME, May 9 (Reuters) - An Italian court found a Roman Catholic cardinal and a director of Vatican Radio guilty on Monday of polluting the atmosphere with powerful electromagnetic waves from a radio transmission station. Cardinal Roberto Tucci, who used to head the Vatican Radio's management committee, and the station's director general, Father Pasquale Borgomeo, were given 10-day suspended sentences and ordered to pay damages in the case, court officials said. Both men have denied the charges and defence lawyers said they would appeal against the ruling. The case sprang from a medical report released in 2001 by a public health agency that showed unusually high numbers of people living near a forest of Vatican Radio antennas to the north of Rome who contracted or died from leukaemia. An initial trial was halted in 2002 after a judge ruled that Italian laws could not be applied to the Vatican Radio because its transmission centre was seen as a part of the Vatican City, which is an independent sovereign state. That decision was later overturned and Vatican Radio officials found themselves back in the dock. "After so many delays and so much wasted time, today we have achieved an important success which underscores the need to protect people from the risk of 'electro-smog'," said Roberto Della Seta, chairman of environmental group Legambiente. Vatican Radio, which broadcasts news in some 40 languages, says it meets international transmission limits and has rejected the findings of a second, independent report that said its high capacity antennas might have caused the cancer surge. "This verdict is clearly unjustifiable," Vatican Radio said in a statement. "We are hopeful that in the appeals stages, Italian justice will recognise that the broadcaster's management acted correctly," it added. The judge on Monday ruled that a civil arbitration body should set the level of the damages. One consumer's group, Codacons, has already demanded 200.6 million euros ($257.5 million) in damages and others are likely to join suit (via Sheldon Harvey; Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) ** VENEZUELA. 4939.8, Radio Amazonas, Puerto Ayacucho, 0957-1002, Mayo 08, Español. Canciones locales, anuncio e ID: "...en la sintonía de Radio Amazonas... insuperable!!!", Anuncio: "feliz día de las madres les desea... para todas las madres de la región del Amazonas y del mundo... las madres en su día". 24442 (Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina, Noticias DX via DXLD) 4940v, R. Amazonas fair at 1009-1023 5/8 with Spanish vocals, lots of Spanish talk, mentions of Venezuela; ID at 1020. I read this frequency as 4939.50 (Jim Ronda, Tulsa OK, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** VENEZUELA. Inactiva desde hace unas semanas, YVTO, 5000 kHz. 73s y buen DX (Adán González, Catia La Mar, VENEZUELA, May 9, Yaesu FT-890, Antena TH3 MK3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE. CHINESE HELP MUGABE TO BUG MEDIA IN ZIMBABWE – TREVOR GRUNDY IN A move to control the flow of information in and out of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe's beleaguered government has acquired sophisticated phone-tapping, radio jamming and internet-monitoring equipment from communist hardliners in China. Sophisticated Chinese bugging equipment is being installed clandestinely in homes, offices, restaurants and even lavatories. Chinese technicians handed it over to the Central Intelligence Organisation earlier this year in an effort to block the circulation of what Mugabe calls "hostile propaganda". First to suffer is a popular UK-based shortwave radio station that sends out anti-Mugabe stories to Zimbabwe seven days a week. The independent radio station, SW Radio Africa, has been experiencing jamming problems all this year from transmitters installed in the Zimbabwean Midlands. The station's founder, Gerry Jackson, flies to Nairobi, Kenya, next week to pick up the International Press Institute's Free Media Pioneer Award for courageous journalism. "Mugabe will do anything to stop the truth being heard in Zimbabwe," she says. Hi-tech bugging includes updated versions of pirated Israeli-made equipment which enters Zimbabwe through Cuba. It's a copy of the sophisticated equipment Mossad uses to spy on Palestinians. Wilf Mbanga, who edits the new weekly paper, the Zimbabwean, said: "The plan is to tap all landlines belonging to anyone of importance or prominence in Zimbabwe." After this year's general election Mugabe told party hardliners that he had turned again to the East. On Independence Day (April 18), to cheers from party loyalists, he said: "We are returning to the days when our greatest friends were the Chinese. We look again to the East, where the sun rises, and no longer to the West, where it sets." http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=496212005 (via Bruce Weiss; and via Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, dxldyg via DXLD) UNIDENTIFIED. Hola Glenn, El pasado 08/05 pude captar en los 6249.93 kHz, una extraña estación con música continua. A las 2252 UT, con SINPO 34433, escuché temas de Charlie Zaa y una señal algo sobremodulada. Después música instrumental con marimbas (sube y baja nivel de audio), música instrumental con acordeones, marchas con acordeones, tema de "Hawaii 5-0", joropo instrumental. Sin identificar en ningún momento. Salida abrupta del aire a las 2351 UT. Sospecho que puede ser de Colombia o incluso de acá, de Venezuela (Adán González, Catia La Mar, VENEZUELA, May 9, Yaesu FT-890, Antena TH3 MK3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ A DXER'S WATCH I`m very happy with a Timex watch I bought recently. For US$32 at Walmart, I bought Timex #T50041, which is an atomic wristwatch that displays UT in 24-hour format along with local time including seconds. Both UT and local are visible at once; no need to press a button unless you want to switch the UT display to showing month-day. Of course, it has the 'to-the-second' accuracy we love in these radio- controlled timekeeping products. It`s also an attractive watch in my opinion, and the Timex Indiglo backlighting is actually a reverse display which I`d never seen before (glowing blue-green numerals on a dark background). The display of UT even includes the letters 'UTC' to the left of the numerals --- a small thing, but I like seeing this (Guy Atkins, May ODXA Listening In via DXLD) POOR RECEPTION HAS HAM-RADIO TOWERS TOPPLING By Mike Cassidy, Knight Ridder Newspapers http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002268132_btview09.html Sometimes the past gives way stubbornly. Sometimes it takes muscle, Liquid Wrench, cussing and more Liquid Wrench. Sometimes it takes Dave Aronovitz, a man who provides palliative care for the artifacts of a fading, if not dying, form of communication. Aronovitz is a self-made expert in the art of disassembling the soaring steel towers that support home-based ham-radio antennas. Today he is 35 feet up in the air, harnessed to a tower working like a dog to tear it down. The Menlo Park, Calif., house to which it is attached is going on the market and the real-estate agent says the homely steel structure is a curb-appeal crusher. "Twenty years ago, that would have been a selling point," says Rich Shapiro, a handyman working across the street. "Now it's an eyesore." Pretty much. Unless, like Aronovitz, you see beauty in the tower. Or beauty in what it represents. Without the tower, you have no place for your antenna. Without an antenna, your transmitter is no good. Without your transmitter, you can't get on your ham set and talk to someone down the block or around the world. The tower, adorned with a nonfunctional TV antenna and a couple of radio antennas, has a space-age look, which mostly serves as a reminder that the space age dawned a generation ago. The contraption and others in other back yards stand as monuments to communication before Wi-Fi, cellphones, DirecTV and the Internet. Amateur radio was where it was at, the place to reach out to old acquaintances and new friends. The instant messenger of its time. Back on the ground for a break, Aronovitz tells his radio story. Bought his first in 1956 at the local Radio Shack. A Hallicrafter SX 99. Saved for an eternity, mowing lawns, shoveling snow, working at the grocery for 90 cents an hour. All for those nights as a 12-year-old in the basement of his Massachusetts home. Tubes glowing. The hum, static and whistle of the set. "There is something about those old analog radios," Aronovitz, 60, says, "and the experience of tuning them in." Like the world, the radios have gone digital. Laid off from Sun Microsystems four years ago, Aronovitz now hunts for the old models on the Web and elsewhere. "When they are fully restored," he says, "they are almost works of art." He started selling the rehabs on eBay. Those sales led some to ask whether he'd be interested in old towers. Some asking were widows of old hams who had died. Some were old hams themselves -- plenty young when they put the towers up, but not so young now. He sells those he can. Junks the others. This one, he thinks, might work for the West Valley Amateur Radio Association, his club. "Ham is going through a transformation," Aronovitz says. About 680,000 people hold amateur-radio licenses in the United States, says the American Radio Relay League. But the ham population is aging. And the number of new applications for licenses is down, says the Federal Communication Commission. The towering antennas are no longer welcome in some planned developments. Working people no longer have the time to sit in front of the ham set. The Internet has become the gateway to the world for many. And so from time to time, Aronovitz is called on to deliver us from our past. Mike Cassidy is a columnist at the San Jose Mercury News. (c) 2004 The Seattle Times Company (via Guy Atkins, Bruce MacGibbon, DXLD) 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF FM RADIO SPECIAL BROADCAST JUNE 11-12 In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of Maj. E. H. Armstrong`s first public demonstration of wide band FM, Steve Hemphill, owner of Solid Electronics Labs., a PA broadcast equipment manufacturer, and Charles Sackermann, Jr., the CEO of CSC Management, Inc., who is the owner of the Alpine Tower in Alpine, NJ, will be doing a commemorative FM broadcast from the Alpine tower site on June 11 & 12, 2005. They have secured Special Temporary Authority from the FCC to conduct the broadcast on Maj. Armstrong`s original FM frequency of 42.8 MHz under experimental callsign WA2XMN. The broadcast program material will consist of David Ossman`s dramatic production of Empire of the Air, which was based on the book by author Tom Lewis. They also plan to air excerpts from a 1941 test broadcast between member stations of the original New England Yankee Network, featuring actual voice recordings of Maj. Armstrong himself, Paul DeMars, Yankee Network Chief Engineer, and others. There will also be a rebroadcast of the final sign-off of Maj. Armstrong`s pioneer FM station W2XMN/KE2XCC, which went dark on Feb 25, 1954, after Maj. Armstrong`s death. A streaming web cast of the commemorative broadcast is also planned, the details of which will be forthcoming. Additional info about the commemorative broadcast and about the Alpine tower site can be obtained at http://www.cscmgt.com (RNMN via May ODXA Listening In via DXLD) TOWER BIZ CONSOLIDATING TOO We don't spend much time writing about the tower business itself, but we can't ignore the biggest merger in the history of tower ownership, as Boston-based American Tower agrees to pay $3.1 billion to acquire competitor Spectrasite. The deal adds Spectrasite's 7800 towers in the U.S. to an ATC portfolio that includes 12,400 towers in the U.S. and 2400 more abroad - and it keeps American Tower's headquarters in Boston (Scott Fybush, NE Radio Watch May 9 via DXLD) If I were a radio station, I would want to own my own tower(s) (gh, DXLD) RADIO SHACK WOES In Glenn Hauser's DXLD 5-076, respected DXer George Zeller has a rant against Alpha Delta antennas. Included in that rant is a notice that Radio Shack in the US no longer stock coax cable with PL-259 connectors on each end. With the changeover from Radio Shack to The Source by Circuit City, here in Canada, expect similar stock shortages as anything with the "Radio Shack" name on the packaging is not being ordered and current stock is being sold off. I checked out Circuit City's website http://www.circuitcity.com only to find that the only shortwave radios stocked are Nexxtech pieces of crap. I guess the Source is going to become a carbon copy. After 30 years of being a faithful Radio Shack customer, I, for one, will be largely avoiding the Source and being forced to turn to ham radio shops like Durham and Radioworld for everyday stuff like simple connectors. Mark Coady, Editor, Your Reports, Listening In Magazine Co-Moderator, ODXA Yahoo Group, Bridgenorth, ON K0L 1H0 705-292-0458 http://geocities.com/luckywimpy (ODXA yg via DXLD) I just looked at The Source's new website, http://www.thesourcecc.com and they've got several radios by Grundig and Eton listed for sale, including the Grundig Satellit 800. Let's hope this is not just leftover stock they've got and instead is a sign that they'll continue to sell useful radio gear (Greg Shoom, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, ibid.) FCC BROADCAST FLAG CASE [previously under USA] How this ends up actually resolved will either thrill or infuriate people. It's a safe bet that most on this list would side with the Appeals court which struck down the said provisions. Back in the 70s, you may recall that there was a smaller, yet just as important fight relating to blank cassettes and VCR tapes. We know how that panned out, but Democrats were firmly in charge then. Now with Republicans in and the jury still out, I fear that the side of those with the money have more clout. If they had their way nobody could record any content. It's a small victory for us who need to be able to record the small bits of audio and video for ID purposes, but there is probably a bit of validity to the argument that some would be able to record perfect copies of television shows then make them available to others on the internet - something which is currently able to be done but not to perfection with analog equipment. In fact, there's really very little priated video content of common network shows right now but it's possible that with HD receivers in every home that it COULD proliferate. What the bill's backers haven't really figured out though, is the impracticability of people sharing long videos without a wideband connection - something that most Americans still don't have (Steve Sawyer, Millington, TN, May 8, WTFDA via DXLD) I keep hearing people saying that this ruling should mean that the FCC can't force radio manufacturers to include IBOC, or x-band, or whatever. Maybe I'm missing something, but what exactly is this saying? Does the "process of radio or wire transmission" include reception, or is the ruling saying that the FCC has jurisdiction over transmitters only, but not receivers? The language seems vague to me. It seems like the words "when those devices are not engaged in the process of radio or wire transmission" are meant to limit when the FCC can regulate these devices. In other words, when these devices *are* engaged in the process of radio transmission, they CAN be regulated. So the question is whether a radio is engaged in the process when receiving, or just transmitting (keeping in mind that every radio (or television) CAN be considered to be a transmitter, albeit at very low power level - as regulated by Part 15). (Brian Leyton, Valley Village, CA, NRC-AM via DXLD) http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/47/chapters/5/subchapters/iii/parts/i/sections/section_303.html As I read it, sections (s), (u), and (x) are relevant to broadcasting. All of them relate only to TV. ((s) requires TV sets to receive all channels - not just VHF; (u) requires closed-caption decoders in most TVs; and (x) requires the "V-chip" in most TVs) I don't see anything there that allows regulation of radio receivers at all, except to the extent that they inadvertently act as transmitters. (as can all electronic devices, radio or otherwise; they're treated under Part 15) I suppose the recent move to require DTV tuners in TV sets could arguably be justified under (s), requiring that they be "...capable of adequately receiving all frequencies allocated by the Commission to television broadcasting..." It would be a very big stretch to read this as requiring IBOC or AM/FM or X-band capability. (in fact, I'm aware of no rule requiring X-band or AM/FM coverage in radios. Nor am I aware of any move to *require* IBOC, either at the receiver *or* the transmitter. The expense of adding X-band coverage is essentially negligible. I see no shortage of cheap FM-only radios.) (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66, http://www.w9wi.com NRC-AM via DXLD) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ NATIONAL RADIO CLUB 2005 Convention Details, Labor Day Weekend Location: Best Western "The Inn at Towamencin" 1750 Sumneytown Pike, Kulpsville, PA 19443 (Lansdale) Phone: 215 368 3800; 800 277 3615 (reservations only) Rooms: $75 per night (mention the National Radio Club for this rate) Room sharing is limited to FOUR per room Registration : $45 for convention and banquet/ $35 for wives $20 for convention only, (no banquet)/ $10 for wives Activities: Friday - Registration, open day Saturday - Station tours Business meeting and auction Sunday - Open day, Banquet and guest speaker Monday - Departure Items for the auction can be mailed to: Dave Schmidt, P O Box 3111, Scranton, PA 18505-0111 via regular mail. Our guest speaker will be Dave McCrork, who operates internet station WNAR-AM http://www.wnar-am.com along with a part 15 operation in Lansdale. The Best Western has a good restaurant on site but lots of others in the area. That`s the info for now. Dave Schmidt (via Blaine Thompson, NRC-AM via DXLD) CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES / DRM +++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++ NASB/DRM MEETING IN WASHINGTON "On 5 May 2005 (Cinco de Mayo no less for you party animals), Ralph Brandi, Tracy Woods and myself were invited by Jeff White of the National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters ("NASB") to attend their scheduled meeting on Digital Radio Mondiale ("DRM") in Washington, DC. Ulis Fleming and Jeff had been in contact about involving members of the shortwave hobby with the USDRM Group as the system was introduced in North America. It was through the efforts of Ulis and Jeff that the invitations came for us to go to Washington. The meeting was held at Radio Free Asia's facilities on M Street in Washington, DC. The day began with a brief tour of Radio Free Asia's facilities. Introductions and some initial presentations and discussions were held before lunch. After lunch there were reviews of previous DRM meetings by some of the key people involved in these matters: Adil Mina from Continental Electronics, Darko Cvjetko of Riz Transmitters, Don Messer who is Chairman of the DRM Technical Committee, and Jeff White. A report from Mike Adams, Chairman of US DRM's International Broadcasters Committee was read. Kim Elliott provided a review of experience obtained from DRM demonstrations at the Winter SWL Festival. A key item that should interest shortwave listeners is the formation of a USDRM Listeners Committee to get comments and feedback from the SWL community. I think this is an important step in getting the listener engaged in the process. Ultimately, it will be the listener that will determine if DRM will be successful or not. More information about this should be forthcoming in the next few months. Probably the most exciting piece of intelligence from the meeting was the news that at the IFA 2005 Exhibition in Berlin, Germany to be held 1-7 September, two or more portable DRM receivers should be displayed for the first time. It is anticipated that these should be available for sale for the Christmas shopping season in Europe. How long it will take for these receivers to make it to North America is unknown at this time. However, clever listeners have always found a way to get the latest gear no matter where it was being sold. To date, you had to have special software and go through an elaborate process to attempt to hear DRM transmissions. This should be a major first step in making DRM shortwave user friendly." (Rich D`Angelo, PA, NASWA Flashsheet May 8 via DXLD) ###