DX LISTENING DIGEST 5-096, June 10, 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 1277: Sat 0800 WOR WRN to Eu, Au, NZ, WorldSpace AfriStar, AsiaStar Sat 0855 WOR WNQM Nashville TN 1300 Sat 1030 WOR WWCR 5070 Sat 1330 WOR WPKN Bridgeport CT 89.5 [also WPKM Montauk LINY 88.7] [1000 from July] Sat 1730 WOR WRN to North America (including Sirius Satellite Radio channel 115) Sat 1730 WOR WRMI 7385 [from WRN] Sun 0230 WOR WWCR 5070 Sun 0300 WOR WBCQ 9330-CLSB Sun 0330 WOR WRMI 7385 Sun 0630 WOR WWCR 3210 Sun 0730 WOR World FM, Tawa, Wellington, New Zealand 88.2 Sun 0830 WOR WRN to North America, also WLIO-TV Lima OH SAP (including Sirius Satellite Radio channel 115) Sun 0830 WOR KSFC Spokane WA 91.9 Sun 0830 WOR WXPR Rhinelander WI 91.7 91.9 100.9 Sun 0830 WOR WDWN Auburn NY 89.1 [unconfirmed] Sun 0830 WOR KTRU Houston TX 91.7 [occasional] Sun 1200 WOR WRMI 7385 Sun 1300 WOR KRFP-LP Moscow ID 92.5 Sun 1730 WOR WRMI 7385 [from WRN] Sun 1730 WOR WRN1 to North America (including Sirius Satellite Radio channel 115) Sun 1900 WOR Studio X, Momigno, Italy 1584 87.35 96.55 105.55 Sun 2000 WOR RNI Mon 0230 WOR WRMI 7385 Mon 0300 WOR WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0330 WOR WSUI Iowa City IA 910 [1276] Mon 0415 WOR WBCQ 7415 [time varies, e.g. 0419 May 30] Mon 1600 WOR WBCQ after hours 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 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 1277 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1277h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1277h.rm WORLD OF RADIO 1277 (low version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1277.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1277.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1277.html WORLD OF RADIO 1277 in true shortwave sound of Alex`s mp3 (stream) http://www.dxprograms.net/worldofradio_06-08-05.m3u (download) http://www.dxprograms.net/worldofradio_06-08-05.mp3 ** ABKHAZIA. See GEORGIA. (We have previously recognized ABKHAZIA separately from GEORGIA, and this is not to be taken as a retraxion) ** ALASKA. Republicans try to wipe out Alaska Public Radio Network: see USA, CPB stories ** ALASKA. 9795, KNLS, 1023-1036, June 10, English, Bible giveaway at tune-in with KNLS contact info. Usual fare of pop music between testimonials. "DX Definition" at 1028 regarding utility DXing. Fair with 9790-RNW via Bonaire splatter (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R75, 200' Beverage antennas, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ANTARCTICA [and non]. Hola Glenn, sobre lo de quién escuchó LRA 36 a las 23 UT me parece extraño, pues esta emisora cierra a las 2100, tal como tú dices, y así me lo confirmaron en varias ocasiones desde la propia emisora. Ayer en Friol, traté de escucharla entre las 2000 y las 2100, hora propicia en años anteriores, durante estas fechas, para captarla por aquí, pero me resultó imposible, ya que Voz Cristiana tiene completamente bloqueado el canal. Recuerdo que el año pasado, en junio y julio, a veces se escuchaba LRA 36 incluso por momentos con SINPO 44444, cuando las condiciones eran muy favorables, y con SINPO 24322 muchísimas veces, pero ahora resulta totalmente imposible. Recibe un abrazo (desde España, Manuel Méndez, June 10, DX LISTENING DIGEST) VC moving to 15485 from June 20! See Chile and (gh) Hola compañeros, Al fin! En el programa de hoy 10 de junio de Altas Ondas em Voz Cristã, Edson Bruno anunció numerosas veces que para ``liberar`` la frecuencia de 15475 para LRA-36 Antártida (15476) y Africa No. 1, Gabon, a partir del 20 de junio, VC cambiará a 15485, en portugués entre las 12 y 24 TU. Este choque habrá durado casi 3 meses. 73, (Glenn Hauser, condiglist via DXLD) ** BOLIVIA. SOVEREIGN RADIO OF THE CHAPARÉ By Benjamin Melancon, Posted on Fri Jun 10th, 2005 at 06:10:37 PM EST During the 2004 July-August School of Authentic Journalism in Bolivia, the lucky scholars and professors got to meet as a colleague Egberto Winston Chipana Limachi, the director of Radio Soberania (``Radio Sovereignty``) in the town of Chipriri of the Chaparé, the heart of the current coca growers movement. The station reaches 96 percent of the public in the Tropic of Cochabamba, Authentic Journalism scholar Romina Trincheri wrote at the time: "Walking the small earthen paths that connect the homes of the traditional coca growers, we find that the radio is listened to, sometimes in Spanish, and for a good part of the day in Quechua." Quechua is the indiginous language and name of the second-largest ethnicity in Bolivia. Wearing an "erbol" T-shirt (the back read, in Spanish "if you listen to ERBOL you listen to Bolivia") Egberto Chipana talked to us about his radio station. . . http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/6/10/181037/711 (The Narcosphere via Sheldon Harvey, DXLD) WTFK? Not SW, anyway (gh) ** CANADA. Montreal happenings --- Hi, Been partially cut off from the Net this last week as my motherboard went kaput on me! This should be resolved by the weekend. It's Grand Prix time again in Montreal. Two low power FMs are broadcasting the races on 89.9 and 100.1 up until Sunday night. In FF and EE and Mono. Always a fun weekend as many international broadcasters can be heard in the 450-512 MHz band, plus all frequencies used by the organizers. 73, (Charles Gauthier, St- Lambert, QC, June 10, WTFDA via DXLD) ** CANADA [and non]. Videotron is one of the oldest and largest cable company in North America and is part of the Quebecor Media empire! They own newspapers, magazines, tv stations and offer cable and Internet access to more than 3 millions Quebecers. One of their most famous accomplishments is to have brought cable to London England households in the late 80s (Charles Gauthier, QC, June 9, WTFDA via DXLD) Actually, their 'parent' is Rediffusion which launched in 1932 radio via wire - for a raft of reasons (no electricity in flats, uniqueness of English living and housing styles pre-WW2) normal AM radio reception in many congested regions of UK was very poor or on- existent. Rediffusion created a wired system, directly akin to modern cable TV, where a quiet location and multiple radio receivers distributed at audio frequencies one to five different radio services to homes. In homes, individual speaker - radio channel selector switches, all for a few pence per month. In 1949 Rediffusion began a similar service with TV (BBC1 being the only channel at the time) and created TV sets without tuners or IF amplifiers because the video and audio was distributed first through twisted pair (along with radio) and later in slightly better wire at video frequencies. In 1952 they sent a team of folks to Montreal to create a similar TV service for that city which preceded any local TV service so they ran films, did live studio stuff. When CBMT as Canada's first TV station signed on the air in September 1953, there were 80,000 "waiting" and connected TV sets on Videotron/Rediffusion. They also tried to do the same thing in Barbados and one or two other British spots (Hong Kong). Eventually Montreal's system grew out of baseband (audio and video distribution networking) to regular RF coaxial cable networking. They have a long, proud history - somebody should research and write a book about their first time accomplishments! (Bob Cooper in New Zealand, ibid.) ** CHILE [and non]. Edson Bruno just announced on Altas Ondas, the weekly Portuguese DX program of Voz Cristã, that from June 20 they will be moving slightly, from 15475 to 15485 at 1200-2400, after having received no response from LRA-36 and Africa No. One, to ``liberate`` these two stations. Thus ends almost 3 months of collision which could have been resolved in one week if not headed off in the first place by more astute frequency management. BTW, Edson threw in some English about this and an ID for the program, and repeated it numerous times in Portuguese. The program repeats at 1500 UT on Saturday, still on 15475. Missed the interview with Jeff White, in what languages? on last week`s show. Unfortunately, the 9+ MB audio file of it allegedly at http://www.amantesdoradio.he.com.br/programas_dx.htm will not play beyond a 49-second introduxion and will soon be replaced, allegedly, by this week`s show. Latest editions of some other Portuguese DX shows are also allegedly archived there (Glenn Hauser, 1515 UT June 10, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn: I was on last week's "Altas Ondas." Edson Bruno does it live. The show of course is in Portuguese, but for the interview he spoke Spanish and Portuguese, and I answered in Spanish (Jeff White, FL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. June 10 at 1342 check, no RHC on 12000 --- have they finally cleared the frequency as promised? Probably not, as also missing from 11800, 11760 and 9550 --- maybe some antennas were damaged by TS Arlene? However, Spanish still audible on 6000 and much better 15230; CRI relay in English on 9570 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CZECH REPUBLIC. /USA: NEW PRAGUE SITE FOUND FOR RFE/RL | Text of report in English by Czech news agency CTK Prague, 10 June: The US embassy in the Czech Republic has confirmed for CTK that a locality for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has been found, in reaction to a statement by Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek in today's issue of daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD). Paroubek told the paper that the radio management has already chosen a locality to move to. Embassy spokesman Jan Krc told CTK that what Paroubek said is correct. Paroubek discussed RFE/RL with US ambassador to the Czech Republic William Cabaniss on Thursday [9 June]. "They have already chosen a place where the radio should move, but it is up to them to disclose it," Paroubek told MfD. The radio now sits in the building of the former Federal Assembly (parliament) in the centre of Prague. RFE/RL has not yet commented on the matter. Spokeswoman Anna Rausova said last week that the issue had not yet been settled. According to information from March the final decision should be made at end-June at the latest. The relocation of RFE/RL, which started to be spoken about after the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001, is to be approved by US Congress. It is speculated that localities close to the Zelivsky metro station and the administrative spaces in Prague-Smichov have been shortlisted. Source: CTK news agency, Prague, in English 1419 gmt 10 Jun 05 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** EL SALVADOR. Diexismo Histórico: Radio Venceremos --- Estimados amigos, reciban un cordial saludo; les reporto estas direcciones sobre la emisora clandestina del Salvador "Radio Venceremos", Sobre todo muy interesante el libro electrónico de Radio Apasionadas; no tiene desperdicio. RADIO VENCEREMOS: ``En este instante comienza a trasmitir desde algún lugar de El Salvador, Radio Venceremos, emisora del Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional… El pueblo unido jamás será vencido...`` --- así inicia el diez de enero de 1981 la primera transmisión del medio de comunicación rebelde, instalado al nor-oriente del país centroamericano en plena guerra civil, producto de la miseria, la marginación y la crisis de representatividad gubernamental. http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=14522 RADIO APASIONAD@AS, EXPERIENCIAS DE RADIO COMUNITARIA EN EL MUNDO: http://www.comunica.org/apasionados/pdf/radioapasionados.pdf POSTER DE RADIO VENCEREMOS http://www.iisg.nl/collections/koster/d29-863.html HISTORIA DEL FMLN, DE SU PAGINA WEB: http://fmln.org.sv/portal/index.php?module=htmlpages&func=display&pid=1 73 y buen DX (José Miguel Romero, Spain, Noticias DX via DXLD) ** GABON. 9580, Africa #1, 2143-2207, June 9, French/English, Music program featuring English hits by James Brown, OM in French between selections. Promo for "Radio Afrique" at 2158, several IDs, pips at 2200 into news. Lite Chinese language interference at 2200, presumably co-channel BBC via S. Korea. Fair/Good (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R75, 200' Beverage antennas, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GAMBIA [non]. If you hear ``Save Gambia Radio`` between 1957 and 2027 hours on 9430 kHz on Saturday, be aware that the broadcast comes from Germany beamed to Gambia (Rumen Pankov, R. Bulgaria DX program June 10 via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) You mean 9405 (gh) ** GEORGIA. At approx. 1400 UT June 7, 9494.94v Abkhaz State Radio Soxum noted in Russian again, fade in time, thiny S=1-2 (Wolfgang Büschel, wwdxc BC-DX via DXLD) ** GREECE. Radio Friendship, which in Greek is Radio Philia, now has a program entitled ``Its All Greek to Me,`` aired only on Sunday from 9.05 to 9.55 UTC on 9420, 11645, 15630, 15650 and 21530 kHz. The QSL address is: Radio Philia, English Service, Messogion 432, 15342 Aghia Paraskevi Attikis, Athens, Greece (Rumen Pankov, R. Bulgaria DX program June 10 via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) ** INDIA. The Central News Bulletin in English of All India Radio is aired at 1530 UT on 32 frequencies on short and medium wave. The QSL address is: All India Radio, P.O.Box 500, New Delhi 110 001, India (Rumen Pankov, R. Bulgaria DX program June 10 via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. On the program Live From, CNN interviewed James Makawa to announce the new Africa Channel. "To de-mystify Africa", Makawa said. CNN's Africa Channel debuts at the end of August -- Makawa mentioned negotiations with Cox Cable, among others (Clara Listensprechen, June 10, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So this is intended for a non-African audience, available in US? (gh) ** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. SIRIUS CHANGE FOR CUZ BRUCIE http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/317561p-271610c.html Cousin Brucie will be coming at you again soon - without commercials. Bruce Morrow - a familiar New York radio voice for decades until being unceremoniously bounced last week from WCBS-FM - signed a five-year deal with Sirius Satellite Radio yesterday to anchor three shows a week, beginning next month. "I am riding so high - I'm on a rocket ride; I'm above a satellite," Morrow gushed yesterday. "They've given me a national audience." The Brooklyn-born Morrow, 67, blasted his former employer for notifying him at 3 p.m. last Friday that the station was ditching its oldies format - and its deejays - for a iPod- like format called "Jack" in 90 minutes. "Broadcasters are not making decisions anymore - business is," said Morrow, a New York radio mainstay since the late 1950s. "This is New York City. You can't pull the plug like that on the New York audience." Morrow said he will do two rock 'n' roll shows a week for Sirius, including a live Saturday night show. In addition, he plans a "lifestyle" program that will involve talk, interviews, audience conversations and probably music. Owen Moritz (via Joel Rubin, swprograms via DXLD) RENOWNED DJ HEADING TO SATELLITE RADIO http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/06/09/cousin.brucie.ap/index.html (via Maryanne Kehoe, swprograms via DXLD) ** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [and non]. Here`s a great hurricane site, with lots of graphics, NWS notices up to date (gh) Tropical storm Arlene --- Hi, Het is zo ver, de eerste tropische storm van het seizoen heeft zich ontwikkeld in de Golf van Mexiko. Het is misschien wel aardig om dit seizoen te volgen. http://www.crownweather.com/tropical.html Op bovenstaande link krijgt u alle info die er is met prachtige plaatjes en bewegende beelden (dubbelklikken op de plaatjes). Het seizoen loopt tot 1 november. Ik ga even de nieuwste freqs bijeen sprokkelen waarop de hurricanes zijn te volgen. U krijgt ze! Groeten, (Pim Ripken, Netherlands, June 10, BDXC via DXLD) ** IRAQ. "VOICE OF IRAQI WOMEN" RADIO ON AIR IN BAGHDAD A new radio station identifying as "Radio Friendship, Voice of Iraqi Women" [Radio al-Mahabbah, Sawt al-Mar'ah al-Iraqiyah] was heard in Baghdad on 96 MHz FM, by BBC Monitoring on 10 June 2005 at 1000 gmt. Programming was mostly music, with 3-5 minute news bulletins in Arabic on the hour. A station broadcasting continuous music was heard on the same frequency on 14 April 2005. Source: BBC Monitoring research, 1225 gmt 10 Jun 05 (via DXLD) ** LATVIA. EUROPA RADIO INTERNATIONAL --- Hi everyone, This Sunday, the Two Bob's, Matthews and LeRoi return to 9290 kHz between 11 and 13 UT (12 & 2 UK). Stand by for some fine music including new releases (see our Playlist page on the website), we'll be sifting through your e-mails and reception reports and talking about life, Transdniestria, 1395 and wayward tugboats. More details are available on our website at: http://www.europaradiointernational.co.uk including a horror photograph of the Two Bob's. Look forward to you joining us on Sunday on 9290 kHz via Latvia. PS: If you recently requested a QSL card and have not yet received it then we apologise; we are aiming to clear the backlog by the end of this month. Regards (Alan Day, ERI, June 10, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 9290 kHz 11 & 12 June relays --- 11th June: Radio Six 0600-0800 UT, Radio Joystick 0900-1000 UT 12th June: Europa Radio International 1100-1300 UT Good Listening (Tom Taylor, June 10, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. En mis viajes de trabajo a Querétaro he notado que ha empezado la transmisión de la señal de pruebas en la frecunecia de 100.3 MHz de la banda de FM, emisora permisionada al Gobierno del Estado de Querétaro, otorgada el 22 de diciembre del 2004 con indicativo nominal XHQUE. Por otra parte en Tequisquiapan, Querétaro he sintoniado cuatro emisoras en FM, con muy poca potencia, los cuales transmiten música continua, sin anuncios, ni identificaciones. [¿pruebas, piratas? gh] Las emisoras son: FM – MHz 102.5 Música Tropical continua ST 102.9 Música Pop Inglés continua ST 103.1 Música Rock / Pop continua ST 103.7 Música Clásica continua ST -------- __@ ----- _`\<,_ ---- (*)/ (*) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (M.I. Héctor García Bojorge, June 9, condiglist via DXLD) Must be quite a commute from DF to QRO on your bike (gh, DXLD) ** MOLDOVA. Radio Pridnestrovie broadcasting from Tiraspol in the separatist self-styled Pridnestrovian Moldovian Republic has been received in Sofia Monday through Friday from 1630 UT on the new frequency of 5910 kHz. The program starts off with 15 minutes news in English followed by news in German or French on the different days of the week. The QSL address is: Radio DMR, Rose Luxembourg Street 10, Tiraspol 3300, Moldova (Rumen Pankov, R. Bulgaria DX program June 10 via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) I thought it was at 1600? (gh, DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS [and non]. RNW was heard after 0700 on its new 9610 via JUL (aiming at Olle) today // 5955, but NOT // Bonaire 9625 (Olle Alm, Sweden and Noel R. Green, UK, June 4, BCDX via DXLD) That's a special service for Dutch holidaymakers in North Eastern Europe on their Caravaning touring buses, like every year till Sept 1st: 9610 0659-0757 18 to NE Europe, JUL 100 kW 50 deg, 010605-010905 Dutch and FLE 6015 kHz is cut by an hour closing at 0556 UT instead. Another JULICH registration entry at 10 degrees (20 minus 10) 11655 0559-0700 18 JUL 100 20 -10 0106-010905 Dut Also additional service via Kaliningrad 6035 1959-2057 18,27,28W KLG 160 245 0106-010905 6035 1959-2200 27,28W,37N KLG 160 245 0106-010905 Dut RUS RNW RNW and additional FLEVO: 9695 1959-2057 36,37 FLE 500 205 0106-010905 Dut 9695 1959-2057 28S,38,39 FLE 500 127 0106-010905 Dut 9895 0659-1657 27S,37N FLE 500 191 0106-010905 Dut and complex 11935 schedule also: 11935 0500-0556 28S FLE 500 123 0106-010905 Dut 11935 0559-0757 27S,28S,37N FLE 500 191 234567 0106-010905 Dut 11935 0559-0758 27S,28S,37N FLE 500 191 1-Sun 0106-010905 Dut 11935 0659-0757 27S,28S,37N FLE 500 191 2703-010605 Dut 11935 0659-0758 27S,28S,37N FLE 500 191 0109-301005 Dut 11935 0759-0900 28S FLE 500 123 23456 0107-010905 Dut 11935 0759-0900 27S,37N FLE 500 191 23456 0106-010905 Dut 12015 1959-2057 28S FLE 4 123 0106-010905 Dut DRM 13700 0759-0900 27S,37N FLE 500 191 23456 0106-010905 Dut 13700 0759-0900 28S FLE 500 123 23456 0107-010905 Dut and bicycle Tour de FRANCE live coverage: 13700 1159-1459 27S,37N FLE 500 191 23456 0207-250705 Dut 13700 1159-1459 28S FLE 500 123 23456 0207-250705 Dut (Wolfgang Büschel, June 5, BCDX via DXLD) ** NIGERIA [non]. SALAMA RADIO INTERNATIONAL HEARD A radio station called Radio Salama International was heard by BBC Monitoring on 11885 kHz shortwave from 1930 to 2030 gmt on the 8 June. The station signed on at 1930 with West African-style music, followed by an announcement. Programming consisted of various types of music with short commentaries. Speech in English and Hausa was heard and a religious-style talk was noted around 2015. The station signed off at 2029 gmt, announcing the following: Address - PO Box 6316, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria Telephone - 080 370 32530 E-mail: Indistinct The station also announced that it would be on the air on the same frequency on Sundays and Wednesdays in the future. BBC Monitoring heard a station in 2001 on shortwave also called Salama Radio. That station had carried Pentecostal Christian programing and content hostile to the Nigerian government. Source: BBC Monitoring research 8 Jun 05 (via DXLD) [HISTORY] New religious broadcaster to West Africa. On 6 July 2001 Salama Radio started broadcasting to W Africa. Fr, En, Ar, Hausa, and Fulfulde are announced as the first languages to come on the air with other langs understood by at least ten million people to follow. Dr Jacob Abdalla, Pres. of Harvestime Ministries, suggests that "Salama Radio has a potential audience of about 300 million in sub-Saharan Africa, and there is a tremendous opportunity here for Christian ministries and organisations to reach these people with the message of hope and salvation in various ways including Bible teaching, radio drama, gospel music, and educational programs." According to the web site "original materials will be secured from local producers, ministries, churches, non-governmental organisations, and international organisations, thereby giving the station both a local and international perspective. Salama Radio will bring Christian News from around the world to and from the region as well as broadcast vibrant and good mix of gospel programs from Bible based ministries. Salama Radio will allow Christian commercials while maintaining the central point of evangelisation." With regard to the last sentence it is surprising that in March 2001, Margaret Perera accepted to serve as Salama Radio's first International Director on a voluntary basis. Currently, the station is heard 1900-2000 UT on Woofferton 15475 kHz [!!2001 year!!]. Ultimately, it wants to be on the air round the clock using the transmission facilities of Merlin Communications. "Salama Radio will generate the desire to listen and Merlin will make it heard using its state of the art transmission facilities in strategic locations around the world." Dr. Jacob Abdalla - President, Harvestime Ministries; Ian Howden- Simpson - National Director, Harvestime Ministries; Margaret Perera - International Director, Salama Radio. The Studio, PO Box 126, Chessington, Surrey KT9 2WJ, United Kingdom. Tel/Fax: +44 [0] 208 395 7425 E-mail: admin @ salamaradio.org URL: http://www.harvestime.org.uk A google search did not reveal any additional information on Dr. Jacob Abdalla, but judging from the language of the website http://www.harvestime.org.uk his ministry is charismatic or pentecostal (Dr. Hansjoerg Biener-D, wwdxc BC-DX July 13 2001!! Via BCDX June 10, 2005 via DXLD) Salama Radio ist ein christlich-religioeses Programm von Harvestime Ministries. Hierzu aus dem QSL-Brief von 2001: "Our programmes will be mainly Christian, with about 30 % of programmes dedicated to moral issues and African folk songs." (Patrick Robic, Austria, A-DX June 6 via BCDX via DXLD) ** OKLAHOMA. Since I have complained before about Cox Cable, Enid, not presenting basic cable channels in stereo, when stereo is available, I must point out that now many of them have suddenly been converted to stereo, without notice. I was just watching the indicators on my VCRs and TVs. Some strange exceptions, however: ESPN-1 yes, ESPN-2 no. Some channels which are still not in stereo, besides the news, shopping, religious ones for which there is really no need: KOCB-34 (WB; haven`t check offair signal lately, but they initially went to synthesized stereo only, and may still be so), WGN, ARTS, TLC, SPIKE, FAM, LIFE, HGTV, TOON, A&E, HIS, DIS, COM, E! Perhaps the conversion is incomplete (Glenn Hauser, Enid, June 10, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAKISTAN [and non]. Pakistan has come up on 15100 at 1700-1900 since June 1 (replacing 9365 kHz) and is doing well here with slight splash from BBC SKN 15105 and via ASC at 1800. Can anyone give me a report of what it's like further east? (Noel R. Green-UK, wwdxc BC-DX June 4 via DXLD) I checked some PAK frequencies quickly today June 7th. 11585/11586 Crazy frequency selection of only 1 kHz separation. Heard Russian at 1415 UT on exact 11586.00 kHz, both PAK and AIR [latter co-channel 11585.00] were on same poor signal level S=2, and I could follow easily Russian service program when using the upper flank. Nothing noted on \\ 9325 kHz. Arabic service was much stronger then, at 1815 UT, 9340.44 kHz and 11550.03 kHz S=2-3. Urdu program was not bad (except audio quality) on both 11570 and 15100 at 1820 UT, S=4-5. I couldn't copy any of the new 9320 kHz signals, Iran program, or the Islamabad special program later 1700-1900 UT. KRE 9325 signal was alone and the only one in this band region. 7570 kHz not strong as in past autumn/winter, only S=2 at 1930 UT. Whistle tone on the lower flank makes listening not pleasant. So used to tune VFO to approx. 7572 kHz instead (Wolfgang Büschel, Germany, wwdxc BC-DX June 7 via DXLD) I checked the PAK frequencies again today. At 1700 UT Urdu service started with 54444 on 15100, and on 11570 SINPO 44444. Persian 11550.38 kHz noted with carrier already at 1710 UT, and R PAK started IS, ID in Persian from 1714 UT. No signal, no carrier, on around 9320 kHz in whole time segment period till 1800 UT. Arabic noted 1815-1820 UT today on 11550.03 22222, 9340.47 22222. Nothing heard on 9320 kHz from Islamabad special. 7570 couldn't be traced today till 1956 UT, not even a carrier whistle observed. On upper flank disturbed by fast-CW digital on 7571.75 kHz (Büschel, June 8, ibid.) ** PAKISTAN. News in English can be heard from Radio Pakistan from 16 to 1614 hours on 4790, 5027, 5080, 11570 and 15100 kHz and at 8 and 11 hours on 15100 and 17835 and from 0045 to 0115 on 11565 (Rumen Pankov, R. Bulgaria DX program June 10 via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 3364.98, R. Milne Bay (presumed) at 1149-1220+ on Jun 5. Vocal music and M announcer reading listeners' letters and greetings. Soul and reggae numbers before 1200, and "island" music after 1200 or so; ad for a sporting goods store at 1217, followed by a "Karai Nat'l Radio ID" and more music. Good signal and was \\ to 4890, which was in very well (John Wilkins, CO, DXplorer via BCDX via DXLD) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 7120, (Presumed) Wantok R. Light, 1006-1022, June 10, Whisper quiet choral-like ballads poking thru noise floor. Wiped out by USB chatter at 1022. Too weak to work with but something definitely there. More than I thought I'd get for this time of year in ECNA (Scott R. Barbour, Jr., Intervale, NH, R75, 200' Beverage antennas, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA. The loud ARS buzz on 21460 kHz has turned into a proper broadcasting station once again, but the 21 MHz band is not producing too many signals currently (Noel R. Green-UK, wwdxc BC-DX June 5 via DXLD) ** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. Re 5-069 and 5-081: I made another periodic check of Brother Scare`s SW schedule page http://www.overcomerministry.org/SW/ on UT June 10, almost a month after the last check: He still thinks WRMI is on 6870 instead of 7385. DTK and WWRB usage is shown, which I have not cross-checked, except that 3185 (WWRB) is not labeled with any call letters, and 17495, which is really WBCQ, is labeled as WWRB! All references to WWCR have been removed, despite the fact that the June WWCR printed/pdf schedule still shows him there M-F 0900-1100 on WWCR-3, 5070, but that`s it, no longer on #4 at all. If the BS published schedule ever matches reality it will be a miracle (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWEDEN [non]. The only broadcast in English of IBRA Radio can be heard from 1830 to 1845 UT on 9485 kHz. The program ``Spotlight`` was heard in slow English. The QSL address is: IBRA Radio, Stockholm 14199, Sweden (Rumen Pankov, R. Bulgaria DX program June 10 via John Norfolk, dxldyg via DXLD) via Jülich, per EiBi (gh) ** TIBET [and non]. CHINA, Xinjiang PBS switched to the usual summer schedule around 15 May, but in general reception has been poor due to the persistent solar disturbances (Olle Alm, Sweden, wwdxc BC-DX June 5 via DXLD) The most interesting reception this morning was from what must have been XZDT Lhasa on 11950. I first noted it around 0640 and by 0700 the signal had come up to S6 on peaks and then slowly began to fade out by 0730. What could possibly have caused the signal to peak at 0700? The language was Chinese and the programme was woman talk and Chinese pop music till 0700. I heard a Chinese type TS slightly after the hour of 5 low pips but missed the last high pip. I think there was an ID but it was spoiled audibly by TRT-Turkey splatter from 11955. I checked if it was \\ 17605 but it wasn't. TWR via ALB was not on air today so I could check for 11860 and there was 'something' there but impossible to tell what. This is via 085 degrees via LHASA I note, so that would explain a weak signal. 11950 is via 290 degrees. 9 MHz channels were checked - 9490 blocked by Sweden and I think it was Africa #1 on 9580 in a lot of splash. Strangely? - or maybe not - XJBS 11885 was showing just traces of signal - nothing on 11770 - and PAK 11565 did not appear. And the Kashi 11 MHz channel(s) were not very good either. Perhaps it is worth another check tomorrow - it all depends upon how much splatter the TUR splash machine on 11955 manages to put out though. The lady from Honolulu was back on 15000 and a nice signal was heard around 0710 with no trace of the man from Boulder - and nothing on 10000. 13700 had a S5+ signal from Lingshi with something very tentatively co-channel. This seems a very poor choice of frequency for KWHR (Noel R. Green-UK, wwdxc BC-DX June 8 via DXLD) ** UKRAINE. MOSCOW EDITORIAL ATTACKS "SQUEEZING OUT OF RUSSIAN LANGUAGE" IN UKRAINE | Text of report byOleg Bazak published by Russian newspaper Moskovskiy Komsomolets on 7 June under the "This Day" opinion rubric entitled "The Ukrainians have become overheated about language" They are driving the Russian language and pop music off the airwaves. They have tried to trip up Russian language in Ukraine again. The National Council on Questions of TV and Radio Broadcasting was given an assignment of state importance: straighten out the use of the Ukrainian language in radio space. They were given very little time to develop an appropriate memorandum - just three weeks or so. The working group is supposed to identify exactly where the Ukrainian language is being squeezed out (by Russian, of course) and how to correct this. Oksana Bilozir, the people's artist of Ukraine who is also head of the culture ministry, is sure that Russian should not disappear from radio programmes, but at the same time it certainly cannot prevail, as it does now. In other words, it should be used according to the law - not more than 30 per cent of air time. The state radio companies will suffer least from the "correction" because only announcers who speak Ukrainian can get jobs with them. Therefore, the musical repertoire also is shaped "appropriately." Toughening the language requirements for radio will hurt the private companies, especially in the regions where the operation of any FM station depends directly on the amount of advertising ordered. For in Ukrainian business a majority of the people, as in Soviet times, use Russian, even in the western regions (there is no need to talk about the South and the East). Now and then they may even switch to English, but they practically never use Ukrainian. It will be even harder for radio people in multiethnic regions, above all Odessa and Transcarpathian oblasts. There are many purely Bulgarian and Albanian villages in the Odessa region. If their inhabitants know a second language, it is Russian, never Ukrainian. The same phenomenon is observed in the Hungarian villages beyond the Carpathian passes. As far as can be understood, the review covers not just live speech on the air but also the musical component. They intend to mess things up here too, under the slogan of "allowing everyone to find music to his tastes on the air." And because the man behind the government assignment is almost certainly Mykola Tomenko - a tireless fighter against low forms of mass culture, bad language, and kitsch - pop music, which is what most FM stations rely on, will have a hard time. "All a politician has to do is bet on linguistic separatism (I am not referring to ethnic languages) and he will lose in the next parliamentary elections in the spring of 2004," Gennadiy Udovenko, chairman of the Supreme Rada committee on questions of human rights, ethnic minorities, and interethnic relations, told Moskovskiy Komsomolets . "Have you noticed any kind of separatist attitudes at all in the eastern and southern regions lately? They disappeared within a few weeks after the last election. "They could appear after the Russian population loses the possibility of hearing the news and songs in their native language... "For one, the government will never permit this. And for two, the people in the Donets Basin and the Northern Black Sea region are much more interested in a high social standard of living. If the present government provides that, no political technologies based on language and ethnic factors will be effective." Moskovskiy Komsomolets asked the well known radio journalist and cultural specialist Vladimir Pavlov for his opinion about the innovations: "The concept of an 'esthetic dictatorship' is unacceptable to me. If the Ukrainian listeners were more demanding, if they were not too lazy to call or write the producer and say, enough of so-and-so singing, give us some normal culture, then I would understand. If there is no response, however, no connection like this, the state can and should have carte blanche; but it is the citizen who should present it." Source: Moskovskiy Komsomolets, Moscow, in Russian 7 Jun 05 (via BBCM via DXLD) Well, you`ve got to expect a certain amount of backlash following a long period of Russian imperialism (gh, DXLD) ** U K [and non]. MSF STANDARD FREQUENCY AND TIME STATION TO REMAIN UNTIL AT LEAST 2017 --- The MSF standard-frequency and time signal http://www.npl.co.uk/time/msf.html is one of the most widely used sources of time in the UK. It is transmitted on behalf of the National Physical Laboratory http://www.npl.co.uk/ by BT plc from its Rugby Radio Station on a frequency of 60 kHz. The current contract to broadcast the signal finishes at the end of March 2007, and recently the Department of Trade and Industry has commissioned studies to consider the longer-term future of the signal. As a result of this work, DTI has given the go-ahead for NPL to procure the MSF broadcast for a further 10 years. It is anticipated that there will be no interruption to the MSF service, whatever the outcome of the contract negotiations. It is possible that MSF operation will need to be transferred to another site within the UK, but if that proves to be the case, a key aim will be to ensure that the reception of the signal is the same or better than it is at present over the whole of the UK (RSGB via Mike Terry, dxldyg via DXLD) I have a wrist watch and numerous radio clocks, also some that work off the German station (£2.99 from Lidl a few months ago). They are all reliable and of course extremely accurate (Mike Terry, ibid.) ** U K. History of Rediffusion -- see CANADA ** U S A. Bulletin: new unit for expressing barometric pressure: megabytes instead of millibars! That`s what the synthesized YL voice said repeatedly during Pacific marine weather, monitored June 9 between 1500 and 1530 on numerous parallel frequencies. It also inserts the word ``period`` before ``24-hour`` and ``48-hour`` forecasts. Obviously the former is caused by a misinterpretation of the abbr. MB, and the latter perhaps reading out the period from the end of the previous sentence! How long has this been going on? Are her masters paying any attention? I don`t recall hearing the ``MB`` mixup the last time I listened to similar transmissions sometime last year. It should be easy to avoid this, aside from a brain transplant, by making sure the original text says ``millibars`` instead of ``MB``. I had a brilliant idea: as long as an artificial voice is being generated, why not give her a funny accent, to make these rather boring broadcasts more entertaining: June Foray could have helped, as Rocky, or perhaps Elmer Fudd, Bugs Bunny, or --- Yosemite Sam, who is already a SW personality! But these stupid gaffes will have to do instead. I went searching for parallel frequencies, and found two groups, all SSB, presumably USB, tho not checked whether any were LSB instead, and all as closely as I could tell ended in period zero: 17362, 13152, 13110, 8806, 8788. And with a slight delay (satellite?): 17311, 13101, 8731. Naturally I went to the WUN page with an extensive schedule by time of Marine Information Broadcasts, http://www.wunclub.com/files/sched_bc.html Not a single one of these is on the schedule at 1500 UT, or by a frequency search (always ending in .0), at any other time! These are surely USCG or maybe USN stations, and I suppose I would have heard IDs at the beginning or end if I had been listening at the right time. I did find one USCG weather broadcast on USB listed for 1600 UT, perhaps not taking into account DST shift, since this was last updated 01/03/05, from NMN Portsmouth VA, but that is listed on 13089, 8764, 6501. I did not check 6 MHz band at this time of day. A quick scan of 22 MHz did not produce anything. By 1528 they had reached the Gulf of Alaska, after dealing with numerous other Pacific quadrants. This USCG page is no help at all either: http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/marcomms/cgcomms/voice.htm Nothing shown at 1500, from NMN, NMC or NMO, and nothing on these frequencies at any other time! This does link to another page: http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/marcomms/gmdss/msi.htm ``High Seas Broadcasts --- Weather forecasts and warnings are broadcast over scheduled HF radiotelephone channels from Coast Guard Communication Stations using a very distinctive and recognizable computer-synthesized voice dubbed "Perfect Paul". Listen to "Perfect Paul" (17 second wav audio file, 142kb)`` Well, this is not Perfect Paul I am hearing, unless he has undergone a sex change. The channels link above is http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/hfvoice.htm which has some NEW information, not yet in effect: ``NEW --- Voice broadcasts of National Weather Service marine forecasts from NMN Chesapeake, VA and NMG New Orleans, LA will be modified on June 15, 2005 at 1400 UTC to accommodate a greater range of products and reduce mutual interference between these and other stations. NMG/NMN HF voice starting times were: 0330, 0500, 0930, 1130, 1600, 1730, 2200, 2230 UTC NMG/NMN HF voice starting times are changing to: 0330, 0515, 0930, 1115, 1530, 1715, 2130, 2315 UTC ``The U.S. Coast Guard HF voice broadcast from Chesapeake, VA is now simulcast from New Orleans, LA. (see schedule below). Broadcast of hurricane and other weather broadcasts from this station may on occasion be preempted, however, as the transmitters are shared with the radiofax broadcast. ``Effective Jan 01, 2005 U.S. Coast Guard long range communications stations NMF, NMN, NMA, NMG, NMC, NMO, NOJ and NRV changed their single sideband voice radio guard to the following simplex frequencies: 4125, 6215, 8291, and 12290 kHz. These frequencies are intended for initial voice contact and distress alerts and working only. Follow-on working frequencies if necessary shall be by mutual agreement after initial contact. Previously the ship/shore guard duplex frequencies of 4134/4426, 6200/6501, 8240/8764, 12242/13084, and 16432/17314 kHz were routinely shared with the broadcasts of maritime safety information, including weather. These duplex frequency pairs may still be used, however, for traffic handling purposes after initial contact is established on the distress and initial contact frequencies. For further information including monitoring schedules and frequency details, see http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/marcomms/cgcomms/call.htm `` But that page does not have anything about these USB weather broadcasts. Finally I checked the 2002 Klingenfuss book, but no US stations are listed on any of these frequencies, except WLO on 8788. All of them are ``coastal station`` frequencies apparently available to many different transmitters, unspecified. So where is each of these transmitters I have heard? Why aren`t these current frequencies listed anywhere? (Glenn Hauser, OK, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I seem to recall some mention of the USCG and perhaps others changing some of the frequencies at least and perhaps times of their broadcasts. I'll try to go back and peruse the WUN postings. Perhaps some of the files have yet to be updated reflecting the changes. (Steve Lare, Holland, MI, USA, ibid.) ** U S A [and non]. Re retiring engineering personnel at IBB: Comment: On various sightseeing tours and talks to the IBB Munich Ismaning/and former Holzkirchen staff in past years, they are working hard in this field of AM/FM installation in CIS, ME/NE /whole Africa. Also I guess many of them were involved in MW [Thomcast] installations at Djibouti and Kuwait, as well as SW at Kavala and Kuwait sites (Wolfgang Büschel, June 7, BCDX via DXLD) ** U S A [non]. Voz Cristã finally moving off 15475: see CHILE ** U S A. I remember a few years ago driving to Dulles Airport in Washington DC and seeing adverts all along the freeway for the airport information radio. I can`t remember the frequency now (Colin Ferris, June 8, BDXC-UK via DXLD) Dulles is on 530 kHz and has just upped the power --- however I don't think it counts [as an airport radio station like MALAYSIA, 5-095] as it is only parking info. I did check it myself though as I thought it might qualify (Chris McWhinnie, UK, ibid.) ** U S A. RECENT TV REGULATORY DEVELOPMENTS - KWDK-56 (Tacoma, WA) and WACX-55 (Leesburg/Orlando, FL) have applied for permission to go dark and become DTV-only stations. In both cases, a firm named Qualcomm filed comments supporting the stations' requests. Qualcomm has apparently won the auctions for the future use of channel 55, and if these requests are approved they'll be able to begin use of that channel earlier. Ironically, KWDK-DT (42) is not yet on the air. The station was one of those denied an unencumbered extension of their DTV permit, for not providing good reason for their lack of progress. - With the recent first-round of permanent DTV channel elections, a number of stations filed negotiated channel arrangements. For example, WBBM Chicago, DTV channel 3 and analog channel 2, reached an agreement with WTTW (DTV channel 47 and analog channel 11). WTTW agreed to keep their DTV facility on channel 47 and allow WBBM to use channel 11. The FCC reserved the right to approve or disapprove these agreements. They yesterday announced their decisions. Most agreements (including the WBBM/WTTW accord) were approved. However, twelve were disapproved. In most cases these stations will now be expected to stay on their existing DTV channels. However, three of their DTV channels are outside core. Two (KRON-57 San Francisco and WKMG-58 Orlando) will go on to the second round of channel elections. The third (WVTV-61 Milwaukee) will be expected to go back to its analog assignment, 18. (WVTV had requested channel 25, currently in use by co-owned WCGV. Presumably WVTV-DT would use the existing WCGV-DT transmitter. WCGV-DT would then move to their existing analog channel, 24. I don't know why channel 25 was considered unacceptable.) Three denied requests were from Pax stations KFPX-39 (Newton, Iowa), WEPX-38 (Greenville, N.C.), and KGPX-34. (Spokane, Wash.) None of these relatively new stations were assigned second channels, and apparently they aren't going to get them now! (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66, June 9, WTFDA via DXLD) see also RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM below ** U S A. PANEL WOULD CUT PUBLIC BROADCASTING AID By STEPHEN LABATON The New York Times June 10, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/10/arts/television/10pbs.html?pagewanted=print WASHINGTON, June 9 - A House Appropriations panel on Thursday approved a spending bill that would cut the budget for public television and radio nearly in half and eliminate a $23 million federal program that has provided some money for producing children's shows that include "Sesame Street," "Clifford the Big Red Dog," "Between the Lions" and "Dragon Tales." By a voice vote, the House Appropriations subcommittee adopted a measure that would reduce the financing of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the organization that directs taxpayer dollars to public television and radio, to $300 million from $400 million. The subcommittee also eliminated $39 million that stations say they need to convert to digital programming and $50 million for upgrading aging satellite technology that is the backbone of the PBS network. The cuts in financing went significantly beyond those requested by the White House and are likely to be approved next week by the full Appropriations Committee and then by the House. Lobbyists for public television and radio say they hope to have the money restored in the version of the bill prepared by the Senate, where they have support from several senior Republican members. The final legislation will be the product of negotiations between the House and Senate. Republican lawmakers said the cuts were not aimed at punishing public broadcasting but were the reality of preparing budgets at a time of growing deficits. But Democrats took a different view. "It is clear the G.O.P. agenda is to control public broadcasting or to defund it," said Representative David R. Obey of Wisconsin, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. "House Republicans have gutted funding for public broadcasting stations across the country." The vote came as public stations and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are engaged in a debate over the editorial balance in programming and the independence of the stations. The head of the Republican-controlled corporation, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, has pressed public broadcasting to correct what he and other conservatives consider liberal bias. That has prompted public broadcasting leaders - including the chief executive of PBS - to object that his actions pose a threat to editorial independence. Some public broadcasting officials have begun to express concern that the perception of political interference by the corporation would discourage individuals from making financial contributions to the stations. Mr. Tomlinson, meanwhile, has said that the perception that the stations are not balanced could prompt the Republican-controlled Congress to significantly reduce financing. The latest manifestation of the struggle between the stations and the corporation has arisen as the corporation searches for a new president. Mr. Tomlinson said in an interview in April that he had recommended that the board of the corporation appoint Patricia Harrison, a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee and assistant secretary of state, as the organization's next president. He has said he hopes the post will be filled at a board meeting later this month. But on Tuesday the Association of Public Television Stations sent Mr. Tomlinson a letter that endorsed an earlier one from Iowa Public Television that objected to the selection of "a political partisan." "We are concerned that the historical and critically important role of CPB as a shield between programming and a political process that seeks to influence it is being compromised - in perception by reports of broad involvement in program content, or in fact by what we understand is a desire to appoint a partisan political activist to the currently vacant post of CPB president," the Iowa Public Broadcasting Board wrote. "We believe strongly that such an appointment would be in absolute contradiction to the concept of CPB as a buffer. It would call into question the motivations of everything we do, whether funded by CPB or not." John Lawson, president of the Association of Public Television Stations, said that the subcommittee's decision to kill the Ready to Learn program, which provided $23 million for children's shows, came as payback for an episode earlier this year of "Postcards From Buster," in which Buster visits a pair of lesbian parents in Vermont. PBS pulled the episode as it began to face complaints about it. Officials at National Public Radio said rural and minority communities would be hardest hit by the cuts. John Scofield, a spokesman for the Appropriations Committee, said the cuts were not related to the "Postcards" episode that had prompted criticism. "Ready to Learn was one of more than 50 programs terminated in the spending bill," he said. "It might be a nice program to do, but not in a flat budget with large budget deficits. We felt the same way about 49 other programs." Gary E. Knell, the president of Sesame Workshop, which produces "Sesame Street" and "Dragon Tales," said the Ready to Learn program had contributed relatively modest amounts to the workshop and that most of the money for those shows comes from license revenue for the products sold by the workshop and money from stations. But he said that the cuts in the program could undermine the workshop's plans to work with the Department of Education and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to develop new educational programs for 6- to 9-year-olds. "This is the wrong time to be messing with this program," Mr. Knell said. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) PUBLIC BROADCASTING TARGETED BY HOUSE --- PANEL SEEKS TO END CPB'S FUNDING WITHIN 2 YEARS By Paul Farhi, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, June 10, 2005; A01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/09/AR2005060902283_pf.html A House subcommittee voted yesterday to sharply reduce the federal government's financial support for public broadcasting, including eliminating taxpayer funds that help underwrite such popular children's educational programs as "Sesame Street," "Reading Rainbow," "Arthur" and "Postcards From Buster." In addition, the subcommittee acted to eliminate within two years all federal money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting -- which passes federal funds to public broadcasters -- starting with a 25 percent reduction in CPB's budget for next year, from $400 million to $300 million. In all, the cuts would represent the most drastic cutback of public broadcasting since Congress created the nonprofit CPB in 1967. The CPB funds are particularly important for small TV and radio stations and account for about 15 percent of the public broadcasting industry's total revenue. Expressing alarm, public broadcasters and their supporters in Congress interpreted the move as an escalation of a Republican-led campaign against a perceived liberal bias in their programming. That effort was initiated by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's own chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson. "Americans overwhelmingly see public broadcasting as an unbiased information source," Rep. David Obey (Wis.), the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, said in a statement. "Perhaps that's what the GOP finds so offensive about it. Republican leaders are trying to bring every facet of the federal government under their control. . . . Now they are trying to put their ideological stamp on public broadcasting." But the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on labor, health and human services, and education asserted that the panel was simply making choices among various worthy government programs, and that no political message was intended. The subcommittee's action, which came on a voice vote, doesn't necessarily put Big Bird on the Endangered Species List. House members could restore funding as the appropriations bill moves along or, more likely, when the House and Senate meet to reconcile budget legislation later this year. The Senate has traditionally been a stronger ally of public broadcasting than the House, whose former speaker, Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), waged a high-profile but ultimately unsuccessful campaign to "zero out" funding for the CPB a decade ago. The cuts nevertheless surprised people in public broadcasting. In his budget sent to Congress in February, President Bush had recommended reducing CPB's budget only slightly. Several denounced the decision by the panel, which has 10 Republicans and seven Democrats, as payback by a Republican-dominated House after years of complaints from conservatives who see liberal bias in programs carried by the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio. Broadcasters noted, for example, that the 25 percent cutback in next year's CPB budget was a rollback of money that Congress had promised in 2004. PBS, in particular, drew harsh criticism in December from the Bush administration for a "Postcards From Buster" episode in which Buster, an animated rabbit, "visited" two families in Vermont headed by lesbians. And programming on both PBS and NPR has come under fire in recent months from Tomlinson, the Republican chairman of the CPB, who has pushed for greater "balance" on the public airwaves. A spokeswoman for NPR, Andi Sporkin, directly blamed Tomlinson for yesterday's action, saying, "We've never been sure of Mr. Tomlinson's intent but, with this news, we might be seeing his effect." Tomlinson did not return calls seeking comment. In a statement, he said, "Obviously, we are concerned [by the cuts], and we will be joining with our colleagues in the public broadcasting community to make the case for a higher level of funding as the appropriations measure makes its way through Congress." John Lawson, the president of the Association of Public Television Stations, a Washington-based group that lobbies for public broadcasters, called the subcommittee's action "at least malicious wounding, if not outright attempted murder, of public broadcasting in America." He added, "This action could deprive tens of millions of American children of commercial-free educational programming." Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio), the subcommittee's chairman, said the cuts had nothing to do with dissatisfaction over public radio or TV programs. "It's pretty simple," he said in an interview. "The thinking was, there's not enough money for everything. There are 'must-do,' 'need-to-do' and 'nice-to-do' programs that we have to pay for. [Public broadcasting] is somewhere between a 'need-to-do' and a 'nice- to-do.' " The subcommittee had to decide, he said, on cutting money for public broadcasting or cutting college grants, special education, worker retraining and health care programs. "No one's out to get" public broadcasting, Regula said. "It's not punitive in any way." In fact, none of the Republican members of the subcommittee publicly denounced public radio or TV funding at yesterday's markup. Public broadcasting drew supportive statements from Obey and Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.). Regula suggested public stations could "make do" without federal money by getting more funding from private sources, such as contributions from corporations, foundations, and listeners and viewers. But the loss of $23.4 million in federal funds for children's educational shows -- which PBS calls its "Ready to Learn" programs -- could mean the elimination of these programs, said an official at Alexandria-based PBS who asked not to be named because the network still hopes to regain the funding. PBS's revenue totaled $333 million in fiscal year 2004. The Ready to Learn group includes "Sesame Street," "Dragontales," "Clifford" and "Arthur," among others. The House measure also cuts support for a variety of smaller projects, such as a $39.6 million public TV satellite distribution network and a $39.4 million program that helps public stations update their analog TV signals to digital format. Small public radio stations, particularly those in rural areas and those serving minority audiences, may be the most vulnerable to federal cuts because they currently operate on shoestring budgets. "This could literally put us out of business," said Paul Stankavich, president and general manager of the Alaska Public Radio Network, an alliance of 26 stations in the state that create and share news programming. "Almost all of us are down to the bone right now. If we lost 5 or 10 percent of our budgets in one fell swoop, we could end up being just a repeater service" for national news, with no funds to produce local content. Stankavich, who also runs a public radio and TV station in Anchorage, said public radio is "an important source of news in urban areas, but it's life-critical in rural areas," especially in far-flung parts of Alaska unserved by any other broadcast medium. (c) 2005 The Washington Post Company (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) Interesting, isn't it, that our so-called "liberal press" habitually fails to point out in its reports on the activities of Tomlinson et al (including the far right wing in our House of Representatives) that, among terrestrial radio broadcasters, public radio alone has increased its listenership -- and dramatically -- and that every non-partisan poll of listeners rates public radio and tv highest for trustworthiness in its news coverage anf value for tax dollar spent. No wonder the far right wing of the Republican Party feels the need to destroy it (John Figliozzi, Halfmoon, NY, ibid.) ** U S A. FUROR OVER SPONSOR KQED REJECTED STATION SAYS IT WON'T ACCEPT ADVOCACY GROUPS George Raine, Chronicle Staff Writer, Thursday, June 9, 2005 KQED has rejected proposed underwriting by the New Israel Fund, a foundation that promotes progressive causes in Israel, citing its practice to reject advocacy. . . http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/06/09/BUG8VD5ND31.DTL&feed=rss.business (via Sheldon Harvey, DXLD) ** U S A. BERKELEY/FORMER KPFA HOST SUES, CLAIMING HARASSMENT Patrick Hoge, SF Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, June 9, 2005 A former host of the popular "Flashpoints" program on Berkeley's KPFA- FM has accused the program's executive director of sexually harassing her during a four-year period in which she worked on the show. The allegation against Dennis Bernstein came in an amended lawsuit filed June 1 in Alameda County by Noelle Hanrahan, founder of the Prison Radio Project and vice president of San Francisco's Building Inspection Commission. . . http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/06/09/BAGRID5I5I1.DTL (via Ed Gardner, Sactown, DXLD) FORMER KPFA EMPLOYEE CHARGES SEX DISCRIMINATION --- By MATTHEW ARTZ A former KPFA radio employee has filed a sexual discrimination and harassment suit against the station, charging that she was repeatedly harassed by her male supervisor and that station management refused to respond to her complaints and ultimately fired her when she continued to press her concerns. In a lawsuit filed in March, Noelle Hanrahan, the former producer and co-host of KPFA’s Flashpoints News Magazine, charged that the program’s executive producer and co-host Dennis Bernstein sought to drive her off the show and at one point told her, ``I`m going torture you until you quit or I force you to leave.`` ... http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/article.cfm?issue=06-10-05&storyID=21580 (via Sheldon Harvey, DXLD) ** U S A. TUNING IN TO A NEW AUDIENCE [Massachusetts] By ETHAN ZINDLER, STAFF WRITER, June 9, 2005 http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/biz/tuningin9.htm The Cape's only locally based National Public Radio news station can now be heard all the way to land's end. WCAI-FM/WNAN-FM, which broadcasts from studios in Woods Hole, went live yesterday from the Mid-Cape to Provincetown over WZAI at 94.3 FM. The Cape's National Public Radio station, WCAI-FM/WNAN-FM out of Woods Hole, went live yesterday from the Mid-Cape to Provincetown on WZAI, 94.3 FM. The stations, owned by WGBH in Boston, bill themselves as "The Cape and Islands NPR stations: a service of WGBH." The expanded signal will put WCAI's "The Point," a public affairs program, in more direct competition with WXTK-FM, the only other program devoted solely to local public affairs. ''It will pretty much fill in the area we don't have now and that will include the Lower Cape, and it will improve our coverage throughout the Mid-Cape,'' said John Voci, who serves as director of the three stations, during a phone interview Monday. The stations, owned by WGBH in Boston, bill themselves as ''The Cape and Islands NPR stations: a service of WGBH.'' Last November, WGBH paid $3.9 million for the right to broadcast WCAI's signal over a 6,000-watt transmitter based in Brewster, outbidding others in an auction held by the Federal Communications Commission. WCAI broadcasts well-known NPR news programs ''All Things Considered'' and ''Morning Edition,'' interspersed with local reporting. The station's ''The Point'' public affairs program, which airs from 9:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. daily, focuses on Cape and islands issues. The expanded signal will put that show, hosted by Mindy Todd, in more direct competition with WXTK-FM featuring co-hosts Ed Lambert and Don McKeag, the only other program devoted solely to local public affairs. Todd, who co-hosted a similar program with Lambert between 1999 and 2001 at WXTK, downplayed any potential rivalry. ''Our audiences are different,'' said Todd. ''What they do is different from what we do and certainly they're on a lot longer than we are.'' Lambert and McKeag's show runs from 7 to 10 a.m. on 95 WXTK-FM. Neither returned calls seeking comment yesterday. WCAI often hosts editors from the Cape Cod Times during its morning programming and cites stories from the Times in its on-air reports. The new station appears to extend the rivalry between Boston-based NPR heavyweights WGBH and WBUR. WBUR's signal can be heard through much of the Cape over 1240 AM in West Yarmouth and two other non-commercial stations. The stations bill themselves as ''NPR News for the Cape and the islands,'' but don't broadcast any programming that emanates locally. ''For us, the focus is really on local issues,'' said Voci. ''We're not really going to be taking them on and trying to compete with them.'' WBUR acting general manager Peter Fiedler did not return a call seeking comment. Voci said the station has a freelance reporter based in Eastham who will file stories from the Outer Cape via his own studio, which will be used for other programming as well. ''It's going to essentially allow us to have a bureau in the Lower Cape and allow Mindy to have guests from the Lower Cape,'' said Voci. Bob Seay serves as executive director of WOMR-FM ''Outermost community radio for Cape Cod,'' broadcasting from Provincetown at 92.1. He also hosts news programming for WBUR in Boston on Sundays. Seay said WOMR isn't threatened by the new NPR station. WBUR's Boston signal can already be heard in Provincetown and there's plenty of overlap between listeners of the two stations. ''People will listen to us for certain things and then to public radio for certain things,'' said Seay, noting that WOMR has a more eclectic format. Seay, a 30-year veteran of local radio, said he welcomed a new radio news source on the Outer Cape. ''When I first came to the Cape, there were three or four of us actively competing and it was a really healthy environment,'' he said. (Published: June 9, 2005) (via Sheldon Harvey, DXLD) ** U S A. TMO REPORTS - NPR DROPS AUDIBLE.COM; TALKS WITH APPLE & OTHERS --- by Brad Gibson, 7:00 AM EDT, June 9th, 2005 http://www.macobserver.com/article/2005/06/09.4.shtml National Public Radio has ended its relationship with Audible.com and has removed its primary daily and weekly news programs from the online audio distributors Web site. The Mac Observer has learned NPR is talking with a number of other possible suitors -- including Apple Computer -- about offering its shows for download from services like the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) onto portable audio players. The programs were removed at the end of last week. Programs such as "All Things Considered," "Morning Edition" and "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me," are no longer available. When a program linked is selected, subscribers are met with the message, "That product was not found in our database." Some programs, such as "Car Talk" and "Fresh Air," are still available on the Audible.com Web site at this time. A spokeswoman for NPR told TMO the public radio network informed Audible, Inc. it would be terminating its agreement with the company five months ago. "We informed Audible we would be ending our relationship last January," Jennie Lawhorn, a spokeswoman for NPR told TMO. "This was not a last minute decision. This had been planned for a number of months." A spokesman for Audible.com did not respond to numerous e-mail and phone calls requesting comment. Audible.com users who subscribed to the NPR programs have received no e-mail or notification as to why they can no longer download the programs. Ironically, the dropping of NPR programming on Audible.com came just days before the company announced an alliance with XM Satellite Radio that will ultimately allow Audible users to listen to public radio programming from one of NPR`s competitor. In 2006, XM will start selling an "AudibleReady/XM" device capable of playing both the XM service as well as Audible's spoken-word content, which can be downloaded from the Web into the devices' memory. Among the programs that will be available for Audible.com listeners will include the "The Bob Edwards Show" -- formerly show host of NPRs "Morning Edition" before being unceremoniously dumped in March, 2004. Those not owning the special receiver will also be able to download certain XM programming, including "The Bob Edwards Show" from Audible's Web site to play on their portable media device, such as an Apple iPod When asked about the alliance between Audible, Inc. and XM, Ms. Lawhorn said she was unaware of the announcement, but that "this had nothing to do with our original decision last January." NPR considering their options, including Apple's iTMS Ms. Lawhorn said NPR has been considering a change in how its programming is distributed and while it has spoken to many companies, it has yet to make a final decision. "We have spoken to a number of companies, including Apple, about our next move in offering NPR programming in podcast form," she said. "It's too early to say when we will make a decision." Ms. Lawhorn said NPR is carefully considering its options in the wake of the ever-growing phenomenon known as 'podcasting.' "Our radio affiliates are an important part of our existence. We are involving them in this podcast process at every step," she said. "We're trying to find the right formula so we can take advantage of the growing market for podcasting. A year ago, no one even knew what it meant. Now, we have something that is going to be important to our future and we've got to figure out how it fits into our overall strategy." Unlike commercial radio stations, much of NPR`s lifeblood depends on public radio stations throughout the U.S. who air NPR programs and survive on money raised through donations and not from radio advertising. As a result, NPR must be careful not to make its programming available through other means where listeners could simply listen and not be persuaded to donate to their local public radio station. One possible option could be selling NPR content through Apple's iTMS either individually, or in a subscription deal where subscribers would pay for a week or months worth of shows. If Apple decided to offer subscriptions to recurring NPR programming it would be a first for the company, which has shunned away from offering a subscription music service in favor of selling individual downloads of music. An Apple spokesperson did not respond to repeated attempts for comment for this story (via Sheldon Harvey, DXLD) ?? Who needs audible.com? One may listen at NPR site to entire ATC, for example, at http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=2 or to individual segments (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. There is supposed to be a commemorative FM broadcast on 42.8 MHz this weekend June 11-12, the original frequency of Maj. Armstrong credited with being the father of WFM broadcasting. Details: http://antiqueradios.com/forums/Forum4/HTML/000578.html (Randy Zerr, KW4RZ, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, EM60qk, Beautiful white sand beaches of the Gulf Coast, June 9, WTFDA via DXLD) Includes some comments about landowners` lawsuit against the Alpine tower (gh) ** U S A. FIRST PUBLIC DEMONSTRATION OF FM RADIO TO BE COMMEMORATED IN ALPINE NJ WITH A SPECIAL BROADCAST ON WFDU-FM The clock will be turned back on Saturday, June 11, 2005, when a transmitter broadcasting on an original FM frequency will be switched on at the Alpine Tower in Alpine, NJ, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the first public demonstration of FM radio by its inventor Major Edwin Howard Armstrong. A special program, hosted by WINS Anchorwoman Judy DeAngelis, will originate from the site of the world's first FM station in Alpine. The broadcast will begin at 12 noon [1600 UT --- until???]. It will tell the tale of the difficult birth of FM radio through personal recollections by some of the people who worked with Major Armstrong - including Mr. Renville H. McMann Jr., former VP, CBS Technology Center. McMann worked for the Major at age 14 while in school. Mr. Tom Lewis, author of Empire Of The Air, is slated to offer his insights into Armstrong's struggles with industry giants of the time as well as the inventor's remarkable impact on all forms of present day communications. The book served as the basis of the Ken Burns PBS special of the same name. Included in Saturday's broadcast will be excerpts from a recording of a special 1941 test broadcast of the original New England Yankee Network-the first such network to use FM radio links instead of telephone lines to connect stations. A radio dramatization of Empire Of The Air, originally produced by David Ossman for American Public Radio, will be broadcast. The commemorative broadcast day is scheduled to conclude with the 1954 signoff of the Alpine station W2XMN following the death of Major Armstrong. For those who do not have an FM radio on the 42.8Mc frequency, the broadcast can be heard through the facilities of WFDU(FM) 89.1 MHz. WFDU(FM) will receive the Alpine transmission in Teaneck, NJ, from the replica transmitter built by Steve Hemphill of Solid Electronics Laboratories. The broadcast will be carried both on the air and on the Web at http://www.wfdu.fm The entire program will be rebroadcast on the Web at 7 p.m. on June 14 and June 16. [2300 UT] The special broadcast was organized by Steve Hemphill, owner of Solid Electronics Laboratories, a Pennsylvania broadcast equipment manufacturer and the Sackermann family, the owners of the Alpine Tower located in Alpine, NJ. Audio production, engineering and transmission will be provided through WFDU(FM) under the direction of Barry Sheffield. WFDU(FM) is the global radio voice of Fairleigh Dickinson University (from http://alpha.fdu.edu/wfdu/wfdufm/index2.html via gh, DXLD) ** U S A. MARCOPHILE: MARCO'S LACK OF 'AIR' By CHRIS CURLE, Special to the Eagle June 1, 2005 http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/ma_opinion/article/0,2071,NPDN_14922_3820647,00.html Marco Island's only, lonely effort at local radio programming has bit the dust, again. In a few days 1480 WVOI-AM will become Catholic talk radio, piped here from Wisconsin by the company that bought our station along with 1660 WCNZ-AM. It's no slam on religious chat formats to say Marco needs radio that actually serves the island and its people. Marco is important to us, but it is barely a blip on the radar screens (literally and figuratively) of our area's TV and radio stations. Whether it's bad weather, environmental challenges or local politics, Marco is at best an afterthought on local TV news. It takes our creative pal Ed Ehlen painting his house with polka dots to get the Fort Myers newsies down here to little old us. It's all about numbers — our tiny percentage of the overall population of Southwest Florida, the miles and minutes (sometimes hours in season) it takes for them to get here and back to Fort Myers, and the number of eyeballs watching the news here compared with Cape Coral et al. Advertisers in Fort Myers don't care about Marco viewers. How often do you go to North Fort Myers for dinner and a movie? It's not their fault up there. We care no more about a holdup at a convenience store in Punta Gorda than they care about a water main break on Marco. We simply are at the end of the communications trail, and the only way we're going to get meaningful community coverage on Marco is to create it ourselves. With radio. Here are a few suggestions, keeping in mind that WVOI's FCC license is specifically for Marco Island. What if the city approached the new owners of WVOI and WCNZ, both of which probably will air the same religious format, and ask whether they'd consider leasing airtime on WVOI to Marco for community programming? They get no significant benefit from simulcasting on the two stations; the more powerful WCNZ covers every inch of WVOI's reach and then some. So why not hook up with Marco to let the city do true community programming on WVOI? That service also could help the new owner in a couple of years, when federal regulations might require WVOI to shut down or at least reduce its wattage and thus its coverage area. It's complicated, but the end result could be no license at all, especially if the Marco station is nothing more than an echo of its big brother up the trail. Another idea would be for the city to explore getting a license to operate a low-power FM station here. The signal would be stronger inside condo buildings than WVOI, and the cost to start up a small FM broadcast service would be relatively minimal. If the city doesn't want to operate a radio station, it could own the license and approve the format but lease operations to others. Such arrangements are common in radio, and many cities own radio services. A Marco station would be vital in hurricane season and other emergency situations. City government, civic groups, schools, the Chamber of Commerce, the Marco Players, the Art League, the YMCA and others could contribute to local programming. The devil's in the details, but it's time to fill this vital need ourselves and to stop begging the big media guys to the north to pay attention to us. Chris Curle, a former CNN anchor, hosts the nationally syndicated PBS show Health Sense on WGCU-TV Channel 3 Above is follow-up to an earlier story: http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/ma_business/article/0,2071,NPDN_14914_3803265,00.html (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** U S A. WSBR 740 IBOC off, among others. --- It just occurred to me the reason I was hearing the 750 Wobbler from Cuba so clearly this afternoon. Local WSBR -- a Business Talk station which has been enjoying the improved high fidelity sound of IBOC, that all talk stations need -- turned off their hissing machine. I even heard 730 WWTK "News-Talk 730 TK", Lake Placid, FL, for the very first time, as a happy result. After a quick check, it appears WHSR 980 (Ethnic) and WWNN 1470 (Talk) both in Pómpano Beach and sister stations of WSBR, have ditched their IBOC as well. These two are not quite so local but as near as I can tell IBOC is gone. No idea why they've quit hissing on the band, but I hope it's permanent. WQAM 560 -- another talker but unrelated to the above stations -- is still hissing all over Miami (W. Curt Deegan, Boca Raton, (South East) Florida, [JRC NRD-535D, LF Engineering H-800 & M-601, Quantum Phaser, ANC-4 noise canceler, GAP DSP] http://ScooterHound.com/WWWR/wobbler/ NRC-AM via DXLD) You - as a local listener - are now in an excellent position to send a short, polite, written business-type letter to the GM or other managerial type, of each of those stations, and (1) comment on the improvement in quality since they turned it off (2) thank them for doing so, and (3) request that it stay off. Maybe they are just adjusting things, and maybe it will come back (as they speculate about WPEN 950) but I think any feedback listeners can provide at this point in time will be carefully noted by them. They will probably be concerned that a listener was even aware of it, given the lack of HD receivers. You may want to consider phrasing it as "noise on the signal" which of course, it is. What is there to lose? (Bob Foxworth, ibid.) Hi Curt --- What, no IBOC? 970 WFLA runs IBOC weekdays, weekends usually not, allowing 980 COCO to be heard. That you mention it, WFLA 970 IBOC seems off air today. Your thoughts on IRCA IBOC postings re power levels in 1st adjacents? 26 db down seems right, if one places any stock in calibration of R- 390 & 51J-4 meters. 970 'FLA usually pulls 60+ with adjacents running 40 db noise. Prompts obvious questions, why bother with IBOC? Why promote low power digital signal of intrinsic short range? Why so many accountants and venture capitalists on Ibiquity board? Contemplating assaulting Ether with techno-turkey - as credible radio people call it - hoping unlimited funds produce victory? Why such high interference from allegedly low power? Happy for your good fortune re FL E coast IBOCs MIA. As with twin spectral polluter BPL, IBOC long obsolete, failed product 'rushed to market', long superseded by non-interfering technologies of high caliber. As to why FCC felt so compelled to indulge Mr. Struble one can only speculate. As one broadcaster stated, IBOC is a mere ploy to wipe out competition. -Z.- (Paul Vincent Zecchino, Manasoviet Key, FL, BT, June 9, IRCA mailing list via DXLD) ** U S A. WGN Silent Period --- This item was in Robert Feder's column in today's (6/10) Chicago Sun-Times: "Fair warning: WGN-AM (720) will be off the air from 1 to 5 a.m. Saturday while engineers conduct routine maintenance at the news/talk station." (That of course would be Central Daylight Time) [0600-1000 UT] Thanks to Tim Noonan & Bill Dvorak for posting this to the NRC AM list. Course, down here we've got Arlene to contend with, so I doubt I'll hear much! DX'er Christos Rigas pointed out that checking WBBM-AM 780 at the same time would be a good idea. They usually go off air when WGN does. WTIC 1080 Hartford CT will be off the air Saturday night into Sunday morning, beginning at 11 pm [0300 UT Sunday June 12)[NOT: see below] Thanks to Scott Fybush, Blaine Thompson & The NRC AM List for this update. The WTFDA AM Radio DX List with 65 Subscribers (Les Rayburn, N1LF, AL, NRC/IRCA Broadcast Test Coordinator, WTFDA-AM via DXLD) Look for it tonight. WGN has it on site: http://wgnradio.com/guests/ At 11:05 P.M. they have 'Nick and Garry's Transmitter Maintenance Spectacular!', an abbreviated version of the usual Nick D. and Garry Lee Show. The last time they did this, the station went off several minutes past one, immediately after the news. You'll want to get a recording of the sign off, they do a full professional announcement, the only way they could do it up better would be to play 'The Star Spangled Banner' too (Curtis Sadowski, Paxton, Illinois, ibid.) Maybe I can force myself to stay up for that. What are my chances for KRLD this time of year? Any other [1080] stations to look for besides TX? (Mike Bugaj, Enfield CT, ibid.) WKJK Louisville, WVCG Coral Gables FL & WNWI Oak Lawn IL are frequently reported and should be there. WHOO Kissimmee FL often stays up past bedtime. WFTD Marietta GA has on occasion also (Russ Edmunds Blue Bell, PA ( 360' ASL ), ibid.) WTIC 1080 is off at 11:08 pm ET (Mike Bugaj, CT, 0307 UT June 11, WTFDA via DXLD) Someone was mixed up about what day it is again (gh) ** U S A. KRLD MOVING TO DALLAS --- Beginning Monday, KRLD NewsRadio1080 will be broadcasting from a new facility in Dallas. http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2005/06/06/daily52.html?from_rss=1 The radio station has had its offices at Ameriquest Field in Arlington for 10 years, but KRLD's President and General Manager Jerry Bobo said the new location, at 4131 N. Central Expwy., will feature state of the art offices and new studios. The Texas Rangers Radio Network and the Texas State Networks offices also will move to Dallas. KRLD and TSN are owned by Texas Infinity Broadcasting L.P., a division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA), a New York- based diversified entertainment company. Web sites: http://www.krld.com and http://www.viacom.com (Dallas Business Journal June 10 via Sheldon Harvey, DXLD) ** U S A. OUT WITH THE OLDIES, BECAUSE YOUTH MUST BE SERVED Friday, June 10, 2005 By George Haas Daily Southtown columnist How old is "old"? That's the question a lot of baby boomers are going to be asking themselves from now on. Earlier this week, WJMK-FM (104.3) switched its oldies radio format, "The Greatest Hits of the '60s and '70s," to "Sort of Oldies and a Bunch of New Stuff." . . . http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/dsliving/101ldgha.htm (via Artie Bigley, DXLD) ** ZIMBABWE [and non]. Hi Glenn, Heard SWRA on 15145 yesterday 9 June from 1700 to 1800 in Zimbabwe without jamming. Signal was subject to fading and much weaker than it that has been heard on this frequency, which may indicate that the station is using an alternate power/location for this transmission. Will keep monitoring 15145, 1700-1800. Forwarding an appeal by the station which also has appeared on 'The Zimbabwean' newspaper, published outside of this country (David Pringle-Wood, Harare, June 10, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.: PLEASE HELP US SAVE SW RADIO AFRICA BY VIOLET GONDA & TERERAI KARIMAKWENDA, The Zimbabwean LONDON - The situation facing SWRadio Africa is deeper than it appears on the surface. It has ramifications for freedom of the press not only in Zimbabwe, but also in the region and the continent at large. African leaders, led by Thabo Mbeki, have been selling democracy, good governance and respect for human rights to the international community as a basis for investing in Africa. If they do not censure leaders like Robert Mugabe and insist on every country respecting democratic principles, including freedom of the press, they should be isolated and made an example of what bad governance is about. Mugabe has extended his evil tentacles beyond his borders by creating a newspaper with Namibia's cooperation late last year and, more recently, it's reported that a new internet radio station in the United States is promoting his agenda. He is also reportedly planning to open a radio station and an edition of The Herald in South Africa to force his propaganda on the millions who have fled from his abuses back home. Yet SW Radio Africa has been denied a platform by neighbouring countries who say we cannot beam our signal from within their territories because they deem it politically incorrect to speak against their brother - even though it would be the right thing to do. On a personal level, we speak to Zimbabweans on a daily basis and hear tragic stories from individuals who are only too glad to be able to share their suffering with anyone prepared to listen. Zimbabweans have never enjoyed freedom of expression. We went straight from the oppressive Ian Smith regime into the arms of our even more oppressive brother - Mugabe. Donors who gave Zimbabweans the opportunity to address the rest of the world through radio stations like ours had the right idea. But now, when the "shit has hit the fan" and they are needed most, they are turning their backs due to "fatigue". Imagine how tired Zimbabweans are, who are not eating, who are sleeping outside and spending days on end in queues for just about anything - from food to fuel. The country is burning and this is its deepest hour of need. Where is the rest of the world now? A station that gives a voice to the voiceless is the ideal project for those organisations that promote global democracy. We challenge them to put their money where their mouths are. Mugabe is certainly investing in what he believes in. And the voices of reason can defeat him with very little effort. A woman committed suicide in Gweru this week after two shops she had slaved to open were razed to the ground. If her story stays does not reach the rest of the world then Mugabe has won. This cannot be allowed to happen. The time for dictators is over. We appeal to pro- democracy groups to SAVE SW Radio Africa on behalf of the suffering people Zimbabwe. Gonda and Karimakwenda are reporters with SWRadio. http://www.swradioafrica.com (via David Pringle-Wood, Harare, DXLD) SW Radio Africa, 15145 at 1700 sign on, June 10. Monitored in Zimbabwe without any jamming. Fair signal with fading earlier. It seems perhaps that at a different transmission facility is being used. Perhaps an Ascension Island facility, or most still likely the UK one from Rampisham using lower kW. Hope you guys in the USA get to hear it. 73 (David Pringle-Wood, Zimbabwe, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++ BROADCASTERS MEET TO DISCUSS WRC-07 STUDIES: (10 June 05) Sixty-five broadcasters and spectrum regulators are meeting in Kuala Lumpur to gather information on studies taking place around the world for the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-07). The ABU Preparatory Seminar on WRC-07 started yesterday to assist broadcasters in their contribution to the development of their own national proposals for WRC-07. ABU Secretary-General David Astley said: ``This seminar is another ABU initiative to represent the interests of our members in this important area.`` ``Over the past years I have seen chief executives of our broadcaster members take personal interest in spectrum issues, as they have come to realise the seriousness of the spectrum crunch that we are facing and the impact that this will have on their future business plans.`` ``They have realised that this is not just a technical issue, but a management issue as well,`` Mr Astley said. Fabio Leite, Deputy Director Radiocommunication Bureau, International Telecommunication Union, said in his keynote address: ``The WRC process has evolved along the years. The process has been enormously benefited from the very effective regional preparation carried out by organisations like Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL), European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT), African Telecommunications Union, Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) and the ABU in the Asia-Pacific, and others.`` ``Despite the inherent complexity of the WRC process, it has been responding effectively and in a timely way to the ITU membership needs.`` ``The ABU, in organising this important seminar, gives an exemplary contribution to the preparatory phase, so crucial for a successful WRC process,`` Mr Leite added. The seminar will continue up to 11 June and is expected to produce reports on various issues for assisting broadcasters in pursuing WRC- 07 related studies (ABU Website via MD. AZIZUL ALAM AL-AMIN E-65, GOURHANGA, GHORAMARA, RAJSHAHI-6100, June 10, DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ FCC MODIFIES TV REQUIREMENTS TO ACCELERATE DIGITAL TRANSITION | Text of press release from the US Federal Communications Commission on 9 June The FCC [US broadcasting and communications regulator, the Federal Communications Commission] today [9 June] denied a request by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the Consumer Electronics Retailers Association (CERC) to delay the date by which 50 per cent of mid-size TV receivers manufactured and imported must include built-in digital television (DTV) tuners. To further its efforts to ensure that consumers are able to receive off-the-air digital broadcast television services, the FCC also moved up the date by which all mid-sized TV sets must include a digital television (DTV) tuner. The Commission's rules already provide that all large TV sets (36 inch and larger) must have built-in DTV tuners by 1 July 2005. Those rules also provide that 50 per cent of mid-sized sets (25-36 inch) must have DTV tuners by that date, and that all mid-sized sets must have DTV tuners by 1 July 2006. The rules also provide that all receivers with a screen size 13 inch or more, as well as other all other TV receiving devices (such as VCRs, DVDRs, etc.) must have DTV tuners by 1 July 2007. The CEA and CERC asked the Commission to eliminate the 50 per cent requirement for midsized sets, and to move up the date for full compliance for mid-sized sets to 1 March 2006 to address certain difficulties posed by the 50 per cent. In its Report and Order, the Commission denied the request for elimination of the intermediate 50 per cent compliance deadline, stating that such an action would delay the wider dissemination of DTV tuners in products of this size and would be inconsistent with its efforts to advance the DTV transition as rapidly as possible. The Commission did move up the date for 100 per cent compliance for mid-sized TV receivers from 1 July 2006 to 1 March 2006, the earliest feasible date according to the industry. In the same action, the Commission proposed to move up the date by which all TV receivers with screen size 13 inch or larger and other TV receiving devices, i.e., those without a viewing screen, must have DTV tuners from 1 July 2007, to a date no later than 31 December 2006, the statutory target date for the end of the DTV transition and the corresponding end of analog broadcast television transmissions. TV Interface Devices should be required to meet this timetable. Finally it asked whether a DTV tuner requirement should be extended to TV receivers with a screen size smaller than 13 inches. Public comment is sought on these proposals. Source: Federal Communications Commission press release, Washington, in English 9 Jun 05 (via BBCM via DXLD) DRM +++ Re: HARMAN/BECKER Automotive Systems Joins DRM http://www.drm.org/pdfs/newsevents/HBDRMenglish.pdf (via Siriol Evans, DRM Press Office, dxld June 6) Becker company from Karlsruhe-Germany, - now belonging to Harman-USA - has been building the best car radios worldwide in past two decades, like "Becker Mexico" sets on Porsche and Daimler-Benz cars, including SW band range (Wolfgang Büschel, June 6, BCDX via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ HOW TO DISTINGUISH METEOR SCATTER FROM AIRPLANE SCATTER ``How do you distinguish between meteor pings and signals momentarily bouncing off airplanes? I had lots of pings on 89.5 last night, but I didn't really see any meteor trails in the sky...`` Easy --- An aircraft reflection lasts about 30-60 seconds, and features a "picket fence" pattern related to the plane`s velocity and angle to you. The picket fence rate falls rapidly in frequency as the station fades in, until it reaches zero picket fencing when the plane is at its highest angle to you, and then increases rapidly again as the plane moves away and the station fades out. For a meteor ping, it is basically an aircraft reflection at 100X the speed. It lasts anywhere from 1/4 second to several seconds, depending on the trail length and size. The picket fencing is extremely rapid, as the ionized trail is traveling at very high speeds up in the ionosphere, and falls apart rapidly (you can hear the station "flutter" momentarily). So sometimes you only get a word or just a note or two of music at full volume, then nothing. Here's something to do. Use a computer to record .WAV files from the audio line input on the soundcard connected to the headphone output of your radio. Use 22.1 kHz sampling rate, so you can get about 5 hrs stereo audio per GB hard disc space. Record on that frequency during a meteor shower (the Perseids are coming this August), or just any day (89.5 is a Class B high power channel allowing up to 100 kW, so is excellent for this - I use 99.1 here for the same purpose). Then look at the wave graph of your recording for all spikes in audio, zoom in, and play them to get possible IDs or slogans. Just a tip, but is the easiest way to "collect" and play back meteor pings (Darwin, Thousand Oaks, CA, ABDX via DXLD) Then there`s lightning scatter --- (gh, DXLD) VAISALA FREE LIGHTNING EXPLORER For a quick look at where lightning is occurring in the USA: https://thunderstorm.vaisala.com/tux/jsp/explorer/explorer.jsp (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Why would this be secure? TIPS FOR RATIONAL LIVING ++++++++++++++++++++++++ GODLESS AMERICA At a time when House Majority Leader Tom Delay calls for enacting a "Biblical worldview" in government, when Christians are asserting their ideals in the selection of judges, in public school science classes and elsewhere, This American Life spends an hour trying to remember why anyone liked the separation of church and state in the first place. Julia Sweeney, among others, gives a full-throated defense of godlessness. Julia's faith began to crack after reading Biblical passages like the one pictured here, of Abraham about to cut the throat of his beloved son, Isaac. [with audio links] http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/05/290.html (via gh, DXLD) ###