Although 2006 has already started for some of us, there are places in the world where 2005 is still in its last hours. You can follow how stations in different time zones are ringing in the New Year by checking out Tom Sundstrom’s list or by visiting a special New Year weblog put together [...]
Posts from ‘December, 2005’
Radio Voetbal on 1332 AM seems to be just a dream
As 2005 ends, there is no sign of the new Dutch commercial station Radio Voetbal (Radio Football) which was supposed to start on 1 September on 1332 kHz. The only evidence of its existence is a single page website at www.radiovoetbal.nl which gives the mobile telephone of the owner, Koos Appelboom. Mr Appelboom does indeed [...]
Johnnie Walker receives MBE for services to broadcasting
Mike Barraclough reports: Johnnie Walker has been awarded an MBE in the New Years Honours List for services to broadcasting.
The Times reports that Johnnie said he was pleased that he had been forgiven for being a pirate radio disc jockey in the 1960’s. “Having defied Her Majesty’s Government in 1967 with the pirate radio ship [...]
Suria FM officially launches in Malaysia
After two months of test transmissions, a new commercial radio station - Suria FM - was officially launched in Malaysia yesterday. The station will broadcast a mixture of music and news, and targets an audience aged between 18 and 45. Suria FM broadcasts 24 hours a day on 105.3MHz in the Klang Valley and 105.9MHz [...]
Thai PM vows to cut out the middlemen
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said today that he has set up a special government committee to investigate the practice of state TV and radio stations allowing middlemen to take fees from programme producers for getting their material on the air. Thaksin said he wanted the producers to receive payment from the state TV and [...]
UK’s OFT clears mergers of BSkyB/Easynet and NTL/Telewest
The UK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT), the competition watchdog, has announced the clearance of the proposed acquisition by BSkyB Broadband Services Limited (Sky) of Easynet Group Plc (Easynet) and the merger of NTL Incorporated (ntl) and Telewest Global, Inc (Telewest). The OFT has decided that the test for merger reference to the Competition Commission [...]
Swissinfo says its future still hangs in the balance
Swissinfo, the online successor to Swiss Radio International, says that although both houses of parliament want to renew government funding for Switzerland’s international information platform, its future still hangs in the balance.
The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) has aired a new restructuring plan for 2006. The SBC board has asked the management of swissinfo to analyse, [...]
Deutsche Welle back on mediumwave in Moscow
The German and Russian programmes of Deutsche Welle are back on the air on 693 kHz mediumwave in Moscow, following a week of disruption after the airtime provider lost its licence. Deutsche Welle Director Erik Bettermann has thanked the Russian Minister for Telecommunications, Leonid Reiman, for speeding up the process of sorting out new licences. [...]
Bosnia-Herzegovina: The voice Of Ratko Mladic
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has gathered some historical audio of Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic from the time of the 1993-95 Bosnian war. The audio was taken from radio intercepts and videotapes shot during the war and form part of the evidence against Mladic that led to his indictment for war crimes by the [...]
Men want facts, women seek relations on Web - survey
Internet users share many common interests, but men are heavier consumers of news, stocks, sports and pornography while more women look for health and religious guidance, a broad survey of US Web usage has found. The study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, released today, finds men are slightly more intense users of [...]
AMC-23 satellite successfully launched from Baikonur
The Americom-23 (AMC-23) satellite of SES Americom roared into space onboard an International Launch Services Proton/Breeze M launch vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome (Kazakhstan) today at 0228 UTC today. After 9 hours and 19 minutes, the spacecraft separated from the Breeze M and was placed into geostationary transfer orbit.
The hybrid C/Ku-band satellite will undergo payload [...]
RSF urges Senegal’s President to reject broadcasting law
Condemning a broadcasting bill passed by Senegal’s national assembly on 21 December as “poorly drafted, ambiguous, unfair and repressive,” Reporters Without Borders (RSF) today urged President Abdoulaye Wade to refuse to sign it into law in order to restore some calm to the ongoing debate about press law reform. Approved by just 11 votes to [...]
Indian minister calls for improved AIR signal in border areas
India’s Union Minister for Development of North-Eastern Region (DONER) and tribal affairs, P R Kyndiah, has called for an improvement in the coverage of all India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan (DD) along the border with Bangladesh in Meghalaya and other North-Eastern states. Mr Kyndiah says that villagers in those areas are forced to tune to [...]
XM Satellite Radio to broadcast in 5.1 Surround Sound
XM Satellite Radio will broadcast select XM music channels in 5.1 Surround Sound, marking the first time that a radio company has broadcast in 5.1 Surround Sound twenty-four hours a day. The audio breakthrough was announced today by XM and Neural Audio Corporation, a leading provider of digital signal processing and surround sound technology for [...]
Detroit listeners charge public radio station with fraud
In Detroit, a group of listeners angry at recent programming changes at the local affiliate of National Public Radio (NPR) have gone to court, charging WDET-FM with fraud. The listeners claim they were tricked into contributing money to the station during a pledge drive while station operators were secretly planning to replace locally produced programming [...]
