Posts from ‘December, 2005’

Turkey’s leading GSM operator Turkcell has signed an agreement with Nokia and HP to bring “Visual Radio” to Turkey. Developed by Nokia and offered by HP, Visual Radio adds a new dimension to FM radio with interactive content and services for mobile listeners. Visual Radio allows listeners to tune in to local FM radio via [...]

The independent radio station Open North Korea Broadcasting says it is giving people a chance to send a message to Kim Jong-il. Starting on New Year’s Day and continuing for a week, it will broadcast free messages from South Koreans to North Koreans in general or to specific people there. Currently the station charges for [...]

Text of report by Papua New Guinea newspaper The National website on 28 December
The theft of the studio power supply kit at the beginning of this month has cut Radio Chimbu completely off the airwaves. The station, one of the 19 provincial radio stations around the country broadcasting under the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), [...]

Members of Turkey’s Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTUK) ruled on a regulation in a meeting yesterday to allow Kurdish and other dialects to be broadcast on radio and television stations; no modifications were made to the regulation.
Twelve radio and television stations had applied to the Board in order to broadcast in Kurdish and [...]

Applications are being accepted until 30 December for a licence to operate the “All-Russia channel of Russian regions”, which is a pool of 41 TV frequencies in the capitals of the largest regions of the Russian federation (excluding Moscow and St Petersburg). Applicants, who include a number of the largest players in Russian TV, must [...]

French construction company Vinci SA announced yesterday that it has been awarded a 61 million euro (US$72 million) contract to build the new headquarters of Vietnam’s national TV broadcaster in Hanoi. The five-story building, to be built in partnership with Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Co. of Japan, is scheduled to be completed in early 2008, the [...]

Reporters Without Borders has deplored the banning of satellite TV station Saba TV by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council as one more example of the battle by the country’s media for freedom of expression. The Council has declared the Dubai-based station “illegal” after trying to stop its “imminent” launch, announced in the summer of 2005. [...]

The Voice of the People (VOP) radio station director, John Masuku who was released on 4 million Zimbabwe dollars bail after police launched a crackdown on his station has told SW Radio Africa’s Newsreel of his ordeal at the hands of the police. Meanwhile Masuku has vowed to continue with the VOP radio station project [...]

The broadcasting organisation of Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetian Republic plans to increase the umber of TV transmitters in 2006 to expand its coverage area. To provide trustworthy information to the population is a priority issue despite the technical problems, Director Valeri Kochiev says in a statement at the website of the South Ossetian Press and [...]

Mathias Kropf reports: In 2005 the activity of political clandestine stations broadcasting on shortwave has decreased by almost 3 % to 1195 WBHs (Weekly Broadcasting Hours). This is the lowest level of activity since 1999.
The activity of clandestine stations with target areas on the Asian continent has decreased by almost 9 % to 841 WBHs. [...]

The Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation is 80 years old this year - a historic landmark in the world of broadcasting. Ivan Corea, the son of Vernon Corea who was one of the pioneers who set up Radio Ceylon, has written an article for Sri Lanka’s Daily News recalling some of his childhood memories of the [...]

Japanese government minister Heizo Takenaka has formed an eight-member advisory panel to produce proposals for improving the management of the public broadcaster NHK. The move is seen as a response to increasing calls for reforms, including privatization, of NHK following a series of scandals. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi had earlier suggested that NHK be reformed [...]

NPR’s Morning Edition reports that a new law in Florida makes operating a pirate radio station a felony carrying a five-year prison sentence. The Federal Communications Commission says the state is a hotbed of illegal operators, but a crackdown is complicated by the difficulty of catching offenders.
Listen to the report by Amy Tardif of NPR [...]

Bangladesh’s fourth private television channel hit the air yesterday to tap a growing pool of viewers and advertisers in the Muslim-majority nation. RTV will broadcast news and entertainment similar to its sister station NTV, the chairman of both channels, Mosadek Ali, told a press briefing.
Bangladesh in 1995 allowed private channels to compete with state-run BTV [...]

After five years, Radio Sweden is leaving the Hot Bird 6 satellite on January 31, 2006. European satellite listeners should switch to Sirius 2, which has the same coverage area as Hot Bird 6.
Installation information for Sirius 2:
Position: 5 degrees East
Transponder: 35
Frequency: 12.379 GHz
Horizontal polarisation, Symbol rate: 27500, FEC ¾
Service name: R Sweden 1 and [...]