Radio New Zealand is celebrating 60 years of international shortwave broadcasting. On 27 September, the Dominion Day holiday in 1948, New Zealand’s first international shortwave service was launched by Prime Minister Peter Fraser. It took the name ‘Radio New Zealand’ and was part of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service (NZBS).
The network has had a chequered [...]
Posts from ‘September, 2008’
Radio New Zealand celebrates sixty years of international broadcasting
Dutch radio listening figures for July/August 2008
Research bureau Intomart GfK has released the Dutch radio listening figures for July/August 2008. Market leader Radio 538 has seen its lead over public network Radio 2 slashed from 2.2 to 1.3 percent. Radio 2’s share remained unchanged, but Sky Radio, which was the Dutch market leader for many years, has caught up with it. [...]
Poland’s governing coalition disagrees over new media bill
The Polish Civic Platform’s (PO) coalition ally, the Polish Peasants’ Party (PSL), has voiced “some reservations” over the proposed new media reform bill. Deputy Speaker of the Lower House Jaroslaw Kalinowski (PSL) has said that his party’s reservations are in respect of the provisions included in Civic Platform’s draft media law regarding introduction of programming licences to [...]
Real.com begins to stream France24
Online streaming company RealNetworks has begun delivering ad-supported programming through its Real.com entertainment portal, with French international news service France24 being the first broadcaster to sign up. The inclusion of the ad-supported version of France24, which is available in English, French and Arabic, builds on RealNetworks’ SuperPass subscription service, which includes live news streams from [...]
Korea leads the world with broadband Internet
Korea is the number one in the world when it comes to broadband Internet. According to the Korea Communications Commission, the total number of broadband Internet subscribers in Korea was 15.1 million as of July, 2008. The number is up 620,000 from the same period last year and comprises 95 percent of Korea’s total number [...]
Radio Sweden frequency change to antenna fault at Sackville
Following a technical fault at one of Radio Canada International’s shortwave antennas at Sackville, Radio Sweden’s English transmission has moved to a new frequency. Instead of 15240 kHz, the broadcast in English to North America at 1430 UTC is now using 11640 kHz. The change is expected to continue until the new shortwave schedule at the end of [...]
RTL Group to take over Alpha Media Group in Greece
RTL Group, the leading European entertainment network, today announced that it has signed an agreement with Dimitris Contominas, the current owner of Alpha Media Group, to acquire a 66.6 per cent majority shareholding in the Greek broadcasting company for € 125.7 million. Under the terms of the deal, RTL Group will occupy five of the [...]
Venezuela working on Radio of the South project
After the success of Telesur, Venezuela is working today on the Radio of the South project, conceived as a network of interconnected radio stations, unlike the television experience. Helena Salcedo, director of the state owned National Radio of Venezuela, said that the basic goal of the initiative is to gather radio experiences from many countries [...]
Dutch Radio 5 to broadcast documentary about Abie Nathan
Dutch public station Radio 5 will broadcast a documentary about the late Abie Nathan and the Voice of Peace (VOP) on Sunday 12 October at 1730-1830 UTC. Freelance producer Peter Kroon talks to Dutch offshore radio expert Hans Knot and former VOP engineer Bob Noakes. Throughout the programme there will be audio fragments from the 20-year history [...]
Azerbaijan: Pan-Caucasus TV channel mooted
Text of report in English by Azerbaijani Trend news agency on 22 September
The Azerbaijani National Broadcasting Council (NBC) plans to establish a TV channel to be broadcast in the Caucasus countries. “Azerbaijan plays an important role in the region for its economic potential, oil and gas resources as well as for its geo-strategic and geopolitical [...]
Catalan broadcaster TV3 stops HDTV transmissions
Catalan regional public broadcaster TV3 has given up its HDTV transmissions via digital terrestrial. These broadcasts were the first of this type in Spain. TV3 HD gave up its HD broadcasts in a political decision in order to give access to the bandwidth to Valenciano channel Canal9 in the frame of an agreement between both [...]
BBCWS Director says closing Romanian service was his own idea
In an interview with the Romanian Adevarul website, BBC World Service Director Nigel Chapman says that the suggestion to close down the BBC’s operation in Romania was his own idea, based on changing listener behaviour:
“It’s about priorities. And then, that comes out as part of the resources. But you only decide to go into a country [...]
Radio Twit guide now available for radio pro’s
The Radio Twit, a radio pro’s how-to guide on how to use Twitter is now available, created by Charlie Profit at CAB Radio. Charlie says “This is a short three page guide on how a radio station can use Twitter to stay connected to listeners, even while they are not listening to the station!” He adds, [...]
Radio in wartime: The man who duped Hitler (book review)
Today’s Sunday Express carries a review of a new book called “Churchill’s Wizards” which tells the story of Sefton Delmer, the newspaper’s former Berlin correspondent who was in charge of broadcasting misleading propaganda to Germany. In September, 1940, Delmer was recruited by the Political Warfare Executive to organise black propaganda broadcasts. An early success was a [...]
Happy 80th birthday Bob Thomann
Bob Zanotti writes “This is to let you and the European DX community know that Bob Thomann, HB9GX - my co-host on the Swiss Shortwave Merry-Go-Round - will be 80 years old on 24 September. To mark the event, I have just recorded a 1 hour-long chat with Bob, talking about his early days in radio [...]
