Posts from ‘February, 2009’

Trans World Radio is raising funds to upgrade a transmitter that will be able to carry an AM signal [on 1035 kHz] from Estonia into neighbouring Russia, including the metropolitan areas of Moscow and St Petersburg. Having recently learned Russia is no longer permitting TWR to broadcast its programmes from stations inside the country, the ministry [...]

Turkish state television cut off live broadcasting today when the head of the largest pro-Kurdish party began addressing his parliamentary deputies in the Kurdish language. 
“In order to show that there is nothing to fear in using other languages and to emphasise brotherhood of languages during the International Day of Mother Tongues, let me continue my [...]

Google’s Gmail site suffered a major technical breakdown for several hours today that prevented users around the world from accessing their accounts with the popular email service. ”If you’ve tried to access your Gmail account today, you are probably aware by now that we’re having some problems,” said a statement posted on Google’s website by Acacio [...]

SES Astra has moved its Astra 1G satellite from 19.2 degrees East to 23.5 degrees East, where it joined Astra 3A and Astra 1E to serve Central Europe, the Benelux countries and German cable networks, as well as offering the high-speed broadband service Astra2Connect.
The move follows the successful deployment of SES Astra’s new satellite Astra [...]

The Di-Wave receiver from UniWave Development SAS, France is expected to make its debut March 25, 2009 at the DRM General Assembly in Germany. This is a SW/MW/LW/FM radio with DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) on SW, MW and LW. More information on this page. It will also be the first consumer DRM receiver authorized by [...]

A new digital terrestrial television service provider in the Philippines, All Asia Broadcast Systems Inc, plans to spend nearly Php100 million (US$2 million) to launch its service, the Business Mirror reports. In a filing with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) last week, All Asia Broadcast said it expects to earn about Php760 million (US$15.8 million) [...]

In another move to clean up the airwaves, Jamaica’s Broadcasting Commission has banned all music that contains sexually explicit lyrics and glorifies and promotes violence. Two directives were issued last Friday, following an earlier one on 6 February prohibiting the airing of ‘daggering’ and other explicit sexual content in the broadcast media.

Read the report at [...]

My colleague Ehard Goddijn reports that China’s CRI Newsradio is now broadcasting on shortwave. Noted on 11790 and 9665 kHz at 1300 UTC with English ID and programming in Chinese in parallel with the Internet audio stream. These shortwave frequencies are not listed in ILG/HFCC B08. The station also broadcasts on satellite.
Related story:

China Radio International launches new domestic FM channel

iBeginShare.attachButton(’share-tool-49271497782′, {title: ‘CRI [...]

Dubai radio station Coast FM laid off all its DJs at a meeting yesterday. The station’s presenters have not been on air or been paid since early January but had hoped their jobs would be saved. Neil Petch, the managing director of Parent company, ENG, broke the grim news at a meeting at the Al [...]

The first pan-Pacific quantative research commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has revealed strong figures for the ABC’s international radio and online broadcasting arm – Radio Australia.
“The survey results indicate that Radio Australia is gaining support in the Pacific, and positioned as the market leader for international broadcasters. These figures show how we have [...]

Cuts in the output of British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) Radio continue, with the local breakfast show of BFBS Cyprus produced in Dhekelia the latest casualty. The last edition was broadcast on Friday.
BFBS has confirmed that the staffing of BFBS Cyprus has been reduced from ten to six people. Worldwide, there are reported to have been thirty [...]

They are now fondly remembered for helping kickstart the swinging Sixties and revolutionising the airwaves forever. But the fear that the arrival of offshore pirate radio stations drove into the broadcasting establishment has only now become clear. Previously unseen documents from the BBC archives disclose how the corporation was so alarmed at the rise of [...]

Dave Kernick writes: Radio France International’s [RFI] “African Media” programme on 20 February featured a discussion about the new Eritrean opposition radio Voice of Asena. Concluding the programme, presenter Zeenat Hansrod asked Reporters Sans Frontieres [RSF] representative Leonard Vincent about his organization’s plan for a new radio station: 
ZH: “Leonard Vincent, I understand that RSF will soon [...]

Radio Asena, known as Dimtsi Asena and Sewt Asena in Tigrigna and Arabic respectively, yesterday aired successfully “the first ever Arabic broadcast to Eritrea by an independent opposition media” [According to Dave Kernick, that claim is not correct - see comments]. With that, Radio Asena has kept its promise and declared its objective of broadcasting [...]

Germany’s Deutsche Welle will soon switch to FM in its pursuit of a bigger Bangladesh market share as shortwave broadcasting increasingly becomes a thing of the past. “The number of shortwave listeners is falling,” Grahame Lucas, who leads the South Asia team at Deutsche Welle, told bdnews24.com on Friday.
bdnews24.com and DW Radio last year joined [...]