Americans at Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands lost their 93.6 FM American Forces Network Europe radio service at noon on Friday (30 October). The loss of service is a result of the Dutch government turning AFN’s transmitter site over to a private party and ending AFN’s authorization to broadcast from the location. The Dutch government had approved the AFN plan to move its transmitter to a site with a Dutch Telecom tower, but Telecom, a private company, denied AFN access.
AFN Europe Commander Colonel Bill Bigelow says “it’s regrettable,” adding, “I hope an agreement is reached soon to allow listeners to get back their AFN radio.” People may still tune in AFN Benelux The Eagle (radio) channel 212 and AFN Benelux Power Network (radio) on channel 213 if they have an AFN decoder.
(Source: AFN via David de Jong)
on Nov 1st, 2009 at 22:50
Just a few questions
Dutch Telecom, who eactly is that?
Is this KPN-Telecom?
In this country there is a law that says that you need to share your antenna site with other users to avoid unnessary towers.
Actually, it is remarkeeble that a big organition like AFN faces the same problems as I did by finding suitable sites and a real boycot by Nozema/KPN-telecom.
Maybe this time parliament comes into action?
on Nov 2nd, 2009 at 10:24
I assume they mean KPN, which refers to itself in English-language press releases as “Royal Dutch Telecom.” But since I cannot be 100% sure, and they don’t specificy the exact name of the company, I decided to play safe and just quote what they say on their website. Perhaps we will learn more in due course.