The Voice of America and Radio Martí have launched a joint news programme in Spanish called A fondo (In Depth). According to the VOA website, in a co-production of the Voice of America and Radio Martí, a team of journalists, correspondents and producers gathers to offer, from Monday to Friday, the main news that happened in Latin America and United States.
A fondo presents news, interviews and special reports of interest for the countries of the Latin American region. It is transmitted through the frequencies of the Voice of America and Radio Martí at 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm Washington time (0100-0200 UTC), as well as on the Internet at www.voanoticias.com and www.martinoticias.com.
(Source: VOA website)
on Feb 2nd, 2010 at 14:07
It’s the first time on my memory that VoA and the US surrogate broadcaster are working on a joint project.
on Feb 2nd, 2010 at 14:42
I think a pattern is developing which clearly shows that the Obama administration has downgraded the relative importance of Radio Martí. They will deny it, but in the past few weeks we have seen:
1. The partial use of 1180 kHz for VOA Creole instead of Radio Martí
2. The inauguration of a joint VOA/Martí news programme
3. A planned reduction in the use of Aero Martí from 4 hours a day, 6 days a week to 2.5 hours a day, 5 days a week from June 2010.
In themselves, not highly significant, but taken together they indicate to me that Radio/TV Martí are no longer regarded as ‘untouchable’ and will now have to compete more directly with other services for budgets and resources.
on Feb 2nd, 2010 at 15:32
The budget of Radio/TV Martí has already been reduced for financial year 2010, from 34.8 (2009) to 32.5 million USD, and 35 job positions have been eliminated:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/national/article1000751.ece
Now the next step will be to study the detailled budget request (as opposed to the PR stuff) also in regard to the planned budget for Radio/TV Martí. I would not be surprised if it shrinks further.
on Feb 2nd, 2010 at 15:40
Ha, there is indeed more interesting stuff in this document. Greenville: Thank you, good bye!
http://kimelli.nfshost.com/index.php?id=8252
on Feb 2nd, 2010 at 19:13
Greenville is VoA’s last transmitting center on the US soil. I guess it’s cheaper to rent airtime on WHRI from South Carolina/Maine and/or WWCR from Tennessee.
The US int. broadcasting lives in the exotic world of political maneuvering. Unlike the rest of Hispanics, the Cuban immigration is generally considered to be on the Republican side. So their pet projects are suffering with Obama at the helm.
But Latin American broadcasting seems to be experiencing a mild form of renaissance. That would be welcomed by Hispanic organizations.