The Voice of America (VOA) will carry the first presidential candidates’ debate on foreign affairs live from Oxford, Mississippi, this evening providing international audiences with analyses and commentary. VOA is sending a team of journalists to cover the debate between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama.
VOA journalists from English-language programmes as well as those from Hindi, Urdu, Persian and Central African services will be on location at the University of Mississippi, with supplemental coverage at VOA’s Washington, DC headquarters.
In a special programme aimed at Urdu-speaking audiences in Pakistan, VOA and Pakistan TV (PTV) will assemble panelists in Islamabad and Washington to discuss issues raised in the debate about US relations with Pakistan and its neighbours.
“The 2008 presidential election is generating intense interest around the world,” said VOA Director Danforth W Austin. “VOA - reaching about 134 million people in 45 languages - is uniquely poised to explain to its audiences the differences and similarities in the candidates’ foreign policy positions.”
VOA will also cover future debates, including those between McCain and Obama at Belmont University, Nashville, Tenn., on October 7, and at Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, on 15 October. It will also cover the debate between the Vice Presidential candidates, Senator Joseph Biden, the Democrat, and Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican, on 2 October at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri.
Televised debate coverage will be carried in English on all of VOA’s satellite paths - Intelsat 907, New Skies 806 and 703 (VC 340 only), Asiasat 3, and Eutelsat Hot Bird 3 (VC 340 only). Special coverage in Urdu of the presidential debates, but not the vice presidential debate, will air on New Skies 703 (VC 420), Asiasat 3 (VC 409), and Hot Bird 3 (VC 240).
on Sep 26th, 2008 at 15:37
McCain just confirmed his participation in tonight’s debade. So potential listeners and viewers can get ready.
on Sep 26th, 2008 at 16:01
Thanks. I was hoping someone would tell me
on Sep 26th, 2008 at 22:58
Nominal start time is 0100 UT Saturday, Maybe we can expect some secret extra SW frequencies, as appeared for VOA coverage of the Democratic and Republican Cons a month ago, including from African sites, 6080, 9885, 12080, 15580?
on Sep 27th, 2008 at 00:04
Those are the published frequencies that should be used around the debate:
English to Europe, Middle East, and North Africa
0100-0130 UTC 1593
English to Far East Asia, South Asia, and Oceania
0100-0200 UTC 7430 9780 11705
0200-0300 UTC 9780 11705
English-Special - just in case
0130-0200 UTC 1593 6040 9820
on Sep 27th, 2008 at 02:00
** U S A. Scanned bands from 16 to 90 meters between 0136 and 0146 UT. Computers and TVs were necessarily on obscuring weaker signals. Did find live debate broadcast weakly // TV but never exactly synchronized on 15595, presumably VOA, site unlisted and normally not scheduled. Very good on 9820 and 6040 which are Greenville normally only at 0130-0200 with Spe-cial Eng-lish.
While I was at it, I checked private US SW station frequencies which are on the air in English at this time, and found them all in normal programming, mostly gospel huxters: 11520, 9505, 7465, 7415, 6985, 6890, 5935, 5920, 5875, 5850, 5745, 5070, 5050, 3185. What became of the concept of public service broadcasting, pre-empting regular programming if necessary on such rare special occasions? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
on Sep 27th, 2008 at 02:30
Next check at 0220: both 6040 and 9820 were off. VOA must have only run them during their normal spans, i.e. cutting off the debate right in the middle at 0200! 15595, whencever it was, faded out before 0200. Still no private US SW frequencies with it at 0220 either (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
on Sep 27th, 2008 at 10:02
Thanks for your observations. Presumably the same will happen on 7 and 15 October.
on Sep 28th, 2008 at 00:31
Even R.Marti in Spanish and R. Liberty in Russian did not carry the debate live. I guess not much interest in the target countries. What can we expect from the fledgling private SW stations?
France 24 carried the debate in its original English, French and Arabic followed by some discussions. I’m sure BBC News did the same.
As part of its public service Russia Today TV carried a few seconds of Obama live followed by a detailed report on Ralph Nader. This report that contains interviews with the US students calling for a a multi-party democracy ‘like in Europe’ is posted here:
http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/31038/video
on Oct 2nd, 2008 at 07:47
watch it online at http://watchitlive.110mb.com/ no ads