Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave From: 70247.3516@compuserve.com (George Wood) Subject: SCDX 2171 Organization: Finnish University & Research Network Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1993 18:07:14 +0200 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: MediaScan :: :: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS :: :: from Radio Sweden :: :: Number 2171--Jan. 19, 1993 :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Satellite, shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio Sweden. This week's bulletin was written by George Wood. Packet Radio BID SCDX2171 All times UTC unless otherwise noted. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- NORDIC MEDIA NEWS: RADIO SWEDEN--The new budget proposal by Sweden's center-right government includes major cuts at Radio Sweden. The government wants to reduce our budget by 15 million kronor, or 2 million dollars. Radio Sweden is financed through the Swedish Foreign Ministry. We asked Krister Kumlin, the ministry's head of information, about the motivation for the proposal. Krister Kumlin: The general budget situation in Sweden is rather tough. The Foreign Minstry as such has been hit by heavy demands for cutting down it's own budget. But since the budget for Radio Sweden is included within the budget of the Foreign Ministry, of course it also will be hit by the obligation that we have to save money. Radio Sweden: But what specifically do you want to cut from Radio Sweden? KK: As you know, according to the regulations, we cannot really suggest what Radio Sweden should cut. But we can, of course, express an opinion. And we think that the present system of sending out programs in Swedish, produced by Radio Sweden, could be replaced by ordinary transmissions from Swedish Radio. It is quite costly to have two productions of the same kind of news. RS: The cutback that has been proposed, 15 million Swedish kronor, amounts to 25 percent of the total Radio Sweden budget. But because of fixed costs, it actually amounts to 30 to 33 percent of the actually operating budget that Radio Sweden's management has to work with. This is a very large cut, and surely it means more than just replacing the broadcasts in Swedish? KK: Of course this is a question for Radio Sweden to decide, but I agree that the cutback is rather large and it will probably not be sufficient just to replace the Swedish programs. There will probably be a necessity to cut back in one or two language programs. RS: What languages are you thinking of? KK: Well, I wouldn't like to mention any specific languages, but I would say that cutbacks could be considered in Spanish and French, and perhaps English. The head of Radio Sweden, Hans Wachholz, says he understands that cuts are necessary considering the current economic situation in Sweden. But how does he react to the government proposal? Hans Wachholz: Mr. Kumlin, the Foreign Minister, and the government can all express their views on this matter. But by regulation they are not allowed to give us orders considering what languages we should or should not broadcast. Therefore I can't understand why government is going to parliament to ask for such heavy cuts. Today I can't define the consequences of these proposed cuts, or to what extend English or other programs will be affected by this proposal. But if you take into account that 15 million kronor is around 30 percent of the funds needed for program production and personnel, it is a question of heavy cuts. If parliament agrees with the government, it will affect our programming severely. We will be forced to reduce all our programming drastically. I think all our language programs will be affected. The coming cut-backs would in addition to the reductions in our schedule that went into effect yesterday. Besides the disappearance of our extra English and Swedish half hours to Europe, the cuts include more than halving the English trqanscription programs rebroadcast by local radio stations. All of these services to the Third World have been dropped, although our single remaining English transcription program goes to 98 stations in North America, Australia, and other countries. French and Spanish transcription programs are not affected. Starting yesterday, Radio Sweden's programs in Estonian at 15:30 hrs are being relayed on Estonian Radio's third network, with FM transmitters around 70 MHz. The 15 minute programs in Estonian are being following by a relay of Swedish Radio's domestic newscast in Swedish. FINLAND--In neighboring Finland, a study on the future of the external service there has just been conducted for the Ministry of Transport and Communications. The report notes that "it is the duty of public service radio to broadcast programs about Finland and about Finnish news to all parts of the globe." It also specifies that broadcasts should be available in Finnish and "key European languages", and describes external broadcasting as one of the most important commitments of public service radio. (BBC Monitoring) SWEDEN--The first broadcast from Sweden's new P4 was at 18:00 hrs local time last Monday. Following the merger of this country's national and local public service radio broadcasters at the beginning of the year, the new schedules went into effect last week, including the splitting of the former P3 entertainment channel into a new youth-oriented P3, and the new P4, aimed at an older audience, which also carries programs from the more than 20 local radio stations. Here in Stockholm it's a bit more confusing. The local station Radio Stockholm has been allowed to keep its youth profile on its more powerful transmitter on 103.3 MHz, while other Radio Stockholm programs are being transmitted on a lower-powered P4 transmitter on 93.8 MHz. And just in Stockholm, programs in minority languages have been moved off the P2 transmitter, creating a 24 hour classical music station on 96.2 MHz. The minority language programs have been moved to Radio Sweden's own FM transmitter on 89.6 MHz, creating a new channel called Stockholm International. To launch the effort, Radio 95 was held here the week before the new schedules went into effect, including an exhibition of coming digital studio technologies, and a series of seminars and talks. These included a seminar on the coming of digital audio broadcasting, and a talk by the head of Britain's pop music channel Radio One on how a public service broadcaster can promote itself against commercial competition. American radio consultant Chris Witting talked about how national and local radio news can work together. I talked to him afterwards. Chris Witting: I think that the changes that are being made here are exciting and good and those should continue. With comeptition coming to Sweden in the form of private local commercial radio stations, there will only bemore competition, and change is inevitable. There are going to be more choices for people. No longer will Sweden have a monopoly on radio news, it's going to be fair game. So my message would be, be ready for those changes, and be willing to make changes and do what's best for the local radio stations in order to maintain their audiences. Radio Sweden: You give a number of examples about how radio news is done in America and about how there are so many diverse services from the different networks. That seems so very alien from what the Swedes have been doing. CW: That may be the case. I'm not saying in any way that the quality of what is done here in't really tremendous. National radio here has 135 reporters. That's just an outstanding commitment to radio news. But in programming a local radio station, you aren't just interested in content, you also have to think about style and how it best fits the sound of your total radio station. That's why the American radio networks have so many variations that they offer. So I would say that Swedish broadcasting simply has to offer more variation, more choices, to those local stations, so that they can better compete with these private stations that are coming. RS: What has happened here now is that the local radio stations and national radio network have all become one company. One of the main reasons for this while seminar is help work out how they are going to work together as one happy company. What do you see as the major problems of local stations working with the national newsroom? CW: I sense that there is a bit of a tug of war going on there as far as "we want to keep things the way they are" and "no, we want to change", and "we need to be local" and "we need to be national". I think that will resolve itself and has been resolving itself. I think the main thing that is going to make it happen is communication. So this seminar with everyone getting together is a great first step, it's a good way to kick off this change. But as I said in my presentation, I think that there has to be more contact, more meetings, more frequency exposure of local people to what national is doing and visa versa. NORWAY--Norway has found some programmers for its Thor satellite, the former British Marco Polo 2, which is now at 1 degree West. There are to be three channels, a film channel, a sports channel, and a news channel. Jan says two are ready to go, on condition that the third is found. Unfortunately, as far as we know, the Norwegians are still insisting that the satellite transmit in the rather obscure D-MAC system, which should greatly limit the number of possible subscribers. (Jan Johansson, Sweden) EUROPEAN SATELLITE BROADCASTING: EUROSPORT/SCREENSPORT--The long-predicted merger of Eurosport and Screensport is now official. The new channel will be called Eurosport, and will be broadcast over Astra and Eutelsat II, presumeably F1, with commentary in three English, German, and Dutch. A separate French version is to be called TV Sport, and will be distributed on one of the Telecom 2 satellites. Ownership of the new Eurosport will be divided between France's TF1, France's Canal Plus, and the American ESPN. (TT) A new satellite home shopping channel is to be broadcast over Eurosport, apparently using otherwise unused time during the night. It's to be called the Quantum Home Shopping Channel. ("Satnews") The current Eurosport was removed from Swedish cable networks on January 1st, because the channel had demanded payment per cable subscriber in Scandinavia but nowhere else, but refused to code its satellite signals in return. Swedish Telecom says the new Eurosport will replace Screensport as a pay channel on its cable systems. BBC WORLD SERVICE--On January 11th BBC World Service Television began broadcasting on a second transponder on the Intelsat 601 satellite, using D2- MAC on 11.643 GHz. Broadcasts continue in uncoded PAL on 10.995 GHz. On January 25th one of those will close down and broadcasts will continue in Eurocrypt coded D2-MAC for subscribers only. However, a half hour of World Service news is being carried in the original English Monday to Saturday at 16:30 hrs and an hour-long weekly summary Sundays at 14:00 hrs on the otherwise German-only N-TV news channel on Astra. (Wolfgang Matl, Radio Sweden) SPAIN--TVE International is now carried on Spain's Hispasat direct broadcast satellite (31 degrees West) at 06:00-23:00 hrs on 12.149 GHz. AFRICAN SATELLITE BROADCASTING: EGYPT--The Egyptian Space Channel is now carried on the Eutelsat II-F3 on 11.162 GHz. Egyptian Information Minister Safwat al-Sharif says the inauguration of the new Egyptian ground station in Cairo means that radio and TV broadcasts in foreign languages other than Arabic can also be relayed to Europe and North Africa. (BBC Monitoring) TUNISIA--The new English service of Tunisian Radio is carried on Tunisian Television's transponder on the Eutelsat II-F3 satellite on 11.658 GHz. English is heard at 13:00 hrs, German at 14:00 hrs, and French at 15:00 hrs on the subcarrier at 7.02 MHz. The international service, RTCI, broadcasts mainly in French. It also uses 963 kHz and FM frequencies in Tunisia. (BBC Monitoring) (Note: We've monitored this on the 7.02 MHz subcarrier, although the BBC reports it on 7.20.) ASIAN AND PACIFIC SATELLITE BROADCASTING: AUSTRALIA--The new Australia Television International service to Asia is due to begin on February 17th via Indonesia's Palapa B-2P satellite. The programs, which are expected to reach 30 Asian-Pacific countries, will include news reporting, special international topics, Asian-Pacific socio- cultural aspects, reports on scientific and technical developments, and education. Nude scenes and offensive language will be cut from programs. The announcement comes after discussions with Asian community, government, and religious leaders. Many of the countries to receive the service have large Moslem populations which could find some of the Australian television offensive. (BBC Monitoring, AP, EFE) NORTH AMERICAN SATELLITE BROADCASTING: CHINA--China Central Television was to begin a daily one hour broadcast to Chinese and English-language television stations in North America on January 1st, using the K-2 satellite (at 81 degrees West). The time is unclear, although 19:00-20:00 hrs Eastern Standard Time was announced. (BBC Monitoring) SPACENET--The Spacenet 1 satellite was recently sold to the Hong Kong-based Asian Pacific Telecom for use in the ChinaSat project. Some of the various channels on the satellite are moving as follows: Sky High TV has disappeared SCOLA has gone to Galaxy 3 transponder 1 The Keystone Inspirational Network is now on Galaxy 3 transponder 1 Playboy-at-Night has switched to Galaxy 5 transponder 2 KGAY, a new radio network for gays and lesbians, has moved from Spacenet 3R to Galaxy 6, transponder 17, using the audio sucarrier at 7.48 MHz. (Robert Smathers in "Satnews") BROADCASTING IN THE FORMER USSR: LATVIA--Lativan Television has resumed broadcasting the Ostankino program on the same channel as before. It had been halted on January 1st for financial reasons. Talks began on January 12th about showing Russian Television in Latvia. The Latvian Radio and Television Council has granted airtime in 1993 to ten Latvian enterprises for broadcasting their television programs. Eight enterprises will be carried on Latvian Television's Channel 7, and two other on Channel 10. (BBC Monitoring) LITHUANIA--Eatern Lithuanian TV is expanding its programming to daily morning broadcasts between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM local time. It's impossible to expand evening programs as Polish TV is on the same channel. The morning broadcasts will include programs in several languages: Belorussian, Ukrainian, Russian, and Polish, as well as Lithuanian.(BBC Monitoring) The Lithuanian government decided to end broadcasts of Ostankino TV in Lithuania from January 1st. The quedtion of the future of Russian Television in Lithuania has not yet been decided. (BBC Monitoring)~ RUSSIA--Russia's first independent television channel, the Moscow Independent Broadcasting Corporation--TV 6 Moscow, began broadcasts on January 1st. It has been set up in conjunction with the American Turner Broadcasting System, owner of CNN. TV 6 Moscow is targetted at family viewing. Initially programs can only be seen in Moscow, but it is planned to expend the coverage area during the 2nd half of 1993. Broadcasting is now 5 hours a day, although this is to be increased to 20 hours daily. The independent Orion television and radio company has begun operating in Kharkov. TV program are on channel 21. There's another new TV station in Urdmurtia on Channel 2. Neizvestnoye TV (Unknown TV) was formed by former Izhevsk TV workers using an amateur video studio. They are on in the morning, while Udmurtia TV takes evening airtime. SHORT, LONG, AND MEDIUM WAVE: AZERBAIJAN--The new Voice of Azerbaijan external service identifies as Radio Dada Gorgud, the Voice of Azerbaijan. Dada Gorgud is the name of the Turkic epic hero. The broadcasts is heard at 17:00-18:00 hrs on 6175 kHz, which unfortunately is already used by Radio France International. (BBC Monitoring) BOSNIA-HERCEGOVINA--The radio station of the Bosnian Serbs, Studio S, has been heard on 1395 kHz. It makes no mention of that frequency, but announces instead 1242 kHz and a number of FM frequencies. (BBC Monitoring) MOLDOVA--Radio Moldova International has been heard testing in French at 13:00 hrs on 15390 kHz and at 13:35 hrs in Spanish on 15285. According to the National Radio-Television of the Republic of Moldova, thests were conducted on January 6th and 7th, directed to France, Spain, Latin America, and the United States on several frequencies, including 7125, 9620 and 9755 kHz in addition to those actually monitored. The transmitter used are believed to be those of Radio Romania International. (BBC Monitoring) POLAND--The new transmitter of Polish Radio's First Program was formally started pm December 16th at Raszyn. It has been testing since October 26th, on 225 kHz. (BBC Monitoring) SLOVAKIA--Slovak Radio's new external service in Slovak has been heard at 01:30-02:00 hrs on 5930 and 7345 kHz and at 19:00-19:30 hrs on 9505 and 9580 kHz. The station is announcing as well an hour long program at 14:00 hrs on 6055, 7345, and 9505 kHz. (BBC Monitoring) SOMALIA--Ali Mahdi Muhammad's Radio Mogadishu has been heard signing off at 14:30 hrs on the new frequency of 9574 kHz, instead of around 6958 kHz. The station resumed broadcasts at 16:00 hrs on 6958 kHz. (BBC Monitoring) PACKET RADIO--Packet Radio is a form of computer communication, over the radio rather than through telephone lines. It has been developed by radio amateurs, and can mostly be found in the amateur 2 meter band, above 144 MHz, as well as in the 70 centimeter band, above 432 MHz. Now Ron Tuijl in the Netherlands tells us that packet radio is also speading on citizens band radio, the licence free service available in many countries, usually on around 27 MHz. Packet became legal on CB in the Netherlands in November, 1991. Stations there use 27,345 kHz, which is channel 34, and a number of bulletin boards seem to be on channel 40. Unfortunately there is often interference from illegal high-powered stations in Italy. Ron says packet on CB was made legal in Denmark in July, 1992, and he wonders if it is allowed in any other European countries? (Ron Tuijl, Netherlands) PUBLICATIONS: WORLD RADIO TV HANDBOOK--The 1993 edition of the "World Radio TV Handbook" is out, and once again it's the radio monitor's most necessary reference. With all the political changes in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, there are major revisions from previous years. The WRTH lists virtually every radio and television broadcast station in the world. There's also a section called "World Satellite Broadcasts", listing the world's geostationary broadcast satellites and their channels. The "Listen to the World" section includes a clandestine radio survey, and an article on what happens now after the important World Administrative Radio Conference held in early 1992. Once again Jonathan Marks and Willem Bos have tested a number of new shortwave receivers. The WRTH is the standard reference guide for the radio hobbyist, and I can see only one flaw, which is the failure to include a vital new kind of information. Today, Radio Sweden and many shortwave broadcasters also transmit on satellite. Unfortunately, if you look up Radio Sweden or Swiss Radio International, or the BBC in the new WRTH, you'll find the shortwave schedules, but not a word about the satellite relays, which are often readily available to anyone with a small dish and receiver. These are listed in the "World Satellite Broadcasts" section, but you have to know what you're looking for, and it would make a lot of sense to include this information under the regular listings as well. This can get complicated, of course.....where do you list information on Deutsche Welle's broadcasts on satellites over North America, under Germany, Canada, or the USA? But there ought to be a solution. Every year we point out that many hobbyists in the Third World and Eastern Europe often have problems getting the WRTH, and we suggest that those buying the new edition consider donating their old copy to a DX club in those areas. There's a list of clubs starting on page 54 in the new edition, and this year it includes several clubs in Eastern Europe for the first time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sweden Calling DXers is the world's oldest radio program for shortwave listeners. Radio Sweden has presented this round-up of radio news, features, and interviews on Tuesdays since 1948. Radio Sweden broadcasts in English: Europe and Africa: 18:30 and 22:00 hrs on 1179, 6065 and 9655 kHz, and 23:30 hrs on 1179 and 6065 kHz Middle East and East Africa: 18:30 hrs on 15270 kHz Asia and the Pacific: 13:30 hrs on 15240 and 21625 kHz 22:00 hrs on 11955 kHz 01:00 hrs on 9695 and 11820 kHz North America: 16:00 hrs on 17870 and 21500 kHz 02:00 hrs on 9695 and 11705 kHz The 13:30, 18:30, and 22:00 hrs transmissions are also broadcast to Europe via satellite: Astra 1B (19.2 degrees East) transponder 26 (Sky Movies Gold/TV Asia/Adult Channel) at 11.597 GHz, audio subcarrier at 7.74 MHz, Tele-X (5 degrees East) (TV4 transponder) at 12.207 GHz, audio subcarrier 7.38 MHz. Contributions can be sent to DX Editor George Wood by fax to +468-667-6283, from Internet, MCI Mail or CompuServe (to the CompuServe mailbox 70247,3516), through the FidoNet system to 2:201/697 or to SM0IIN at the packet radio BBS SM0ETV. Reports can also be sent to: Radio Sweden S-105 10 Stockholm Sweden Contributions should be NEWS about electronic media--from shortwave to satellites--and not loggings of information already available from sources such as the "World Radio TV Handbook". Clubs and DX publications may reprint material as long as MediaScan/Sweden Calling DXers and the original contributor are acknowledged, with the exception of items from BBC Monitoring, which are copyright. We welcome comments and suggestions about the electronic edition, Sweden Calling DXers, and our programs in general. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to this week's contributors Good Listening!