AWR expansion

* AWR Announcement: Expansion at KSDA Guam

 

A special news release from the international headquarters of Adventist World Radio in suburban Washington DC gives broad details of an expansion project at the AWR shortwave station on the island of Guam in the Western Pacific.  This news release was prepared by Shelly Nolan Freesland, who is the Communication Director for the entire AWR System.  This news release states:-

The Board of Directors of Adventist World Radio has approved, in concept, the expansion of AWR's shortwave broadcasting facility, station KSDA, on the island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean.  It is intended that this project will result in much better coverage of China which is a critical mission area for the Seventh‐day Adventist Church.

The Guam station, which was established in 1987, currently broadcasts programs in 30+ languages for nearly 300 hours each week to a large portion of Asia.  Just over half of these hours consist of Mandarin programming for listeners in China.  

The station's shortwave footprint also includes India; and together with China, these two countries contain close to half of the world's total population.  In addition, listeners in countries such as Vietnam, North Korea, Cambodia, Indonesia and more, can all hear AWR programming in their own languages.

The technical equipment for shortwave station KSDA currently consists of six antenna towers, four curtain antennas, and five transmitters at 100 kW each. The largest tower is 330 feet tall, and each curtain antenna is about the size of two football fields. 

The shortwave signals that are generated at AWR Guam can travel for thousands of miles, enabling the gospel message for these last days to freely enter many areas without hindrance.  Although the current equipment enables a good reliable signal to cover many areas in Eastern Asia, yet a stronger signal is needed to adequately reach listeners in the northern areas of Eastern Asia, such as northern China, Mongolia, Siberia, and beyond. 

This new project for increasing the reliable coverage area from shortwave station KSDA calls for an additional curtain antenna.  Adding a fifth antenna will enable AWR to broadcast a strong signal to these northern areas during prime listening hours, as well as simultaneously transmitting additional programs in more languages.

"Over the years, our Mandarin broadcasts have generated an incredible response from listeners in China," says AWR president Dr. Dowell Chow.  "But these listeners are primarily located in the south part of the country, where our signal is much more consistent and clear.  So our goal is to provide the same quality of broadcasts to the millions of people living in the areas further to the north."

"At the same time," continued Dr Chow, "We are continuing to develop programs in additional languages.  We are pleased to have recently found producers for AWR programming in the languages of Tibet and Bhutan.  When these new programs are ready for broadcast, we will need the additional air time on this planned new antenna system."

Additionally, Dr Chow stated, that while AWR recently placed significant resources into launching a comprehensive podcasting system – in which all of our radio programming can also be heard worldwide online – we recognize that shortwave broadcasts are still a vital part of our mission.  He added that in spite of the growth in Internet usage, shortwave is still the primary method of receiving information for literally hundreds of millions of people.  A full 24 percent of the world's population does not have regular access to electricity.  So at AWR, we remain very aware that our listeners in many areas throughout the world are extremely diverse.

AWR states that the installation of the new tower and antenna system should be completed by the end of 2012, which is the 25th anniversary of station KSDA Guam.

In explanation, it is stated that Adventist World Radio is the international mission radio arm of the worldwide Seventh‐day Adventist denomination.  Programs are broadcast in particular throughout Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East on shortwave as well as by AM & FM radio.  Additionally, all of the AWR multi‐language programming is also available worldwide as podcasts, and also on‐demand at awr.org.

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Dr. Adrian M. Peterson
Co-ordinator - International Relations & DX Editor
Adventist World Radio

 

Adventist World Radio
Box 29235
Indianapolis
Indiana 46229
USA