Brady Murray, Operations Manager of WWCR in Nashville, Tennessee, was
elected President of the National Association of Shortwave
Broadcasters at the NASB 2013 Annual Meeting in Birmingham, Alabama
May 15-17. He replaces former President Glen Tapley of WEWN, whose
term ended after two years as the Association's president. Murray had
previously been Vice President of the NASB, and Charles Caudill,
President of World Christian Broadcasting -- also based in the
Nashville area -- was elected the new NASB Vice President. Jeff White
and Thais White of WRMI in Miami were re-elected Secretary-Treasurer
and Assistant Secretary-Treasurer, respectively.
Two NASB Board of Directors terms ended this year -- those of Glen
Tapley of WEWN and Dr. Adrian Peterson of Adventist World Radio (AWR).
Two new directors were elected: Terry Borders of WEWN and Dr. Dowell
Chow, President of AWR. Borders is the manager of the WEWN
transmitter site in Vandiver, Alabama. Dr. Chow is based at AWR
headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, but spends much of his time
travelling around the world.
The meeting was hosted by NASB member Eternal Word Television Network
(EWTN), which operates shortwave station WEWN. A welcome reception
took place on the evening of May 15, followed by a barbecue dinner
sponsored by EWTN at a renowned Birmingham restaurant called Dreamland
Bar-B-Q.
On May 16, the meeting took place at EWTN headquarters in Irondale, a
Birmingham suburb. Attendees toured the large state-of-the-art EWTN
Television studios, watching part of a live broadcast and observing
how a Catholic mass in Latin is translated and close-captioned. They
saw the television and radio control rooms and the studios where EWTN
Radio and WEWN shortwave programs are produced.
After the tour, there were a series of talks and presentations about
shortwave-related subjects for the rest of the day. Dowell Chow of
Adventist World Radio gave an overview of AWR's worldwide operations.
He said that AWR operates with only 30 employees, but with the help of
many more people who work at AWR studios around the world, producing
programs in over 80 languages.
The NASB was pleased to welcome back an old member station, KVOH in
Simi Valley, California, which has been off the air for some time but
has recently been transferred to the Strategic Communications Group
headed by Rev. John Tayloe. Tayloe's father-in-law was George Otis,
who originally founded the station as part of the Voice of Hope
network which included stations in the Middle East. The new owners
are refurbishing the station's shortwave transmitter and they hope to
have it back on the air within the next 90 days or so with programs in
English and Spanish. The antenna is beamed from southern California
toward Mexico and Cuba.
NASB meeting delegates had a chance to meet the new Vice President of
Continental Electronics, who has recently taken over from Adil Mina --
a regular fixture at NASB meetings for many years. Mina has recently
"semi-retired" to spend more time with his family, and more time at
his home in Greece. His successor, Mike Rosso, gave a presentation in
Birmingham about Continental Electronics and about Digital Radio
Mondiale (DRM) -- its status and its plans for the near future. He
was followed by Mark Allen of the Rohn Tower Company, NASB's newest
associate member, who talked about "Considerations for Aging Broadcast
Tower Structures." Allen gave a sobering report, complete with
photos, of the disasters that can occur when antenna towers are not
properly maintained. He explained how faulty lighting, ice, wind and
construction errors can easily cause accidents that result in
extensive property damage, serious injuries and even death. In these
days of financial cutbacks, Allen explained that tower maintenance is
not an area that broadcasters should cut back on.
Charles Caudill, President and CEO of NASB member World Christian
Broadcasting, gave an update on his organization's struggle to get a
new shortwave station on the air from the island of Madagascar, off
the southeast coast of Africa. Madagascar World Voice has had its
transmitter site ready with antennas erected for a few years now, but
is waiting on approval from the Madagascar communications minister to
import its transmitters and put the station on the air. The
Continental 100-kilowatt transmitters are sitting in crates in Houston
waiting for shipment to Madagascar as soon as approval is granted.
Caudill explained that elections will be held on the African island in
July of this year, after which the government ministers will probably
change, and this may give the station a better opportunity to get on
the air in the coming months.
Monday's talks continued with Brady Murray of WWCR on the use of
shortwave radio as an educational broadcasting tool. A discussion
afterwards also dealt with subjects such as the potential for DRM and
domestic shortwave broadcasting. Jerome Hirigoyen of NASB associate
member Telediffusion de France (TDF) gave a presentation about his
company's large shortwave transmission facility in Issoudun, France.
Seventeen 500-kilowatt transmitters and dozens of antennas --
including a rotatable version -- provide strong coverage of Africa,
the Middle East, parts of the Americas and other regions of the world.
Their main client used to be Radio France International, but TDF now
sells airtime to a variety of public and private broadcasters from
many countries. Finally, Dr, Jerry Plummer, WWCR's Frequency Manager,
spoke about the transition of international broadcasting to the
for-profit sector. Plummer explained that while many European public
broadcasters have been reducing or eliminating their shortwave
transmissions in recent years, many of their facilities are now owned
or being used by privately-owned and often commercial enterprises. As
Plummer proclaimed, "shortwave is definitely not dying."
On May 17, the NASB annual meeting took place at the transmitter site
of WEWN on a rural mountaintop about 40 minutes' drive from Irondale.
Once delegates reached the top of the mountain, they were treated to
some spectacular views of the surrounding Alabama mountains and the
nine large antennas that WEWN uses to reach the Americas, Europe,
Africa and other parts of the world. Inside the transmitter building
are four 500-kilowatt Continental transmitters which beam 24 hours per
day of programming in English and Spanish.
WEWN originally broadcast programs in 22 languages, and when it first
went on the air, some of its super-power transmissions -- particularly
on the higher frequencies -- made their way into the homes of local
residents. As Glen Tapley explained, "We had calls from people who
were hearing voices in Chinese coming from their knives and forks!"
Station personnel visited peoples' homes to install filters, and some
of the highest frequencies were avoided in an attempt to cause less
local interference.
About 11 employees operate the WEWN transmitter site, managed by Terry
Borders. On this occasion, some of them were performing double duty
as they prepared an excellent barbecue of hamburgers and hot dogs for
the NASB attendees. After lunch, Jerry Plummer of WWCR explained why
it is still difficult to find in-band HF frequencies, even with some
of the large European broadcasters leaving long-used channels.
At the NASB business and Board meetings, the new board members and
officers were elected. The members also agreed to assist NASB
associate member Galcom International in its efforts to obtain some
special concessions that could permit the company to produce simple,
ultra-low-cost DRM receivers in the $20 range that could finally make
DRM affordable for listeners in large parts of the world and viable
for international broadcasters.
The date and place of the NASB 2014 Annual Meeting was announced. It
will be held at the Voice of America/International Broadcasting Bureau
relay station in Greenville, North Carolina. Initial information is
already available on the NASB website,
www.shortwave.org. Click on
"Annual Meeting."
A selection of photos from the 2013 meeting in Birmingham will be
available within the next few days on the NASB Facebook page,
www.facebook.com/nasbshortwave.
For more information, contact:
Jeff White, NASB Secretary-Treasurer
c/o WRMI Radio Miami International
175 Fontainebleau Blvd., Suite 1N4
Miami, Florida 33172 USA
Tel +1-305-559-9764
Fax +1-305-559-8186
(NASB News Release - May 22, 2013)
