Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Radio Noida tunes in to connect with masses

Noida: For a little over two years now, a dozen students of a private media school along with five professional staff members have been reaching out to residents through words of mouth, literally. Their aim is to bring them together to discuss civic and other issues through Radio Noida, the city's first community radio service.


Monday, May 16, 2011

Papua New Guinea Radio Review

Papua New Guinea Broadcasting Review

We're currently reviewing the status of broadcasting in PNG as part of our ongoing updates for the World Radio TV Handbook [WRTH] and our PAL Radio Guides at www.radioheritage.com.


Radio Eastern Highlands 3395kHz at Goroka has been reported inactive on SW for some time. In fact, we had even removed it from the WRTH listing.


However, we understand it was most recently off SW for 9 months, returning briefly in January 2011 before another technical problem has taken it off air yet again.


An NBC engineer says 'Radio Eastern Highlands faced a lot of 'off-air' time a few years back because the IC kept getting cooked, and recently [January 2011] the entire mini-transformer box at the transmitter was blown to bits."


"Other TV and 3 radio stations piggyback on our tower and went off air for a whole month. We were lucky we have a standby generator for a bypass power supply."


"The SW transmitter magnetic contactor blew out, so no SW service, using only FM. We've also reduced transmission hours by one, terminating at 2100 hours [local] and this will remain so until the SW transmitter fault is rectified."


The problems are linked to the power authority upgrading national power supplies, and huge voltage surges [up to 400v] are blowing out integrated circuits.


An engineer comments 'NBC engineers have to be very current with PPL's [power company] upgrade and automation so that our delicate digital equipment is not cooked up in their upgrade process."


As a general observation, MW/SW radio services of NBC may often operate irregularly outside Port Moresby because of technical and funding issues.


Simply put,they can come and go from the air as they break down, get fixed, then break down again and listeners need to constantly monitor all PNG shortwave outlets to have a current overview of their status.


NBC plans to replace MW/SW stations with FM only by 2015 but funding issues are now reported to be delaying implementation.


Commercial network FM100 by comparison, has a rapidly growing and technically secure FM network because it is owned by Telikom, the main infrastructure operator.


Its FM frequencies are generally claimed to have 200km coverage which indicates relatively high powered and well located [often on mountains] transmitter sites.


Mobile phone use is growing rapidly in PNG with operators Telikom and Digicel expanding nationwide coverage across the archipelago. Most radio listeners prefer the commercial FM services such as FM100, Nau and Yumi FM


The predominately young population prefers inbuilt FM receivers in mobile phones for listening so the demand for MW and SW services falls faster every year.


Religious broadcaster Wantok Radio Light have recently upgraded their satellite systems at each FM relay station, opened two new FM stations and are planning on some 10 more in 2011 alone to maintain contact with the rapidly growing FM radio audiences.


Blessed Peter ToRot Radio, a network of Catholic community radio stations has also reactivated Radio St.Gabriel on shortwave at Vanimo in recent weeks.


Vanimo is some 20km from the border with Indonesia and there is high tension in the area because of the Free West Papua movement, reports of police and military brutality, and a local economy still suffering from the effects of a devastating tsunami in the area in the recent past.


We are continuing to monitor broadcasting in PNG with the help of several sources within the country in an effort to improve the quality of information available for listeners, travellers and others using the WRTH listings and those of the PAL Radio Guides at www.radioheritage.com.


Observations, comments and news about PNG broadcasting issues are very welcome to info@radioheritage.net.


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Radio Heritage Foundation is a non-profit organization connecting popular culture, nostalgia and radio heritage worldwide. Now covering 60% of weekly operational costs with donations from supporters worldwide. US$50 sponsors one day. Your donation is important to us. Volunteers are unpaid. We keep radio heritage safe for the future.


WRTH Country Contributor for Papua New Guinea
www.radioheritage.com
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Media Release , Radio Heritage Foundation
May 16 2011

WRTH A11/Summer schedules file available to download, free of charge.

The WRTH Editorial team is pleased to announce that the Summer/'A' season broadcasting schedules file is now available to download, free of charge, from the WRTH website - click on http://www.wrth.com and follow the link "Latest PDF Updates".

The file is in PDF format (you will require the free Adobe Acrobat reader, v7 or above to open this file. If you do not have the Acrobat reader, please visit http://www.abobe.com to download and install it). The 97 page file is just over 900kB in size and contains the following information:


Summer / 'A' Season broadcasting schedules for over 200 international and Clandestine/Target stations;
- Frequency listing of the above stations to facilitate band scanning
- Broadcasts in English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish
- International DRM broadcasts


Please feel free to pass this information on so that we may reach as many SWL's, DX-er's and professionals as possible. For contact details, transmitter sites and much more, please refer to the printed WRTH, which is available to order from the website. We hope you find this a useful accompaniment to the printed WRTH.


On behalf of the publisher and editorial team at WRTH, happy listening!

Sean D. Gilbert, International Editor - WRTH (World Radio TV Handbook)

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Demand for radio sets on decline despite booming FM market


NEW DELHI: The FM radio sector may be booming but the demand for radio sets is on a rapid decline forcing multinationals like Panasonic and Sony to either stop manufacturing devices in India or trim down the number of models sold here.

Read the full story here :
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/8337826.cms

Saturday, May 14, 2011

KFBS Saipan ends shortwave transmission on 30th April

Oleg Cherny, FEBC Russia's chief engineer, confirms in his letter that KFBS ended transmissions on April 30.

(Aleksandr Diadischev, Ukraine )

(Via DXLD List)

Radio City 91.1 FM now availbale online on sify.com

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Tuesday, May 10, 2011 -- (Business Wire India) Sify Technologies Limited (NASDAQ Global Markets: SIFY), a leader in Enterprise and Consumer Internet Services in India with global delivery capabilities, today announced its partnership with the country's leading FM radio brand, Radio City 91.1 FM, by integrating PlanetRadiocity's Web Radio to launch Radio on Sify. This tie-up will enable visitors to Sify.com to enjoy Bollywood, Indi-Pop and other genres of music 24x7.

The content broadcast on Radio on Sify will be different from the terrestrial programming of Radio City 91.1 FM. Some of the special features of Radio on Sify are:


-- Uninterrupted streaming: Visitors can listen to their favourite songs without any buffering at an internet speed as low as even 128 Kbps. -- Popular RJ's: Visitors/audience can select songs from a given list and dedicate it to friends/loved ones. The RJ will announce the dedications during particular shows.
-- Facebook apps: Users can post their comments/dedications via any mail id or their Facebook account. Comments/dedications will also be posted to their Facebook walls.
-- Show Time: Show Time features the daywise list of all the shows.


Speaking on the launch, Mr. Natesh Mani, President, Consumer Infrastructure Services, Sify Technologies, said, "We believe, Radio on Sify is a complete 'fun and masti' offering for young professionals and next generation listeners. We are delighted to partner Radio City and integrate an Indian Internet Radio channel with Sify.com. After the successful launch of Silverlight cricket scorecard, and HTML image gallery for movie fans, the launch of radio will help us offer uninterrupted music to music lovers.
India being a country of cricket, movies and music, Sify.com now covers the entire essential entertainment spectrum for internet audiences making it an exciting place for brands to engage with their consumers."


Commenting on this partnership, Ms. Rachna Kanwar, Head of Digital Media & New Business, Radio City 91.1 FM, said, "This is a strategic move for Radio City. With over 17 million unique visitors per month, Sify.com is one of the leading horizontal portals for Information, Communication and Entertainment among Indians worldwide. Radio City was the first Indian radio station to launch a multi-genre Indian web radio, and now through this partnership, we hope to monumentally increase our listener base among Indian netizens globally. The premise of cross-channel navigation among the visitors of Sify.com is very promising."


Radio on Sify will now appear as a tab on the homepage in all Sify mylife cybercafés and for all Sify Broadband users. To listen to Radio on Sify please visit: www.sify.com/radio


(Press Release)

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

In Latin America, the Future of Digital Radio Is a Murky One

Read the Radio World story here :

http://www.radioworld.com/article/in-latin-america-the-future-of-digital-radio-is-a-murky-one/23347

New Radio Website by Jay Allen

Longtime contributor to the radiointel web site, Jay Allen has his own website, here's the link :



It features all of the reviews and radio restoration articles that he has written & he hopes to add more to it.

JJY 40 kHz reactivated again

National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) sent "a suicide corps", wearing nuclear protective suits, on May 9 to recover the Mt.Ootakadoya JJY transmitting site - located 17km from dangerous Fukushima No.1 nuclear power station - which was destructed by lightning on April 25. After the recovering works 40kHz time signal was temporally reactivated at 0408UT on the day. The transmission is remote-controlled and may be temporally stopped in case of bad weather condition.

(Takahito Akabayashi, Japan via DXLD List)

Monday, May 09, 2011

TDP DRM Test to India



TDP Radio will do a DRM test broadcast towards India as follows:

Date : 12 May 2011
Time : 1500-1700 UTC
Frequency : 15775 kHz
Power : 100 kW DRM
Location : Issoudun

New Vietnamese program on 1503 khz to Vietnam

Beginning May 15th, 2011 Foundation For Democracy Of Vietnam will broadcast a daily program from 1430UTC to 1500UTC on 1503khz. This time slot had been used by the BBC Vietnamese Service until it was vacated because of the restructuring measures that have been taken by the BBC World Service. The 600kw transmitter and directional antenna azimuth of 247deg is located in Fangliao, South Taiwan (Pingtung County). This site is also used by Radio France International in Khmer, Radio Chan Troi Moi (New Horizon Radio) in Vietnamese, Family Radio in Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese and English. This relay was arranged by Jeff White at WRMI (Radio Miami International) and Keith Perron at PCJ Radio.



(Keith Perron via DXLD List)