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Global Information All India Radio Enters The Relay Race!
by Gerry L. Dexter |
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The old CRI/CPBS building in Beijing is central in this 1993 |
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Pass the baton! All India Radio is entering the relay race! An agreement has been reached whereby various AIR outlets will relay programming from the Voice of America and the BBC. (The swaps may be well under way by the time you read this.) In turn, VOA/BBC transmitters will carry transmissions from All India Radio, which should mean much better reception from a broadcaster that, while it has a zillion or so shortwave channels, is often received at something less than “5 by 5” quality in much of North America. So, from the latter standpoint, we can count this as good news. On the other hand the ever-confusing task of keeping track of who’s broadcasting from where becomes still more complex. At this writing, there’s no word as to who’s going to be doing what to whom, or when, or where. Colombian Back On The Air A long-time Colombian shortwave station has come back to life. Radio Melodia in Bogotá has shown up on 6140 (varying slightly) and is being heard late into the evening. The signal, while generally pretty good, gets squeezed and splashed by Deutsche Welle on 6145 and BBC via Delano, California, on the lower side. The Voice of Nigeria has reactivated a couple of channels it used to use an eon or two back. The station is now being heard on 9690 and 11770, in parallel with 15120. These new frequencies are in use from 0500 to 0800 in English, 0800 to 0900 in Hausa, 0900 to 1200 in English, 1200 to 1300 in French, 1300 to 1600 in Swahili, 1600 to 1700 in Arabic, 1800 to 2000 in English, 2000 to 2200 in Hausa, and 2200 to 2300 in English. The current season should provide most of us with pretty good reception on the new frequencies so give ’em a try. Intermittent reception of 7255 and 15120 have caused some to wonder if VON may be about to drop those frequencies, but both have been noted active. So far there’ve been fairly few reports on the new frequencies. The Voice of America is looking toward an expansion of its programming efforts to certain areas and a cutback in others. A lot of bucks are going into the creation of an Arabic language TV network, which is drawing funds away from other areas. Programming to Indonesia is set to double, while more effort and dollars will go towards getting VOA programming on local stations in important areas. Eastern Europe will see cutbacks in service, including broadcasts to the Ukraine. In addition, there will be a small cutback in Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (costing a few jobs) and a relatively minor cut for Radio Free Asia. |
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