RUSSIA: Ghost radio on the air since the Cold War

Recordings that give an idea of the sounds aired can be found in the Infinity News article and on Wikipedia
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Launched in 1973 at the height of the Cold War, The Buzzer (as it has been nicknamed by radio amateurs and listeners) is a ghost radio station that has been broadcasting bizarre transmissions non-stop on 4625 kHz ever since. It broadcasts a sonar-like sound, interspersed with pauses, the purpose of which is not known; sometimes short voice messages in Russian are broadcast. Over the years, the community of radio amateurs and listening enthusiasts has monitored the transmissions and found technical flaws, such as when in 2010 the transmissions were interrupted for a day and two days later voices were heard in the background, as if a microphone had been left open. The Infinity News article reconstructs the history of “The Buzzer”, while other details can be found on Wikipedia.

MALAWI: Airwaves planning to be reviewed

Malawi reviews its FM spectrum refarming plan
The Dutch newspaper RedTech Tribe devotes an article to the problems of airwaves planning in Malawi, reporting several statements by operators
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The Malawi government will review the airwaves planning that the African country’s communications regulator had initiated in 2019 to address problems generated by channel saturation. The Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) had tasked the UK-based Casitel, an independent consultancy, with optimising the use of frequencies to allow new stations to open (see our article here). But some radio stations have complained, claiming that switching on new secondary installations to reduce the power of the main one has, on the contrary, generated disturbances. Such as Radio Islam, which by reducing its power from 500 to 200 W is now suffering interference from Radio Maria on 89.9 operating in the Dedza district, which transmits on the same frequency in the Mangochi district. Joy Radio, on the other hand, is complaining about the increased cost of recalibrating its transmitter in order to change frequency.

More details here.

CUBA: The speakers have set the standard

el dia del locutor
Cuba Periodistas’ article reconstructs the history of Cuban radio broadcasting and famous voices
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The voice-over, typical of the Cuban announcer, has become a reference model in Latin America, where it has imposed itself thanks to the professionalism and the many radio stations with an international vocation and especially the programs broadcast on short waves by Radio Habana Cuba. “The word “, writes Jorge Rivas Rodriguez in Cuba Periodistas, “is one of the professions that most touches the cultural, educational, ideological and informative formation of Cubans, has the magic of persuasion, the power to stimulate feelings and emotions through the domain of the word that has become a watermark for our ears”. The announcers, who celebrated their national day in December, are hundreds of professionals from national TV and regional offices, employed in the country’s nearly one hundred stations or working on Radio Habana Cuba‘s international programs.

The in-depth study can be read here.

SPAIN: RTVA Andalucia is the cheapest public channel in Europe

the cheapest public channel in Europe


The service of the periodical elplural.com contains more details on the contrasts between workers and the regional government
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It’s been months of unrest for workers at RTVA-Canal Sur, Andalusia’s public radio and television station. At the end of November 2020, 400 workers had signed a manifesto against the budget cuts decided by the regional government. To support his argument, the president of the Andalusian junta Juanma Moreno Bonilla had stated several times in interviews that regional television was expensive. But he was defeated by a recent study by the University of Santiago de Compostela, carried out in collaboration with the universities of Valencia, Malaga, Castilla-La Mancha, Barcelona, Madrid, Vigo, Carlos III of Madrid and A Coruña. The report, “Current Panorama and Trends in Public Radio Television in Europe”, shows that the cost for Andalusian citizens is only 16.16 EUR per year, the lowest in Europe. As a whole, Spanish public TV costs citizens 44 EUR per year compared to 160 EUR in Denmark and 113 EUR in the UK.

BELGIUM: Independent radio stations ask for help to broadcast on DAB

Independent Belgium radio stations ask for help to broadcast on dab

MediaSpecs analyzes in detail the problems of independent Belgian radio stations.
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RadioZ, the federation that brings together some 30 independent stations from the Walloon region and Brussels, has appealed to the authorities not to halve funding for the transition to digital radio and to simplify procedures. Independent radio stations are a resource for the media sector: they provide information, support culture and municipal administrations, but above all they are a breeding ground for talent that can then aspire to work in more professional broadcasters. A training job that costs the state nothing, because it does not receive subsidies as, for example, in France. On the contrary, RadioZ denounces the fact that this year several radio associations were refused the annual FACR (Fund for Radio Creation) subsidy due to a lack of resources, used to finance the transition to DAB, which, however, only benefits private networks and the public broadcaster RTBF, which have been broadcasting in digital for more than a year.

You can find all details about DAB in Belgium in our web app at https://www.dablist.org.

URUGUAY: Radio Clarín will not close down

Radio Clarin will not close down
In a report by El Observador magazine, more details on the rescue of the broadcaster
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It would have switched off its transmitter on 31 December 2020, abandoning 580 kHz on medium waves. But the station made famous by its music programming focusing on tango, folklore and typical Uruguayan music continues to transmit. The decision by the owners, who wanted to continue on the web, was overruled by Pablo da Silveira, Minister of Education and Culture, who announced that the government would intervene to temporarily run the station to allow negotiations to take place with potential buyers, who have already come forward. Clarín broadcasts daily about 100 songs by Carlos Gardel, one of the most important interpreters of River Plate and Latin American song. The repertoire is limited to 488 recordings of the highest technical quality so that the same song can be heard every five days.

ITALY: To promote DAB, FM radio reception is being removed from mobile phones

to promote dab, remove FM radio from mobile phone
The magazine Newsline reported about the message displayed by Samsung smartphone to their owners before downloading the new update that would have disabled the FM radio reception
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A boomerang effect has been caused by the government decree that, in order to promote the development of DAB radio, requires radio manufacturers to stop selling devices in 2021 if they were not equipped with a digital receiver. This includes smartphones equipped with an FM tuner. Samsung (which has almost 40% of the market) has circumvented the regulatory requirement by deactivating the FM receiver with a change to its operating system. Moreover, the legislation (which applies only in Italy) would have required manufacturers to fit a digital receiver and antenna only to devices sold in Italy.

While this may seem a necessary action for newly sold devices, it seems pretty strange that it is applied to devices that have been sold before the law came into effect.

FRANCE: 50 years of outstanding radio – FIP

FIP is celebrating the 50th anniversary
FIP is celebrating the 50th anniversary with lots of shows and historical music.
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At 5pm on 5th of January 1971, FIP started to broadcast in Paris on mediumwave 585 kHz as “France Inter Paris”. This was the beginning of an incomparable radio station, which has still no limits in musical variety. You can hear classical music followed by rock music and afterwards some French chanson – but it is never incoherent or without a transition between the songs. It is a surprising and refreshing station that has survived several belt-tightening moves from Radio France.

And there were quite some changes and cuttings in the past 50 years: a lot of local stations of FIP closed in 2000 and the remaining local outlets had to close at the end of 2020. Several outstanding shows were cancelled (like “Dites 33”, where all songs were played from vinyl), the news flash and the traffic information were removed in the last years. Fortunately, they never removed the good music choice and the female announcers, called “Fipettes”, with their famous voices.

But there are some positive developments since FIP started to broadcast on DAB from Lille, Lyon and Paris. With only ten FM frequencies in bigger cities like Paris, Strasbourg and Marseille, FIP is the smallest FM network of Radio France. In the regions where FIP can be received, they have a big audience – hopefully growing with the upcoming nationwide transmission on DAB.

The 50th anniversary will be celebrated by FIP in its programme with a lot of shows and historical music. Today, between 5 pm and 7 pm, the history of FIP will be narrated with music and anecdotes. Starting on the 9th of January at 8 pm, 50 years of music in 50 hours will be presented each Saturday for 50 weeks at this time.

A full programme schedule can be found here: https://www.fip.fr/les-50-ans-de-fip

FIP and its dedicated web channels can be received worldwide via https://www.fip.fr/

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