Radio Reporter – Page 9 – World Radio and TV News

February 24, 2022February 24, 2022

UKRAINE: TENSIONS RUN HIGH EVEN OVER THE AIRWAVES

TENSIONS RUN HIGH EVEN OVER THE AIRWAVES IN UKRAINE — Army FM is created by the Ukrainian army to counter pro-Russian propaganda in war zones. The signal is broadcast in the eastern regions by a network of 28 transmitters. The editorial office is located in the former Red Army headquarters in Kiev
Source

The pressure exerted by Russia on the former Soviet Republic is taking place on many fronts: from the military one, with the deployment of troops at the borders, to disinformation, which travels on social networks but also on the airwaves. Today the 7 MHz band, reserved for radio amateurs, is flooded with propaganda messages or messages denigrating radio operators on both sides. Francesco Cecconi discusses these messages on the Radio Hernica website, putting them into historical perspective (during the Cold War, Radio Tirana raged over the amateur radio bands). He then discusses the manoeuvres implemented by radio amateurs to counter “The Buzzer”, the Russian system that broadcasts encrypted messages on short waves, Army FM, a Ukrainian station created to counter Russian transmissions, and Vesti FM, a Russian channel broadcast from Moldavia. Audio documents with recordings of pirate broadcasts complete the in-depth analysis.

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February 12, 2022February 12, 2022

MORE CUTS FOR RADIO THAT SPEAKS TO CUBANS

The station is financed through Usagm (U.S. Agency for Global Media), which also oversees the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa — The station is financed through USAGM (U.S. Agency for Global Media), which also oversees the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa
Source

The US disengagement also has implications for propaganda radio stations. Such as Radio y TV Martí, a radio and television station based in Miami, Florida, and aimed at the Cuban people. The Biden administration had made an initial cut of 10 million dollars, and now another is on the horizon, which would also include a reduction in personnel. Many politicians of Cuban-American origin, from Senator Marco Rubio to some members of the Florida House of Representatives, have risen up against the decision.

A report by Diario Las Américas, a Spanish-language Florida daily, can be read here.

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January 29, 2022January 25, 2022

PALESTINE: RADIO STATION ALSO SPEAKS HEBREW AND SEEKS ISRAELI LISTENERS

Jerusalem24 is a Palestinian station broadcasting from Ramallah on 106.1 MHz. Established in May 2021, and inaugurated on 7 October 2021, it’s funded by the European Union to cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and talk about the impact on the lives of people in the territories. The editors say they criticise both Israel and the Palestinian Authority “but in a professional way“. The programmes and website are in English, but news bulletins are broadcast in Hebrew with the intention of seeking Israeli “ears”, to give them a chance to hear another voice. A voice that speaks to them about the segregation of Palestinians and the daily difficulties they face, such as power cuts or long waiting times at checkpoints for border workers.

A success story

The station is linked to the Jerusalem24 news site of the same name
Source

Jerusalem24 is owned by Afkar Productions Company, a company founded in 2014 by a group of young journalists. The business started with the multimedia platform “24FM“, which was created to disseminate professional information and became one of the most popular radio stations. Later Afkar started a news website and 7 years later created an English-language radio station linked to the “Jerusalem24″ website.

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January 20, 2022January 17, 2022

POLAND: STOP TO THE NEW MEDIA LAW

TVN is perceived by Polish citizens as a free voice, so much so that some of the demonstrators in favour of media freedom carried signs with the station’s logo.
Source

Polish President Andrzej Duda has vetoed the media law passed by the nationalist government, believing that it would be unpopular and undermine the confidence of foreign investors. The measure required companies to reduce their stake in radio and TV stations to 49% to ensure that no non-European companies could control the media that help shape public opinion. The loser would be U.S.-based Discovery, which was forced to relinquish control of TVN, the country’s most important network and the largest U.S. investment in Poland. Many Poles perceived the move by the ruling party (Law and Justice, on whose positions the president is aligned) as an attempt to silence TVN24, an inconvenient station with an evening news program watched by millions of people.

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December 30, 2021December 30, 2021

TUNISIA: ZITOUNA INCORPORATED IN THE NATIONAL RADIO STATION

Religious broadcaster Zitouna FM has joined the group of Tunisian national radio stations. Founded in 2007 by Sakher El Materi, son-in-law of then-President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, it was confiscated after the revolution of 14 January 2011. Ten years later, the station was officially incorporated into the National Radio Authority. On the Tunisian radio portal, however, it is not yet listed among the stations that can be listened to online, which include Radio Nationale, RTCI (Radio Tunis Chaîne Internationale), Radio Jeunes, Radio Culturelle, Radio Sfax, Radio Monastir, Radio El Kef, Radio Gafsa, Radio Tataouine.

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December 28, 2021December 23, 2021

USA: CHRISTIAN RADIO LISTENERS SCAMMED FOR MILLIONS OF DOLLARS

In YouTube ads, he claimed to be a guru who had led more than a thousand clients to financial independence. But in reality, William Neil ‘Doc’ Gallagher was a fraudster, advertising his financial services from a Christian Protestant radio station in North Texas. With commercials promising returns of between 6 and 8%, he had convinced about two hundred pensioners, listeners of the Christian radio station, to entrust him with 32 million dollars, most of which he ‘burned’ in personal expenses. Financially, nothing new: Gallagher applied the classic ‘Ponzi scheme’, paying interest with money collected from new clients until the castle collapsed. The novelty lies in the fact that Gallagher exploited the notoriety and credibility of the Christian broadcasters (followed in the States by more than 20 million believers) to get rich. But in the end, justice presented him with his bill: the ‘money doctor’, now in his 80s, will have to serve three life sentences, in addition to the 25 years, he was sentenced to in 2020 by a Dallas court.

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December 23, 2021December 20, 2021

SWITZERLAND: DAB COVERAGE FURTHER IMPROVED

Despite the fact that DAB+ signals already reach 99 % of the population in Switzerland, as required by the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM), the public broadcaster has further expanded the digital network in Italian and French-speaking Switzerland. Between 2020 and 2021, ten new transmitters were activated and twelve others were optimized. Improvements were made in the cantons of Jura, in the northwest of the country, and Ticino, located almost entirely south of the Alps, where the network was further expanded at the beginning of 2021 with the activation of the installation in Cardada. In Switzerland, the digital signal is also broadcast in tunnels longer than 300 meters: the list of the 193 road tunnels covered by DAB+ signals can be consulted on broadcast.ch.

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December 21, 2021December 20, 2021

USA: NO MEDIUM WAVE RADIO ON ELECTRIC CARS?

The abandonment of thermic engines is a mandatory goal to reduce CO2 emissions. The automotive industry is getting ready and among the aspects that are being discussed, there is also radio listening. On electric cars, HF interference is generated primarily by the frequency converter, a device that controls the amount of power delivered by the electric motor by turning the voltage on and off thousands of times per second. This generates signals that fall in the medium wave broadcast band: electrical noises (such as distortion and crackling) similar to those emitted by smartphones, TVs, computers, vacuum cleaners and hair dryers. In addition, static electricity, which creates crackles, increases with the power of the motors. So much so that some manufacturers, such as BMW, Mini, Tesla and Volkswagen have eliminated the AM band on their current cars. Others, like General Motors, are studying the problem, but the solution isn’t around the corner. Xperi Corporation, a leading digital radio company, whose HD Radio standard (a patent it owns) is used both in the FM and AM band, claims that its transmission system is not afraid of interference. And it presented test results at NAB Broadcast Engineering and Information Technology, the annual conference of American broadcasters. According to Pooja Nair, an engineer at Xperi Corporation, a fully digital AM signal resists interference much better than an analogue one.

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December 16, 2021December 16, 2021

FRANCE: VIVENDI ACCELERATES THE “TAKEOVER” OF LAGARDÈRE

Vincent Bolloré, patron of the Vivendi group, should retire in February 2022: it is assumed that accelerating the Opa on Lagardère tries to fix the company before leaving the helm to his children
Source

The conquest of the French media group by the Breton financier Vincent Bolloré is approaching its final stages. The Opa (the takeover bid aimed at shareholders to invite them to sell their shares to the company that would like to take control), initially scheduled for December 15, 2022, has been brought forward to February 2022. Vivendi will take control of Radio Europe 1, the RMF and Virgin Radio networks and the publishing houses Hachette and Editis. The Antitrust Authority and the CSA (Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel) have yet to pronounce on the acquisition. They could impose the sale of certain assets in the book sector, particularly in France, because with the acquisition of the two big names in publishing and book distribution in France, Vivendi would have a dominant position. This and other aspects are discussed in the Italian monthly Prima Comunicazione, specialized in the world of publishing.

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December 5, 2021December 6, 2021

FRANCE: LAGARDÈRE CLOSES THREE LOCAL SITES OF VIRGIN RADIO AND RFM

The Lagardère group has unveiled a plan to redeploy 30 journalists and 4 presenters involved in closing 26 Virgin Radio and four RFM locations. Ownership attributes the need for the cuts to the music broadcasters’ declining audience due to competition from streaming platforms. But the CFDT union disputes this, attributing the crisis to the group’s management problems, as the other major generalist radio stations have not lost listeners. On the contrary, the stations that will be closed have sent €3.6 million in dividends to the Lagardère group in 2020.

We have already discussed the crisis at the Lagardère Group here and here.

Desertification risk

Closing the network’s regional offices also reduces news coverage in certain territories, particularly rural areas, which are already under stress due to the crisis: since 2009, the number of journalists has fallen by 10%
Source

In the communiqué issued by the union, the workers are acknowledged for their dedication to working as presenters in the morning, especially in “isolated editorial offices“, with net salaries of less than 1,900 euros per month. And fearing the danger of information desertification in certain areas, particularly rural ones, the CSA (Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel) is asked to monitor the merger in progress within the group and compliance with agreements. Indeed, operators are obliged to open local offices in order to broadcast local advertising. ”Certainly, shareholders dream of radio stations without journalists or presenters, but the media will die that way.”

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