From: xberri@europa.aero.org (Jason E. Berri) Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave Subject: SCDX 2181 Date: 20 Jul 1993 13:45 -0800 Organization: The Aerospace Corporation Distribution: world Reply-To: xberri@arecibo.aero.org NNTP-Posting-Host: europa.aero.org News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: MediaScan :: :: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS :: :: from Radio Sweden :: :: Number 2181--June 15, 1993 :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Satellite, shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio Sweden. This week's bulletin was written by George Wood. Packet Radio BID SCDX2181 All times UTC unless otherwise noted. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- NORDIC MEDIA NEWS: SWEDEN--At their meeting Monday, the Swedish Radio board voted to take Radio Sweden's services in Spanish and French off the air, as of July 3rd (the last programs will be on July 2nd). In addition, most of our own programming in Swedish will be replaced by relays from Swedish Radio's domestic service. This is because the Swedish Parliament has cut our operating budget next year by a third, two million dollars. After the meeting we asked the chairman of the board, former liberal party cabinet minister Jan-Erik Wikstroem, about the board's priorities in choosing to retain broadcasts in Estonian and Latvian, while dropping world languages French and Spanish? JAN-ERIK WIKSTROEM: This is partly due to the discussion in parliament and due to the fact that we'll get some extra money from the government for this purpose, simply in order to save the broadcasts in Estonian and Latvian. RADIO SWEDEN: This is the first we've heard of this. Is this something new? J-EW: Yes, we have information that we getting one million Swedish kronor (just under USD 150,000) extra. RS: That's for next year, 1994? J-EW: Yes. RS: Sweden is applying to join the European Community, where French is a major language. In fact, the Prime Minister is in Paris right now. Isn't this a rather strange signal to the EC to be cutting off broadcasts in French? J-EW: Yes, but I think you should address that question to the government and parliament, because the money that we spend on Radio Sweden is decided upon by parliament and by government. So we are sorry that we haven't gotten more money from the government for this purpose, but we have to start from the budget that parliament has approved? RS: But you have made a priority decision. You've decided to choose the Baltic languages over Spanish and French. J-EW: Well, we have set our priorities to keep the English and German. RS: You've done just as the Foriegn Ministry wanted, which is rather unprecedented for a government to actually decide program policy. Isn't there a risk here? J-EW: Well, the budget for Swedish Radio is decided upon by parliament, and it's the licence fee that is paying for it, except for Radio Sweden, which is part of the normal state budget. Since it's part of the state budget, it's also quite OK as far as I'm concerned that they give reasons why they allot us an amount of money, and for which purpose they do it. RS: How political is their decision and your decision? Do you think that if we cut broadcasts in Estonian and Latvian right now that would give unfortunately political signals to the rest of the world? J-EW: That may be one explanation. RS: A number of observers have said that the current rush for international broadcasters to place their programs for relay on Eastern European station is a short-term trend. In a few years those Eastern European broadcasters will build up their own media and they'll drop all this foreign programming. Isn't it possible that our Estonian and Latvian will suddenly not have any rebroadcasters in a few years? J-EW: This is a decision for 1993 and 1994. RS: But if we decide that we have to go back to French and Spanish, we'd have to build it up again from scratch. J-EW: Well, the board has decided that we are not going to sack any of the people who are employed by Radio Sweden. So hopefully the competence will be saved in case we new directives for another year. RS: You mentioned licence fees, do you think we're moving towards a situation where licence fees may be used to partially or totally finance Radio Sweden? J-EW: That may be the case. We'll have to wait for the next state budget in January 1994 to see whether the government proposes something like that. I would like to stress that in that case the licence fee would have to be augmented in order to cover the expenses for Radio Sweden. RS: Do you see that as a positive step? Are there advantages or disadvantages in going that way? J-EW: Well, as far as the board is concerned, I think we can accept either solution. But if it is tranferred into licence fees, then we must get new money. Otherwise we'll have to cut in other types of programming that is already being financed by licence fees. For details of a number of new services broadcasting in Spanish, see below. THOR--CNN started scrambling its signals on Norway's Thor satellite in Eurocrypt S on Monday. (CNN) Virtually no one outside of Norway can receive Eurocrypt S, but since they're also using D-MAC, which virtually no one outside of Norway can see either, that may not make much of a difference. EUROPEAN MEDIA NEWS: ASTRA--The Astra 1C satellite is apparently in its final position, as there have been visible tests on a number of transponders. For the last several days, transponder 47 at 11.171 GHz has been carrying a test card, and several other transponders have also been tested. Back when the Eutelsat II-F4 satellite was placed at 16 degrees East last year, just 3 degrees from Astra, there was concern it would interfere with Astra. But now it appears that 1C will interfere with Eutelsat. According to one report, when Astra transponders 46 and 48 were being tested last week, there was a marked degradation in the signal of the Egyptian Space Channel on Eutelsat, which is between the two Astra transponders, and like them is vertically polarized. (Dave, G8UUO) We don't know yet all the channels that will be using the 18 new transponders, or even when they will be starting up. Nickelodeon has announced a start date of September 1st, possibly moved back from October to counter Ted Turner's announcement that his European Cartoon Network will launch on September 14th. ("Sky Guide") The Cartoon Network is to use transponder 47, 11.170 GHz. (Turner Broadcasting) Discovery will be using transponder 41, on 11.082 GHz, with soft-scrambling in videocrypt initially. That means that anyone with a videocrypt decoder will be able to see the channel, just as with UK Gold now. (James Robinson) British Sky Broadcasting has signed an agreement with the American company QVC to start a 24 hour home shopping channel. The service is expected to begin broadcasts on October 1st, presumeably from Astra 1C. QVC is already operating a similar channel during the night on the Eurosport transponder. The company has signed a separate agreement with Groupo Televisa S.A. to bring Spanish-language home shopping to Mexico, Latin America and Spain, and a Portuguese channel to Brazil and Portugal. (James Robinson and AP) EURONET--The lamented satellite radio station Euronet may be returning. According to the Euronet Club's newsletter, the station plans to broadcast on Astra 1C, with a provisional on-air date of November 1st, although test transmissions would start during October. (Richard Hable on Internet News, via Kauto Huopio) ITALY--Radio Europe has been heard testing on 7410 kHz in upper side band, at 22:00-05:00 hrs daily. Power is 150 watts. ("Play-DX" via "Euronews") RUSSIA--Radio Nova Peterburg is a new station on 1359 kHz. ("Play-DX" via "Euronews") The Voice of Assyrians from Radio Moscow can be heard on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 15:00-16:30 hrs on 1170, 1494, and 7305 kHz. Radio Alfa & Omega is on 9865 kHz at 13:00-15:00 hrs. Radio Alef is on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays at 16:00-16:30 hrs on 1170, 1332, 4055, 7305, 12075, and 17890 kHz. Another source says Radio Alef is on the air from 13:00 hrs on 1089, 1170, 1332, 4055, and 7305 kHz. Radio Galaxy is on 11880 kHz at 19:00-22:00 hrs. The current schedule of Radio Vedo in Volgograd is 14:00-18:30 hrs daily on 1467, 7185, 11760, and 13710 kHz , and 05:00-08:00 hrs weekends on 1161, 1467, 5915, and 7125 kHz. Radio Avtovolna is a new station in Moscow, on 1116 kHz at 04:00-07:00 hrs. Radio Voks is another new Moscow station, on 963 kHz. Radio Teos in St. Petersburg is a new station on 1089 kHz, on the air 05:00- 21:00 hrs. ("Orbita" via "Euronews") NORTH AMERICAN MEDIA NEWS: ESPN--The American sports network ESPN will be launching a second network on November 2nd. ESPN2 will feature college basketball, the National Hockey League, volleyball, autoracing, and coverage of such major events as American football's Super Bowl and the Indy 500 auto race. ESPN2 may be telecast internationally. That might cause problems in Europe, where ESPN is part owner of Eurosport. On the other hand, a lot of people here would like to see the ice hockey. (AP) GALAXY--The Ariane launch scheduled for June 9th has been postponed two weeks, but when it does lift, it will carry North America's new Galaxy 4 satellite. This, like Astra 1C, is a Hughes HS-601 spacecraft. It carries 24 transponders each in the Ku and C bands, and will apparently share 99 degrees West with Galaxy 6. Programmers are to include CBS, Warner Brothers, and Worldvision Enterprises. The launch will likely to carried on Galaxy 6 or 7. (AFP, Dean Adams on Internet News via Kauto Huopio) BBC--In SCDX-2179 we reported on plans to use the first permanent digital video link across the Atlantic to relay BBC World Service Television. It was unclear what satellite would be used. An item in "World Broadcast News" makes it clear that Intelsat 513 at 53 degrees West will be used. The "World Satellite Almanac" indicates that the satellite used to further relay signals to Australia is probably Intelsat 508 at 180 degrees East longitude. RADIO--"Spectrum" is a new radio program about communications and technology. It's one the air Sundays at 03:35 hrs UTC on WWCR in Nashville, on 7435 kHz, as well as on satellite via the Let's Talk Radio Network on Spacenet 3 transponder 21, audio 5.8 MHz. (Dave Marthouse) The private American shortwave station WHRI is now available on the Galaxy 6 satellite, transponder 15. The European feed uses the audio subcarrier at 7.46 MHz, the Latin American feed is on 7.35 and an experimental feed to KWHR in Hawaii uses 7.55 MHz. This means you can listen to Glenn Hauser's "World of Radio" program off the satellite on Saturdays at 00:30 and 05:30 hrs and Sundays at 03:00 hrs. (Gary Bourgois, Internet News, via Kauto Huopio) COMPUTER GAMES BY CABLE AND SATELLITE--Viewers in 13 American cities are being offered a chance to download games for Sega's Genesis megadrive games machine, using a special decoder. "The Sega Channel" will provide a choice of 50 titles. The service launches nationally in the United States during the Third Quarter of the year. Sega is rumored to be seeking access to a transponder on Astra, for a European service next year. ("Sky Guide") NEW SERVICES IN SPANISH: RADIO MIAMI INTERNATIONAL--Radio Miami International was one of the stations represented at the recent European DX Council conference. RMI is the brainchild of radio veteran Jeff White. Until now, they've worked as brokers, placing programming from Miami's many exile groups on private shortwave stations in the United States. But now, as Jeff told us, they're about to go on the air with their own 50 kW transmitter, with the call letters WRMI. JEFF WHITE: It seems like finally at long last we're about to go on the air. Hopefully during June, although I've given up on predicting the exact date. There's always some delay or another. But hopefully within the month of June on 9955 kHz. RADIO SWEDEN: What kind of programming will we be hearing on that frequency? JW: Right we've got about 14 hours a day of programming on the air on in Spanish, Haitian Creole, and English, that is currently being broadcast on WHRI in Indiana and WRNO in New Orleans. Some of that programming will probably go over to the new station, WRMI. Some of it will probably stay where it is. In addition to that, we're planning to start at least an hour a day in the very beginning of our own programming, in English and Spanish. Which means a half hour in English and a half hour in Spanish, of a program which we've tentatively titled "Viva Miami", which works in both Spanish and English. It will be news, interviews, music that's popular in Miami, all about Miamia and the state of Florida, in a non-controversial, non-political, entertainment- oriented program. RS: Whereas all the rest of the your programming is very controversial? JW: Well...with possibly one exception, Glenn Hauser's "DX Daily" (which since we recorded the interview has gone off the air, but will hopefully return after the Summer). Being in Miami, we have a large number of refugees from various Latin American countries. A lot of groups want to broadcast back to their countries, mainly Cuba and Haiti in our case. But there are sorts of new things happening in Latin America all the time. So, in the interest of free speech and commercialism, we sell them airtime. RS: Your programming is aimed at Latin America. Is there any way Europeans can tune in and hear anything? JW: We'll see, I'm interested to know, actually. The antenna is a corner reflector, and it's aimed exactly 160 degrees from Miami, which means south- southeast, basically towards Montevideo, Uruguay. It should cover most of the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. Now off the back of the beam, it's going basically towards Chicago. So probably in large parts of North America the signal will be audible too. Europe is sort of right off the side of the beam, it's not really beaming over this way. But shortwaves are strange and they go off in all sorts of directions, and I'm sure that we'll reports at some time or another. RS: You also have a project down in Honduras? JW: That's Radio Copan International. It's a joint project we have with Radio Stereo Amistad in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. We put it on the air with a small transmitter, I think it's about 100 watts, several months ago and did some tests. We frankly weren't very happy with the results. It was just using a simple dipole antenna at the time. But we've just sent a beam antenna down to Honduras, cut for the 15,675 kHz frequency. And that will be beamed right up towards North America, and I guess probably Europe. So hopefully that will provide a better signal. That programming will be entirely different from anything that goes out from WRMI. We don't have a really clearly defined program format for Radio Copan yet, and we'll be doing quite a few tests as soon as this antenna gets installed in Honduras. SPAIN--Radiotelevision Espanola's Canal Iberoamericano Television will use Spain's Hispasat satellite to reach Latin America. 18 hours a day of broadcasts from Valencia are to begin during the third quarter of this year. (BBC Monitoring) USA--BBC World Service Television, Reuters, and Telemundo are negotiating on creating a 24 hour Spanish-language news service for Latin America, Spain, and the United States. Telemundo currently operates a Spanish language channel on the Spacenet 2 satellite which by satellite and cable reaches 85 percent of the Hispanic households in the United States. The new channel would broadcast from Miami by satellite and cable, and would start later this year. (Reuters, AP) HBO--The American pay-film channel Home Box Office plans to launch a Spanish- language version of its regular schedule of movies, original programming, and sports to major Hispanic markets in the United States. "HBO en Espanol" will be available in October in San Francisco, Houston, Albuquerque, El Paso, and San Diego. There's no word yet if satellite TVRO owners will be able to subscribe. ("Satellite Journal" via Kauto Huopio) MEXICO/USA--Grupo Televisa and the the largest cable operator in the US, TCI, have agreed to form a joint venture to provide cable, pay-TV, and multi- channel television to Mexico and other Latin American countries. ("Satellite Journal" via Kauto Huopio) So, while Spanish language radio from Sweden is about to disappear, there many other players who see a future in the Hispanic market. ASIAN MEDIA NEWS: STAR-TV--The Hong Kong-based Star-TV has announced agreements to serve households in Malaysia, Thailand, and Egypt. Star is also opening eight new business offices in Asia: in Tokyo, Dubai, Bangalore, Calcutta, and the Chinese cities of Chengdu, Shanghai, Beijing, and Canton. It already has offices in Singapore, Taipei, Bombay, and New Delhi. The offices are to handle distribution, pay-TV services, program-buying, and advertising. Agreements are also about to be signed to distribute Star's programs in Sri Lanka and the Gulf states. The company says that its satellite range covers 38 Asian countries and that surveys in 12 of those countries show an audience of more than 45 million people. (AP and "International Herald Tribune") PUBLICATIONS: TROPICAL BANDS SURVEY--Last week we reported on the recent annual conference of the European DX Council. The EDXC meeting also sees the annual launch of some very interesting booklets for the shortwave listener from the Danish Shortwave Clubs International. The Tropical Bands Survey lists all the active broadcasting stations between 2 and 5.9 MHz, by frequency, and including location and transmission hours. It's invaluable for people who enjoy listening to stations in the Tropics and Third World. The "Clandestine Stations List" contains the latest on all active clandestine stations on shortwave, including schedule, political organization, language, and address. It's also a very useful tool for shortwave hobbyists. The Clandestine list is available for 7 International Reply Coupons, the Tropical Bands Survey for 9 IRCs, from: DSWCI, DK-2670 Greve, Denmark. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sweden Calling DXers is the world's oldest radio program for shortwave listeners. Radio Sweden has presented this round-up of radio news, features, and interviews on Tuesdays since 1948. Radio Sweden broadcasts in English: Europe and Africa: 17:30 hrs on 1179, 6065, and 9645 kHz 21:00 hrs on 1179, 6065 and 9655 kHz and 22:30 hrs on 1179 and 6065 kHz Middle East and East Africa: 15:00 hrs on 15190 kHz and 17:30 hrs on 15270 kHz Asia and the Pacific: 12:30 hrs on 15240 and 21500 kHz 22:30 hrs on 11910 kHz and 01:00 hrs on 9695 and 11820 kHz To North America: 15:00 hrs on 15240 and 21500 kHz and 02:00 hrs on 9695 and 11705 kHz The broadcasts at 12:30, 17:30, 21:00, and 22:30 hrs are also relayed to Europe by satellite: Astra 1B (19.2 degrees East) transponder 26 (Sky Movies Gold/TV Asia/Adult Channel) at 11.597 GHz, audio subcarrier at 7.74 MHz, Tele-X (5 degrees East) (TV4 transponder) at 12.207 GHz, audio subcarrier 7.38 MHz. Contributions can be sent to DX Editor George Wood by fax to +468-667-6283, from Internet, MCI Mail or CompuServe (to the CompuServe mailbox 70247,3516), through the FidoNet system to 2:201/697 or to SM0IIN at the packet radio BBS SM0ETV. Reports can also be sent to: Radio Sweden S-105 10 Stockholm Sweden Contributions should be NEWS about electronic media--from shortwave to satellites--and not loggings of information already available from sources such as the "World Radio TV Handbook". Clubs and DX publications may reprint material as long as MediaScan/Sweden Calling DXers and the original contributor are acknowledged, with the exception of items from BBC Monitoring, which are copyright. We welcome comments and suggestions about the electronic edition, Sweden Calling DXers, and our programs in general. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to this week's contributors Good Listening!