From WOOD@stab.sr.se
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 1994 14:07:47 +0100
From: George Wood <WOOD@stab.sr.se>
To: thomas@acat.oden.tips.se, andy.sennitt@almac.co.uk, ab5sm@netcom.com,
hermod.pedersen@swedx.ct.se, kauto.huopio@lut.fi, kenta@sr.se,
ar416@freenet.buffalo.edu, bignoise@cix.compulink.co.uk,
tstader@aol.com, satnews@cix.compulink.co.uk, 100121.655@compuserve.com,
71163.1735@compuserve.com, 70630.560@compuserve.com,
100113.1517@compuserve.com, 76703.407@compuserve.com,
3382983@mcimail.com, 2446376@mcimail.com, jpdonnio@dialup.francenet.fr,
scdx@get.pp.se, tp6@evansville.edu, martyn@euro.demon.co.uk
Subject: scdx2214.asc
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:: MediaScan ::
:: SWEDEN CALLING DXERS ::
:: from Radio Sweden ::
:: Number 2214--Dec. 20, 1994 ::
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Satellite, shortwave and other electronic media news from Radio Sweden.
This week's bulletin was written by George Wood.
Packet Radio BID SCDX2214
All times UTC unless otherwise noted.
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RADIO IN CYBERSPACE:
WILLIAM GIBSON--In today's program we're once again exploring radio in
Cyberspace, or more specifically, on the Internet.
Author William Gibson is best known for his breakthrough science fiction
novel from 1984, "Neuromancer", where he invented the whole concept of
Cyberspace, the place where telephone calls and computer communications take
place. He was here in Stockholm recently, in connection with the publication
of the Swedish edition of his latest novel, "Virtual Light". Two extracts
from his interview with Per Gustavsson of Swedish Radio's Science Department
were included in the program.
Gibson says once an interview like this would have stayed within Sweden. Now,
he expects to see bits of it appearing on the Internet, illustrating how
information now spreads itself around the world.
We've just made his statement come true. Not only are his words winging there
way around the world via shortwave and satellite, they are also now available
on the Internet, since you are reading this. And since MediaScan is available
as a sound file on the Net, the sound of Gibson's voice is also on the Net as
well.
RADIO SWEDEN--You can find us wherever Internet Multicasting can be found,
but the primary upload site is ftp.funet.fi, where we can be found in the
section pub, sounds, RadioSweden, Mediascan.
This is the first radio program from Sweden on the Internet, but now Swedish
Radio is busily setting up its own Internet World Wide Web server. In today's
program we also interviewed Lars Beijar, who is charge of the project. The
Swedish Radio WWW-server is to be in operation by March 1. At that time, 5
minute newscasts from the News Department and other departments here in
Stockholm, along with 1 local radio station, Radio Kronoberg in Vaexsjoe,
should be available for public access over the Net. Within a month of the
start, Lars Beijar hopes the have the other 23 local radio stations included.
Newscasts from Radio Sweden and the Immigrant Languages Department will also
be available.
WRN--You should be able to access Radio Sweden online in another way soon.
The World Radio Network, which relays us and 21 other international
broadcasters on satellite to Europe and North America, is working with
Internet Multicasting in Washington DC, the same service that is carrying
"MediaScan", to offer the entire WRN output on the Internet.
LIVE RADIO--All of this Internet activity concerns sound files. There is some
live radio and video on the Net, via a service called the MBONE. But now the
first 24 hour live radio station has appeared on the MBONE. This is a student
station at the University of North Caroline in Chapel Hill, WXYC, who are
taking their current one the air FM signal and putting it on the Net.
For more information about what they are up to, and the equipment needed to
tune in, you can check out their World Wide Web page, which is:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/wxyc
And Radio Sweden may be joining WXYC live on the Internet. Lars Beijar also
has plans for live radio from Sweden via the MBONE. After the WWW-server is
running, the next project is live radio from Sweden. For copyright purposes,
Radio Sweden will probably be the first programming offered.
EUROPEAN SATELLITE NEWS:
ASTRA--The new Astra 1D satellite is in position, and there are test patterns
on transponders 54 and 60. Unfortunately, there seems to be a major problem
at Astra's headquarters in Luxembourg. With the satellite due to go into
service at the end of this month, Astra had said it would be announcing what
broadcasters would be on the satellite on December 14th.
But the 14th arrived, and all that has been heard from Luxembourg is silence.
Apparently there are legal problems involved in allocating the extremely
valuable Astra transponders. The only one we know about for sure is TV Asia,
which is starting on transponder 54 in January. It will continue in parallel
on the Sky Movies Gold transponder 26 for one month.
"What Satellite TV" magazine, which has published a highly questionable list
of 1D channels, since hardly any were in German, has come up with some more
reasonable speculation. This is that Holland's RTL-4 will move to 1D, as will
Switzerland's pay channel Teleclub. RTL's transponder 13 on Astra 1A would be
taken over by the new RTL Super/German Disney Channel.
The French-German cultural channel Arte is also said to have a good chance to
move to Astra. ("What Satellite TV")
When Teleclub moves, it will be replaced on Astra transponder 6 by Germany's
Kabel Kanal, under the new name of Cable One. There are also reports that,
despite all the denials, NBC Super Channel is rumored to be moving to Astra,
and transponder 60. (James Robinson and Bertil Sundberg in "Paa TV")
Disney is reported to be negotiating with British Sky Broadcasting to launch
an English version of the Disney Channel that would be offered only to
subscribers of Sky's two movie channels. If this is true, it means European
viewers would be denied the Disney Channel in English, and British viewers
would be forced to take the entire Sky package. Disney is likely to share
transponder 26 for 16 hours a day with Sky Movies Gold, but wouldn't begin
until the Fall. Talk about a Nightmare Before Christmas....("Tele-Satellit",
James Robinson and "USA Today" via Michael Murray)
The deal for ITN to supply Sky News has broken down, apparently because Sky
wanted to continue to use it's own presenters. ("What Satellite TV")
Sky One is going 24 hours from January, by programming music every night
between 02:00 and 06:00 hrs. (James Robinson) If they program European-only
music this could considerably boost their "European programming" statistics
with the European Union (that is, French) "Europe-only" hardliners.
Ted Turner is said to be in talks with Time-Warner with a view to forming a
separate pay-TV package for Europe. News, cartoons, and feature films would
form the backbone of the package. ("Whar Satellite TV") Turner offer this
already. What more is coming?
INTELSAT--A new global TV news nework began on December 1st. Telenoticias is
a Spanish-language news channel that is transmitting to Spain, along with
North, Central, and South America. In Europe it is also available in the
clear on Intelsat-K, on 11.531 GHz.
Sweden's new TV1000 Cinema will begin broadcasts on Intelsat 702 on 11.473
GHz, beginning on December 24th. It will be encoded in D2-MAC, Eurocrypt M,
and free to subscribers to TV1000. ("Paa TV")
TURKSAT--Show-TV has disappeared from Eutelsat II-F2. It is now on Turksat on
11.144 GHz. This is supposed to be the European beam but it is terribly weak
here in Stockholm (worse than Nile TV, which is saying a lot). This does not
bode well for the Turksat European beam.
ARIANE/EUTELSAT/TV-SAT--The failed Ariane launch on December 1st not only
destroyed the Panamsat-3 satellite, it also put back the Ariane program,
while an investigation is carried out. This means the next launch, with
Eutelsat's Hot Bird satellite, won't be until March or April, at the
earliest. It had been rumored that Eutelsat might try to fill the gap by
buying Germany's TV-SAT direct broadcast satellite. Other speculation has
concerned the Swedish Space Corporation, which wants more capacity to
complement Tele-X and Sirius at 5 degrees East.
But according to one reliable source, TV-Sat has been sold to India. (Bertil
Sundberg in "Paa TV")
EUTELSAT--There is a new station on Eutelsat II-F1 evenings, in Slovak,
called "Sky Channel". It is no relation to BSkyB. (James Robinson)
Eutelsat has placed an order for Hot Bird-3. It will be built by the British-
French company Matra Marconi Aerospace. (Tele-Satellit)
AFRICAN SATELLITE NEWS:
NAMIBIA--Multichoice Namibia is introducing 5 more channels to subscribers:
K-TV/Super Sport, Bop Television, Television One, and CNN. (BBC Monitoring)
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Sweden Calling DXers/MediaScan is the world's oldest radio program about
international broadcasting. Radio Sweden has presented this round-up of radio
news, features, and interviews on Tuesdays since 1948. It's currently
broadcast on the first and third Tuesdays of the month.
Radio Sweden broadcasts in English:
Europe:
17:15 hrs 1179 and 6065 kHz
18:30 1179, 6065, 9655, and 13690 kHz (also Africa/Middle East)
21:30 1179, 6065, and 9655 kHz (also Africa/Middle East)
22:30 1179 and 6065 kHz
23:30 1179 kHz
Asia/Pacific:
12:30 hrs 13775, 15120, and 15240 kHz
23:30 11910 kHz
01:30 9895 and 11695 kHz
North America:
13:30 and 14:30 hrs on 11650 and 15240 kHz
02:30 and 03:30 hrs on 6200 and 7120 kHz
Latin America:
00:30 hrs on 6065 and 6200 kHz
The broadcasts at 17:15 and 18:30 hrs are also relayed to Europe by
satellite:
Astra 1B (19.2 degrees East) transponder 26 (Sky Movies Gold) at
11.597 GHz, audio subcarrier at 7.74 MHz,
Tele-X (5 degrees East) via TV5 Nordic at 12.475 GHz, audio subcarrier
7.38 MHz.
Radio Sweden is also relayed to Europe via the World Radio Network on VH-1's
transponder 22 on Astra, audio 7.38 MHz, daily at 20:00 hrs UTC.
Radio Sweden can also be heard on WRN's North American service on Galaxy-5,
on WTBS's transponder 6, audio 6.8 MHz, daily at 00:00 and 20:00 hrs.
Sound files of Mediascan are archived at:
ftp.funet.fi:pub/sounds/RadioSweden/Mediascan.
If you access to the WorldWide Web, you can also find the programs among the
offerings of Internet Talk Radio at:
ftp://town.hall.org/radio/Mirrors/RadioSweden/MediaScan
Contributions can be sent to DX Editor George Wood by fax to +468-667-6283,
via the Internet to wood@stab.sr.se, from MCI Mail or CompuServe to the
CompuServe mailbox 70247,3516, 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.
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Thanks to this week's contributors Good Listening!