shortWWWave

international radio and podcasting

Fiji orders Radio Australia transmitters off the air

Posted by Paul • Thursday, April 16. 2009 • Category: shortwave radio
In a move that will have every shortwave enthusiast saying "I told you so", Fiji's military dictatorship has ordered Radio Australia's local FM transmitters to be shut down.

International broadcasters worldwide have being scaling back their shortwave services, preferring to set up local transmitters in their target countries, seemingly oblivious to the fact that those transmitters will only continue to function as long as the local government remained friendly.

Radio Australia is fortunate that it still operates shortwave services to this region, but this should come as a hard lesson to all international broadcasters that local FM radio is no substitute for shortwave radio.

WRTH 2008 Update Supplement 2 released

Posted by Paul • Thursday, May 15. 2008 • Category: shortwave radio
The World Radio TV Handbook have released their second update for 2008.

Continue reading "WRTH 2008 Update Supplement 2 released"

Special QSL card from Radio Prague

Posted by Paul • Wednesday, May 14. 2008 • Category: shortwave radio
Radio Prague have announced the release of a special QSL card, celebrating the 85th anniversary of the commencement of regular broadcasts from Czech Radio.

To get one of your own, listen to their broadcast on May 18th, 2008 and then send a reception report to: Radio Praha, Vinohradská 12, 120 99 Praha 2, Česká Republika.

Final two days for Kol Israel in English

Posted by Paul • Sunday, March 30. 2008 • Category: shortwave radio
After years of threats, it looks like Israel's international shortwave broadcaster, Kol Israel, will cease shortwave broadcasts of all languages other than Farsi on March 31st.

English, French and Spanish broadcasts can continue to be heard over the internet, with the following schedule:











Time (UTC)Language
0430-0445English
0445-0500French
1030-1045English
1100-1115French
1800-1815French
1815-1830Spanish
1830-1845English



The Israel Broadcast Authority (IBA) website still carries the for the last two days of broadcasts. If you're interested in catching them, the English schedule is:







Time (UTC)Frequency
0430-04459345, 7545, 17600
1030-104515760, 13855
1830-18456985, 7545, 15640, 9345



The IBA also operates a number of domestic radio networks, which are available to international listeners via the internet:

More BBC shortwave cutbacks

Posted by Paul • Tuesday, March 18. 2008 • Category: shortwave radio


The BBC has announced that it will be closing shortwave transmissions to the Carribean and reducing transmissions to East and South-East Asia, from March 23rd and March 30th, respectively.

There will no longer be any shortwave broadcasts to East and South-East between 10am and 5pm, and midnight and 2am, local time. Listeners are expected to use satellite, the internet or local FM repeaters, although we're not quite sure how they are supposed to do this if they're hiking through a remote jungle.

End is nigh for BBC World Service Europe transmissions

Posted by Paul • Tuesday, February 12. 2008 • Category: shortwave radio
The BBC World Service have announced on their website that the remaining shortwave transmissions to Europe will end on February 18th.

For anyone who relies on these broadcasts, they provide some alternatives, although suggestions of cable and satellite broadcasts aren't really going to be of much use to European travellers relying on the BBC for news broadcasts, when they're on the road. With the increased potential for Kosovo to become a flashpoint, this may leave a good number of people in the dark, and it strikes me as a particularly short-sighted move.

Radio Sweden to stop German radio broadcasts.

Posted by Paul • Tuesday, February 5. 2008 • Category: domestic radio, shortwave radio


After 69 years on air (note: German text), Radio Sweden will be closing its German shortwave and mediumwave broadcasts on March 30th, 2008.

According to the report, the German service has been particularly successful on the internet, so a podcast and on-demand service will remain at www.radioschweden.net. This popularity has come at the expense of the shortwave broadcasts, however, where listener numbers have dropped dramatically.

Radio Sweden's German podcasts are available here.

ABC Darwin streaming online

Posted by Paul • Sunday, December 2. 2007 • Category: domestic radio, shortwave radio, streaming
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's local station in Darwin, 105.7 ABC Darwin, is now streaming online meaning that now, local ABC stations in all state and territory capital cities are available via the internet.

ABC Darwin carries many of the programs broadcast on VL8A, VL8K and VL8T, Australia's only remaining domestic shortwave transmitters.

The Week Ahead, July 14th, 2007

Posted by Paul • Saturday, July 14. 2007 • Category: shortwave radio
The first of a weekly update, looking at the highlights on international radio in the week ahead.

Radio Netherlands starts the week with Amsterdam Forum, on Sunday, asking experts on what can be done to bring stability to Afghanistan; and Flatlanders, on Tuesday, looks at what's hot in Dutch and European music, as they do once every month.

On the BBC World Service, this week's World Drama is Talking to Strangers by Charlotte Jones, while over on Radio Australia, Match Night Asia covers the Asian Cup soccer finals.

Finally, Deutsche Welle's Concert Hour features Heroic Music by Richard Strauss, performed by recent music graduates.

Radio St Helena broadcast on July 17.

Posted by Paul • Thursday, July 12. 2007 • Category: domestic radio, shortwave radio
From newsgroup rec.radio.shortwave comes the news that Radio St Helena will be on the air on Tuesday, July 17th, on a frequency of 11092.5 kHz, USB, from 1900 until 2100 UTC.

They only very rarely make shortwave broadcasts, so it's always good to get another chance to catch them on-air.

Japan to launch new broadcasts to North Korea

Posted by Paul • Thursday, July 12. 2007 • Category: domestic radio, shortwave radio
OneLoveRadio writes that Japan plans to begin daily shortwave programs for abductees in North Korea.

There are estimates of around 60 to 80 Japanese citizens who were abducted by North Korea, for the purposes of teaching Japanese language and culture to North Korean spies.

Iceland leaves shortwave

Posted by Paul • Tuesday, July 10. 2007 • Category: domestic radio, shortwave radio, streaming
MT Shortwave Central notes that RUV in Iceland ended its shortwave relays on July 1st.

RUV's two stations can still be heard, streaming in the internet: Rás 1 and Rás 2.

Zimbabwe to start a new twenty-four hour shortwave news service

Posted by Paul • Sunday, April 15. 2007 • Category: domestic radio, shortwave radio

It's not often that we hear of a new shortwave service starting, but it appears that Zimbabwe might be doing just that, according to VOA. "News 24/7" is scheduled to start on April 18th, and will be funded by Iran.


65 years of VOA

Posted by Paul • Sunday, February 25. 2007 • Category: domestic radio, shortwave radio

The Voice of America turned 65 yesterday.



VOA broadcasts in over 40 languages, and claims that it reaches an audience of 100 million people. Many of its programs are available online as streaming webcasts, and a number are also available as downloadable podcasts.



VOA also has two live audio streams, one for the News Now service, the other for the VOA Africa service.



Program guides for these services can be found here.


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