shortWWWave

international radio and podcasting

Road test: internet radio

Posted by Paul • Tuesday, April 15. 2008 • Category: streaming
While shortwave radio - at least in English - is declining, internet radio is booming. It was only a matter of time before listeners decided that they didn't want to be tied to their computer to listen to it. The Sydney Morning Herald has published a review of four internet radios: the Grundig IR6114, the Bush TR2015R, the ASUS Internet Radio and the Pinnacle Soundbridge Radio. Thanks to newtaste of aus.radio.broadcast for the reference.





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.

BBC launches BBC Arabic TV Service

Posted by Paul • Friday, March 14. 2008 • Category: satellite tv


The BBC have started a publicly funded Arabic language international TV service, which is freely available on satellite and cable within the Middle East and North Africa.

Currently it will broadcast for just twelve hours a day, from 1000 UTC to 2200 UTC, but the intention is to run a 24-hour service later in the year. Funding for the station is from a government grant and savings made by closing the BBC World Service's Eastern European radio services.

The station's website can be found at bbcarabic.com.

Australia's Nine-HD to start on March 17th

Posted by Paul • Monday, March 10. 2008 • Category: terrestrial tv


The Australian Financial Review newspaper is reporting today that the Nine Network's High Definition service will begin multichannel programming on Monday March 17th.

Nine's rivals, the Seven and Ten networks, started their own HD multichannel services at the end of 2007, but Nine has been going through a number of difficulties with management and poorly-rating programs in recent times, has been slow to follow suit.

When launched, the service will consist of time shifted programming from its main channel, in addition to new programming. It remains to be seen how much the HD channel will differ from the existing standard definition broadcasts; Seven and Ten's HD services have been somewhat disappointing, with separate programming confined mostly to late nights.

The article also mentions that all three networks are planning for their second standard definition services, which will be allowed to air from January 2009, under current Australian broadcasting legislation.

Previously: Ten HD launches in Australia and Seven Network Commences multichannelling

7HO gets its lucky number back

Posted by Paul • Sunday, February 17. 2008 • Category: domestic radio


After a number of years known as "HOFM", Hobart's original commercial radio station has returned to its original name from 1931 of 7HO. This goes against the trend of radio stations in Australia to drop the digits from their callsigns which reflect the state in which they are broadcasting (in this case, the seven refers to Tasmania).

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.

Fiji radio now streaming.

Posted by Paul • Friday, February 8. 2008 • Category: domestic radio, streaming
The Fiji Broadcasting Corporation has taken leaps and bounds to improve its website, over the last year, and now all of its six radio stations are streaming over the internet. This now gives the rest of the world a great opportunity to hear from a country that has been rather inaccessible on the radio bands up until now.

The stations are:

Radio Fiji 1: News, weather, culture, religious programs in Fijian and English. [Stream]

Radio Fiji 2: News and information in Hindi. [Stream]

Bula FM: Popular local and international music, in Fijian. [Stream]

Radio Mirchi: Hindi pop music. [Stream]

Radio Fiji Gold: 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's music, targetted at the 35-60 age group. [Stream].

2Day FM: youth station, playing a wide range of modern music. [Stream]

ABC-TV to be rebadged as ABC1 on February 8th

Posted by Paul • Thursday, February 7. 2008 • Category: terrestrial tv
As reported here earlier, the rumours of Australia's ABC-TV being rebadged as ABC1 have become reality, and the station's new format will begin on Friday February 8th at midday.

There will also be changes to ABC2, which will be getting a new logo, and considerably altered programming. In the past, ABC2 has mostly been used for timeshifted programming and repeats, but it will now be showing increased amounts of new programs, including arts and culture.

Australia to use sport to push digital TV

Posted by Paul • Thursday, February 7. 2008 • Category: terrestrial tv
Australia's new government is planning on using sport to drive digital television uptake, as reported in Melbourne's Age newspaper today. The government is considering allowing free-to-air stations to broadcast sporting events on their extra digital channels (which are not simulcast on the analogue broadcasts), so as to allow sport to stay free without compromising the stations' ratings on their main channels.

The previous government made a quite a mess of digital television policy, first banning commercial stations from multichannelling, and severely limiting the types of programming allowed to be broadcast on the second channels of the two publically funded broadcasters; they later removed some of these restrictions, but we're still stuck with the silly situation that the only commercial multichannelling allowed is on the high-definition channels.

Hopefully the new government's changes are the first step towards fixing the last government's rat's nest of problems.

New history of Sydney's 2SM

Posted by Paul • Wednesday, February 6. 2008 • Category: domestic radio


Sydney's Radio 2SM, currently languishing near the bottom of the ratings, with a faily half-hearted talk format, was once a ratings powerhouse in the city, commanding large audiences with a very successful Top 40 format.

2SM: A "Super" Story documents the history of the station, from its beginning in 1931, through to its low-rating head of a network that encompasses most of New South Wales and Queensland today.

Anyone wanting to listen to the station's current incarnation can click on one of their three streams:

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.

Australian ABC-TV to become ABC1?

Posted by Paul • Tuesday, January 22. 2008 • Category: terrestrial tv


Rumours abound today that Australia's ABC-TV could be shortly renamed "ABC1", based upon a short promo that has been posted at TV Tonight. If so, this would be one of the most significant changes to ABC-TV in its 51-year history.

The video seems to suggest that the well-known ABC logo (see left) may disappear, which may well result in much irate correspondence to newspapers and the ABC...

Commercial FM radio comes to Launceston, finally.

Posted by Paul • Wednesday, January 9. 2008 • Category: domestic radio


Almost 28 years after commercial FM radio came to Australia, Launceston in Tasmania is finally set to have its own commercial FM station. 7LA, the major local commercial station, currently broadcasting on 1098 kHz, was scheduled to start test transmissions on 89.3MHz on January 8th.

Launceston's other commercial station, 7EX, is also expected to move to 90.1MHz at some point in the future; the station currently relays Melbourne's Sport 927 horse racing station. It is likely that the station will change format when it moves to FM, and the Sport 927 broadcasts will transfer to a narrowcast AM licence, as an FM commercial licence is too valuable to waste on horse racing.

Passport to World Band Radio 2008 now available.

Posted by Paul • Sunday, January 6. 2008 • Category: books
The 2008 edition of the renowned Passport to World Band Radio book is now available. For years, the Passport has been providing schedules, receiver news, a comprehensive radio directory and one of the best introductions to shortwave radio for novices available. For a brief look at this edition, the table of contents is available online.

Passport to World Band Radio 2008 can be purchased from Amazon, here:



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