GLENN HAUSER'S SHORTWAVE/DX REPORT 99-47, Oct 25, 1999 {Items from this and all our reports may be reproduced and re- reproduced only providing full credit be maintained at all stages} WORLD OF RADIO AND CONTINENT OF MEDIA ANTICIPATED SHORTWAVE-ONLY SCHEDULE AS OF OCTOBER 31, 1999 Days and times strictly UT - This version takes into account one-hour time shifts on WWCR and WBCQ with the end of DST: Wed 1730 COM RFPI 21460-USB 15049 Wed 2200 WOR WBCQ 7415 Thu 0930 COM RFPI 15049 Thu 2130 WOR WWCR 15685 Fri 1900 COM RFPI 21460-USB 15049 Fri 1930 WOR RFPI 21460-USB 15049 Sat 0300 COM RFPI 15049 6975 Sat 0330 WOR RFPI 15049 6975 Sat 1100 COM RFPI 15049 6975 Sat 1130 WOR RFPI 15049 6975 Sat 1230 WOR WWCR 12160 Sat 1730 COM RFPI 21460-USB 15049 Sat 1800 WOR RFPI 21460-USB 15049 Sun 0130 COM RFPI 21460-USB 15049 6975 Sun 0200 WOR RFPI 21460-USB 15049 6975 Sun 0330 WOR WWCR 5070 Sun 0730 WOR WWCR 5070 Sun 0930 COM RFPI 15049 6975 Sun 1000 WOR RFPI 15049 6975 Sun 2300 WOR RFPI 21460-USB 15049 Mon 0131 WOR WWCR 3215 Mon 0601 WOR WWCR 3210 Mon 0700 WOR RFPI 15049 6975 Tue 1330 WOR WWCR 15685 Tue 1900 WOR RFPI 21460-USB 15049 Tue 2000 COM RFPI 21460-USB 15049 Wed 0300 WOR RFPI 21460-USB 15049 6975 Wed 0400 COM RFPI 15049 6975 Wed 1100 WOR RFPI 15049 For complete information on all our broadcasts, including satellite, domestic relays, and in Spanish see http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio THIS WEEK ON WORLD OF RADIO 1009: See topic summary when available at http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/wor1009.html ** CZECH REPUBLIC. I'm looking forward to listening to Prague at 1400 on 21745 from Oct. 31st on. Especially the Saturday concert. Historically, this broadcast has provided the best reception of Radio Prague. (Ivan Grishin, Ont., REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING) ** GREECE. Dear Glenn, It has been quite a while since my last letter to you, but nothing fantastic has been going on at the Voice of Greece that I have been aware of. In addition to their SW transmitters in Avlis and Kavala, Greece, VOG is also using the VOA's 250-kW transmitters in Delano and Greenville, to the Americas and the Pacific area via satellite. Even the VOG is using the Internet for RealAudio at http://ert.ntua.gr plus powerful 500-kW mediumwave transmitters on 792 in Kavala and 1260 in Rhodes; also regional AM and FM stations in many parts of Greece. Who knows when they are going to install those VOA-donated 250-kW ex- Portugal transmitters in Avlis and Thessaliniki, Greece. I imagine that Dionisios Angelogiannis is still looking for money for their installation and it has been quite a while since I last heard from him. On June 29, Demetri Vafeas sent me the following letter with two print-outs: ``I am enclosing material related to VOG that I got from the Internet. I hope you will find it useful. I am very disappointed lately since things are moving very slowly, I am involved in a number of different things but I am not efficient(?) as in the past. I wish you to be in good health and I will get back to you soon.'' He sent me 2 print-outs from http://ert.ntua.gr/eng/aristera.htm and http://ert.ntua.gr/eng/deksiakatw.htm Demetri also sent me the SW transmission schedule of two pages with 12 listings of their coverage areas, from http://ert.ntua.gr/eng/era5eng/index.htm From my monitoring of VOG, these are the present News in English segments: Daily exc Sat and Sun to Eu, NAm 0300-0310 on 7450 9420 11645 12105 Daily to Eu and NAm 1410-1420 on 9425 15630 Eu, N&SAm 1800-1815 on 7450, 9425, 17705, 17765 On Sundays only, VOG has an hour-long musical broadcast in English, ||It|s All Greek to Me|| with George Anastakis(?) 1900-2000 on 7450, 9425, 17705, 17765. Today|s broadcast featured the story of ||rembetes|| (Greek rebels of the 1930s who were similar to our hippies, smoking marijuana, etc.) From their era came the Rembetiko songs you have have heard on VOG. This program is repeated about 2 hours later to Australia 2110-2205 on 9425, 11645. Based on last year|s time change, I am projecting the change in frequencies on Oct 31 as follows: 0300-0310 7450, 7475, 9375, 9420 1510-1520 7450 9425 1800-1815 7450 9425 15485 17705 1900-2000 7450 9425 15485 17705 2110-2205 7475 9425 (John Babbis, Silver Spring, MD, Oct 17, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING) ** GUATEMALA. In Guatemala there is the town of Ixcanante...may be is it ?? Ciao (Gianni Serra, Italy) RE: GH SW DX Report 99-46 ** MAURITANIA. R. Mauritania, 4817.5v, Oct 16 0000-0103*, Arabic talk and music, Koran. S/off with short 40 second anthem. Drifted down to 4817.22 by s/off. Way off nominal 4845. Also heard Oct 10 at 0101* on 4817.86 (Brian Alexander, Mechanicsburg PA, WORLD OF RADIO 1008) ** NEW ZEALAND. Hi Glenn, This from Adrian Sainsbury... >Mailbox plays September to March at 1505 NZDT which is 0205 UTC. I will get our web page to clearly show the change. Adrian< (via Paul Ormandy) Referring to UT Thursday on 17675, ex-0305 fortnightly including Oct 28. Website now shows 0205, but no change in the times of the other airings, such as Monday 2135. Last summer they did not make such a DST shift (Hauser, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING) ** ST HELENA. Started checking 11092.5 USB for RSH a bit before 1900 Oct 23 (no pirates noticed but was not monitoring constantly in hour before), but did not start to fade in here until about 2020. Better by 2040, and quite listenable after 2100. Some program notes: 2120 message from postmistress; 2130 French ID, greeting in English from Jorge Garcia Rangel, Club Diexistas de la Amistad, Barinas, Venezuela, and brief return greeting in Spanish; 2137 Mahendra Vaghjee, John Ekwall; 2142 Swedish (?); 2153 said they had got 305 reports in 1998. 2210 Bill Hassig call; 2220 list of 3 questions for competition; 2228 said had got 380 E-mails so far; 2235 Rich McVicar call; 2240 George Thurman call. Ran late until 2315 epilogue, 2318 GSTQ to 2319* (Glenn Hauser, OK, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING) A brief ID tape will be included on WORLD OF RADIO 1009 ** U K O G B A N I. With depressed MUF, 15220 Antigua was not making it during 1130-1200 Fri Oct 22 Focus on Faith, so I was making do with 5965 Canada, which with later sunrises is holding up better but hardly ideal. Closing at 1158 referred us to 9515, 15220 and 17840! - - But the last would not come on for another two hours. Will BBCWS ever get its continuity straight?? (Glenn Hauser, OK, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING) ** U S A. ALL IS NOT WELL AT VOICE OF AMERICA Scandals have hit VOA/IBB as the place approaches what is being promoted as "independence" but is not in fact. A petition was signed by more than 40 members of the VOA newsroom staff aimed at ousting the current director of news and others. Has anyone really dug into the Hartman suit to discover just how much the agency will have to be paying out to those who won? [sex- discrimination case] Management has attempted to eliminate the remaining members of the VOA correspondent corps (including one of its most senior members now in Brussels), while stepping up outside hiring of independents. VOA is now re-opening its Tokyo bureau only 4-5 years after closing it due to "budget" considerations. Did you know about the scandals involving the installation of the new computer system in VOA? The story about VOA, even under the great Sanford Ungar -- is downsizing, the slow deterioration of the Foreign Service correspondent corps through attrition, unfair labor practices, and downright ugly personnel moves, and the added controversy over IBB efforts to develop television. [Oct 18] Widespread talk of Reductions in Force (layoffs) -- who will be targeted? Bottom line: despite all the hoopla surrounding VOA independence and talk of the continuing importance of U.S. International Broadcasting, many people could see themselves out of a job. Here's an internal memo from the head of one of VOA's regional service divisions to Sandy Ungar: Sandy: When we were asked by Doug in mid-September to provide input on language service priorities, I contributed the following question: "By the way, I am not sure if the review of "language service" priorities includes a review of the English Service as well. If not, I wonder if maybe there is also a legislative mandate to review our English service programs' priorities. If this assessment will serve at some point as the base for reviewing VOA's budget and program operations, then we do need a similar mechanism whereby to review the scope and effectiveness of the English service programs." I haven't yet received any response from you or anyone else to these comments. Since at today's Division Directors Budget meeting, I heard you mention "language service" cuts several dozen times, I feel an urgent need to raise the same issue again. I am not suggesting that every language service is sacred and worth keeping as is, and I am glad that, as you mentioned, the Board is establishing criteria for a serious review of language service priorities. However, if the budget is tight, as it appears to be, do we also have the mechanism and criteria to review the output, significance of the product, and the programs versus the allotted resources of the English newsroom, VOA News Now, Special English/ Music, Worldnet/VOA-TV, Engineer Operations, etc.? There is a widely- held perception that the language services, a majority of VOA's staff resources, have always been treated as second-class citizens with pay grade structures lower than other VOA elements, and that when money is tight, it is the language services who continually absorb the bulk of the budget cuts. RIFs are always difficult and subject to dispute, regardless of the outcome, so it is crucial for top management to establish its credibility by demonstrating that serious efforts have been made to fairly evaluate all VOA elements and resources across the board. By constantly referring to budget cuts and the language services only in the same breath, this reinforces the misperception that the language services are less significant to VOA's operation. September 15, 1999: Here is a listing of criteria against which every VOA language service could be measured. One point given for each item unless otherwise indicated. 1) U.S. Interests a) Does the country have rule of law? (0-10 points, with more points for less rule of law) b) Does it have a democractic system? (0-10 points) c) Does it have alternatives to total/authoritarian control? (0-5 points) d) Is the country stable? (0-5 points) e) If the country falls apart, how much will it impact others? (0-10 points) f) Are U.S. troops stationed there or have they been involved in actions involving the country in recent years? (5 points) g) What is their per-capita quality of life index? (a mixture of life expectancy, economic development, infant mortality, etc.)(0-10 points) h) Does the country contain any special threats to the U.S.? (e.g. drugs, AIDS, nuclear weapons, environment) (0-5 points) 2) VOA's Interests a) What is the # of listeners? (one point for every one million listeners) b) What is the VOA market share in terms of percentage? (one point for every percentage point) c) Do the people have access to unbiased, accurate information? (0-10 points) d) Does the international media have access to the country? (0-5 points) e) Is the press free? (0-5 points) f) Is the press endangered (have journalists been jailed/harmed)? (0-5 points) g) Is VOA jammed or co-channelled? (0-10 points) h) Are listeners punished for communicating with VOA or listening? (0-10 points) 3) Language Service Characteristics a) Does the Service offer a variety of programs? (news, English, health, business, etc.) (one point for each) b) How many hours a day does it broadcast? (one point per hour) c) What percentage of its programming is new every hour? (one point for every ten percent) ("new" programming may not contain more than 20% material that has already been broadcast) d) What is the ratio of number of staff to number of hours broadcast? (add one point for every .1 over 1, subtract one point for every .1 under 1). e) Does the Service have a web page? f) Are its scripts on-line? g) Does it have an e-mail service? h) How many hours of television programming does it produce? i) What is the average length of service of staff members? (subtract one point for every ten years) This note was issued at VOA recently. Many find it amazing, and part of the hypocrisy of the "independence" declaration -- VOA is now supposed to be independent, but still has its salaries being handled by the State Department, still has a remaining (albeit small) group of foreign correspondents who are formally part of the U.S. foreign service, and now is telling listeners not to write to U.S. embassies/ consulates, but will still use those same diplomatic facilities to forward (by diplomatic pouch) mail to VOA... Question: was VOA ready for independence? Not.... To All Concerned: As a result of independence, we are advised not to use Consulate or Embassy post office boxes for receiving audience mail any longer. Instead, we should do one of the following: 1) Arrange for a local post office box in your country and ask the local stringers or VOA bureau FSNs to pick up the mail and deliver it to the consulate or embassy for pouching to the U.S.; or 2) In the event there are no stringers or VOA bureau in your country, you may use the Post Office boxes in Hong Kong (#8331, #8623) and Eliza Leung will be in charge of picking up the mail and delivering it to the U.S. Consulate for pouching. For the time being, VOA is paying the Consulate or Embassy to continue to pouch our audience mail back to the U.S. ***** The biggest story possibly in years -- Sanford Ungar announced in a meeting with service chiefs and division directors on Oct 22 that the Congressional budget situation looked bad. The figure for VOA reported out of the House-Senate conference committee matched the House of Representatives figure of 105.7 million dollars -- which still leaves VOA 7-8 million dollars short. Congress is telling VOA to swallow cost of living increases and so, Ungar announced, VOA faces sharp cuts. There are likely to be RIFS (layoffs) and VOA is certainly looking at either shutting down whole language services, cutting broadcast times, turning some of the services into "feed services" (like they did with Thai service in the 80's) and/or letting go an estimated 128 people. Layoffs would have to begin quickly since the longer VOA waits to initiate the process the worse the budget situation becomes because of how layoffs have to be undertaken. If based on seniority, VOA will ironically lose some of its youngest and most talented broadcasters and other staff, while being left with the old wood that everyone has been saying for years has to be moved out. Meanwhile, over at Radio Free Asia the situation is not as bleak. Since it is a "grantee" organization RFA can go out and ask for $$ -- what I hear so far is that RFA has told its employees they won't be getting cost of living increases, but otherwise RFA continues strong. It is ironic that only 2-3 weeks after all of the wonderful words spouted by the likes of Senator Biden, and others at the ceremony marking VOA/IBB "independence" from the USG, that now VOA itself is facing some of the worst news in two decades regarding layoffs. If Clinton signs the spending bill on his desk that was passed by the conference committee, Ungar says, there might still be a chance that VOA could get the extra 8 million or so it needs to avert layoffs. But even so, the BBG (Broadcasting Board of Governors) is telling people that there will be a close examination beginning immediately of the effectiveness and impact of various language services and that VOA employees can now look to at least 3 years of further cuts. As with Deutsche Welle, it appears the days of VOA are truly numbered. By the way -- there were rumors (more than that actually) that when former IBB Director Kevin Klose (formerly of RFE/RL) came to IBB/VOA his mission was to begin the process of downsizing that would eventually eliminate VOA. Klose, of course, jumped ship to yet another cushy job as head of NPR -- and two other VOA officials, former Evelyn Lieberman Chief of Staff Jean Peelen and Ken Stern, another senior appointee on VOA's mahagony row, also have left IBB/VOA for brighter pastures. So, it fits the pattern -- political appointees coming in, doing their damage to VOA's long-serving broadcasters, then splitting with another nice line on their resume. Letter to the Editor of the Washington Times from Gary Marco, President, AFSCME Local 1418: Your recent editorial about the United States Information Agency and the VOA offers a fair assessment about the fate of these two agencies. In the case of VOA, the mission of the agency seems to have become lost. In an effort to remain effective in the post-Cold War era, it has tried to embrace television and Internet media. Unfortunately, VOA is behind the curve instead of ahead of it, not having moved with the speed, resources or ability, as other broadcasters have, with a credible integration of these broadcasting elements. Further, VOA opted, in some cases, to reduce its direct shortwave radio broadcasts to certain areas, choosing instead to place its programs on local or regional stations. Doing so put programs in the hands of non-U.S. government facilities and reduced VOA's ability to reach mass audiences across an entire region. In addition, becoming enamored of other technologies or media leaves the agency vulnerable if the fiscal resources aren't there to support both diversification and its core radio operations. To be certain, VOA has some bright spots, often in times of crises. However, there is the sense that the agency is being driven by crises and less by a sense of consistency. Congressional budget decisions are likely to be the barometer of where things are headed for VOA, if the agency isn't able to make the case itself now and in the future. [end of MARCO] Washington Post front page October 23: House GPO Seeks Broad 1.4 Percent Spending Cut House Republican leaders said yesterday they intend to impose a 1.4 percent across-the-board spending cut affecting virtually every federal agency, part of a final push to finance this year's federal budget without touching Social Security revenues. If the Senate goes along with this approach, as expected next week, some lawmakers and government experts said it could have a far-reaching impact on the federal bureaucracy, forcing layoffs or a reduction in the work force, curtailing travel and postponing some planned initiatives." (via REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING) ** U S A. Glenn, fyi this date received a short note from Marty, WB2FYF, a Spectrum Show producer (UT Sun 0306 to 0400 WWCR 5070) mentioning they are going to have a listener appreciation night the last Saturday 10/30/99 (ut Sun) of this month that may determine whether or not they stay on the air and they are hoping people will listen in and let them know if they are out there. Anyone who has followed this show for the last 6 or 7 years has noted recently - in its newest incarnation - there have been some technical through morale problems. I personally hope they manage to stay on the air one way or another as I have enjoyed the program as part of the Saturday night (central N. America) lineup of DX/Radio related programs. I did like it a bit better when it was on an hour earlier but the current Communications World, World of Radio, Spectrum, DXer's Ultd. etc. sched during that evening of the week is pretty enjoyable. I have many times encouraged them to concentrate on swl and try to get you back on as a guest. (LeRoy Long, OK, Oct 19, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING) ** U S A. Been checking regularly for WRMI on 7465 in the early evening hours prior to 0330 but have only heard them that one time, Sept 26 at 0025+. Definitely had an ID at that time. And I remember checking 9955 and hearing nothing except the jammer (Brian Alexander, PA, Oct 16) But from Oct 31, R. Prague expects to be relayed on 7465 for 0300 Spanish, 0330 Czech, 0400 English (Hauser, WORLD OF RADIO) ** ZIMBABWE. ZBC Radio 4, 4828, *0300 Oct 16, s/on with choral anthem, vern talk, Radio 4 ID, church music. Been hearing this at *0300 since Oct 3. Also hear 3306 with separate programming at *0300 but very weak (Brian Alexander, PA, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING) ###