COMMUNICATIONS WORLD MEDIA NEWS OCTOBER 9, 1999 -- GLENN HAUSER ("A" SEGMENT ONLY) This is Glenn Hauser with the Communications World media news, filling in for Kim Elliott, who will return next week. Electronics marketing genius and co-founder of Sony, Akio Morita died this week. Best known for the Sony Walkman, he is also credited with the groundbreaking Sony ICF-2010 shortwave radio. After many delays, the first commercial liftoff from the floating platform Sea Launch, south of Hawaii, is scheduled for October 10. A Russian-made rocket is to carry a new satellite for Hughes' DirecTV system to replace DBS 1 at 101 degrees West. Partners in Sea Launch include Boeing, Norwegian shipbuilder Kvaerner Maritime, Russia's RSC Energia, and a Ukrainian rocket maker. This from Associated Press and Lygemark Satellite Chart via SCDX MediaScan. Closer to Kim's home, Peter Behr and Maryann Haggerty report in the Washington Post, that after an intensive campaign to attract the company, XM Satellite Radio has agreed to locate headquarters in Washington, DC. XM plans to beam satellite radio direct to automobiles in the USA. There seems to be no end to the magnitude of media mergers in the U.S. One of the largest owners of radio stations, Clear Channel, announced it will buy competitor AMFM Incorporated for 23 and a half BILLION dollars by the end of next year. It would then own 830 radio stations, including many in 47 of the top 50 markets. However, this is provoking opposition since it would further reduce the amount of competition on the airwaves. The deal depends on approval by the Federal Communications Commission. Our thanks to Mike Cooper and Artie Bigley for sending us several of these stories from the press. Ivan Grishin and Chet Copeland forward news from the Toronto Globe and Mail that Prime Minister Jean Chretien has chosen a new president for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Robert Rabinovitch, who believes passionately in the need for public broadcasting. The post had been vacant for two months. BLUETOOTH.COM is the strangely named website, based on a codeword, promoting the use of the 2.4 gigahertz band for wireless control of everything in the house, using frequency-hopping technology. That's http://www.bluetooth.com A Dominican Republic shortwave station is getting rave reviews from shortwave listeners for its music, which is nothing but "bachata". Bachata originated in the lower classes and was looked down upon by professional musicians, for its simple repetitive melodies and malicious macho lyrics, but now bachata has been embraced by some mainstream artists. The station is Radio Villa, la sencilla, on 4960.12, requiring a darkness path beyond the Caribbean. We heard it around 0500 UT atop VOA Sao Tome' Don Moore in Iowa recommends a Saturday morning program on Radio Union, Peru, 6115 kHz at 1030-1050 UT, for some of the best Andean music, it's called Tierra Fecunda, which means fertile land. Turkish Radio online has links to 69 stations in Turkey with many different musical formats. So reports Chris Brand in Communication from the British DX Club. I'll put the URL in the script for this week's show on the Communications World website http://www.trsc.com/cw : http://www.creatonic.com/tronline/i_list.htm Radio Australia has started the Timor Hour serving Aussie peacekeeping forces, Monday to Friday at 1330 to 1430 UT. We have fair reception on 11660, and 9445. Besides pop music, there are greetings from relatives. Australian Defence Forces radio also broadcasts to Timor, heard by Terry Krueger in Florida, via BC-DX, October 4 at 1014-1058 on 11140- uppersideband. The schedule is flexible. Disregard the report a few weeks ago that Ecuador's HCJB, The Voice of the Andes, was involved with the US government in plans for a new shortwave transmitter site in Australia. The US Board referred to was that of the World Radio Missionary Fellowship. As Allen Graham of HCJB and Bob Padula point out, the proposed site is in Western Australia at Kununurra. Listeners accustomed to hearing Radio New Zealand International on 9700 kilohertz between 07 and 10 UT are out of luck. Even though the transmitter has been fixed, Barry Hartley says RNZI has decided to stay on 17675 during this period at least through next March, since it propagates well to the west and the Pacific. But is is not very good for North America. Radio Sultanate of Oman has quietly started broadcasting its FM English program on shortwave, at 14 to 15 UT on 15140 and 15375. In the western hemisphere both frequencies are blocked by Spanish speaking religious stations, and in the eastern hemisphere Guido Schotmans in Belgium says the audio is undermodulated only during English. Thanks to Merlin Network One, we can now hear a weekly half hour program from Wales on shortwave. It's Wales Radio International. This was first discovered by Joe Hanlon. WRI promotes Welsh culture and tourism, with a yearlong competition for a trip to Wales. For the rest of October the schedule, all from UK Sites, is Friday at 2030 on 7235, Saturday at 1230 on 17650, and, for North America, UT Saturday 0200 on 9795. Mahendra Vaghjee in Mauritius quickly found the frequency for Radio Mogadishu, Voice of the People, the station supporting Mohamed Aydid, which has resumed shortwave after a 4 and a half month break. It's 6750 kHz, but always subject to change, in Somali between 1530 and 1900. Monitoring Times magazine has announced it is going online with Monitoring Times Express; people may subscribe to the entire magazine via the Internet for instantaneous delivery worldwide. It is a 10 megabyte file in PDF format delivered by FTP and viewable with free software. And a free sample of the August issue may be accessed via http://www.grove-ent.com Gumbo on the Air: the tricentennial of the U-S state of Louisiana is celebrated by special amateur radio operations this weekend. The Westside Amateur Radio Club is operating from the Bridge City, Louisiana Gumbo Festival, that's the Gumbo Capital of the World, for 48 hours starting at 2300 UT Friday October 8 on 7262, 14287, 21375 and 28415 kHz. A QSL certificate is offered, reports Amateur Radio Newsline via John Norfolk. Ham operators are also being asked to help track the migration of burrowing owls. For more information, check the burrowing owl page at http://members.aol.com/homingin/. The page contains the exact frequencies of all 48 tag transmitters plus photos, information on the expected migration path, and suggestions for simple monitoring and tracking gear, according to K0OV in the ARRL Letter. You are invited to hear more media news on my regular half hour program, World of Radio. An additional time for it on WWCR is UT Monday at 0030 on 3215. Kim Elliott returns next week. For VOA News Now, I'm Glenn Hauser.