MEDIA NEWS FOR COMMUNICATIONS WORLD, APRIL 14, 2001, BY GLENN HAUSER THE LATEST ON ELECTRO-SMOG Vatican Radio now has until the end of April to negotiate a reduction in its emissions. Italian Environment Minister Willer Bordon had given Vatican Radio a deadline of April 16th to comply with Italy`s strict RF emission regulations, or have its power cut off. This followed a survey which confirmed some Vatican emissions were as much as 20 volts per meter, far above Italy`s limit of 6. Vatican Radio agreed to cut its mediumwave broadcasts in half after Easter, and look into arranging more foreign relays for shortwave; but then Prime Minister Giuliano Amato overruled the Environment Minister, giving Vatican Radio the exstra time. The next target: US Navy antennas at Naples. ANGOLA`S ECCLESIA TRIES SHORTWAVE AGAIN Last year the Angolan Catholic station Radio Ecclésia, at odds with the Angolan government, tried broadcasting back to the country on shortwave via Radio Netherlands, but technical problems curtailed the service. Now Ecclésia is trying again, according to the Deutsche Telekom schedule via Wolfgang Büschel. A new daily service is to start April 15th on 15775 kilohertz, one hour each at 0500 and 1700 UT. CROATIA BACK WITH GERMAN RELAYS After a break of about a year, Croatian Radio has resumed shortwave broadcasts via Deutsche Telekom in Jülich, Germany. So far the transmissions have been mostly music with news headlines on the hour. Previously they had brief English and Spanish segments. The schedule via Volker Willschrey and Wolfgang Büschel is: to the Americas, 2300 to 0500 on 9925; to Australia and New Zealand, 0500-0700 on 9470; 0700-0900 on 13820, and Kai Ludwig observes that this is a domestic service relay. LESS SHORTWAVE TO AUSTRALIA Bob Padula in Australia laments that shortwave cutbacks are affecting services to Australia. The latest casualties: Switzerland, Far East Broadcasting Company, South Korea; some but not all broadcasts from THE Vatican, Austria, and Germany have been deleted. Nevertheless, Bob has set up a new electronic club called Shortwave Australia. +++++++ following items were not aired ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ HOLZKIRCHEN MEDIUMWAVE CLOSES The mediumwave 1593 kilohertz transmitter at Holzkirchen, Germany, which used to carry Radio Free Europe and VOA, was shut down April 8th. Kai Ludwig points out, the mast was too close to residential buildings. But he and Wolfgang Büschel also note that the Serbo- Croatian service it had been carrying is still heard quite well via Hungary on 1188. The US consulate in Munich said shortwave would continue from Holzkirchen. Those services are aimed toward the northeast. IBB PROJECT IN SRI LANKA Attention, construction companies in Sri Lanka. The IBB station transmitting this very program from Iranawila has issued a solicitation for the design and construction of a perimeter road and two concrete guard towers. A mandatory pre-proposal conference will be held at the site at 10 am local time May first. More information from Walter Patterson at the station. VOA GREENVILLE SITE BECOMES AGROMEDICINE INSTITUTE More than 600 acres of land near Greenville, North Carolina, once occupied by one of three VOA stations, are being turned over to the North Carolina Institute for Health and Safety in Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, or AgroMedicine Institute, for short. This report is from the local newspaper, the Daily Reflector. Farming is second only to mining as the most dangerous occupation in the US, with fishing and forestry not far behind. The Institute, supported by three universities and various state agencies, hopes to improve conditions for farmers, foresters, and fishermen through research, education and outreach. Ninety-six left-over VOA antenna towers still need to be removed from the site. HCJB would like to have them for the new plant it contemplates on the Ecuadorian coast. ECUADOR WEBCASTING The Voice of the Andes has started webcasting 24 hours in a variety of languages, prefaced by a more or less annoying commercial for substances such as cough drops. So more of their languages can be heard, only portions of the shortwave output in English are also on the webcast at http://www.hcjb.org, namely at 0000-0400, 0600-0830 and 1130-1300 UT. +++++++++++++++ above items were not aired ++++++++++++++++++++++++ JAPAN Radio Japan has unveiled its on-line Japanese-language teaching service, available in 19 languages including English. Via Sergei Sosedkin, Konstantin Gusev in Moscow says the site http://www.nhk.or.jp/lesson/ is well developed but there is no archive of previously aired lessons. I find it has elementary romanized Japanese accompanying audio files to hear the expressions pronounced. VILLAGE VOICE ONLINE RADIO The Village Voice, America`s largest alternative weekly newspaper, launched Voice Radio, an online radio station, ON April 11th. A press release claims Voice Radio delivers a smart, edgy, lifestyle driven format; music ranges from rock to jazz to blues and hip-hop, from techno to deep house to drum `n` bass, from blue-beat to back-beat and beat-box. Plus, live music from clubs and local venues and talk shows about pop music. Village Voice Radio, ``that breaks all the rules`` is accessible via http://www.villagevoice.com WEBCASTS SUSPENDED A union representing actors in radio commercials, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, has started charging broadcasters extra if the ads also appear on webcasts -- despite the fact that webcasts are not profitable and reach only a tiny fraction of the broadcast audience. This has prompted many commercial stations, especially those owned by the goliath Clear Channel Communications, to suspend all their webcasting until the issue can be resolved. Fortunately this has little impact on non-commercial webcasters. ST. LOUIS SYMPHONY ENDS WEEKLY BROADCASTS However, labor union costs were a factor in the demise of weekly Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra broadcasts this week on National Public Radio. The broadcasts cost the orchestra more than they benefited, especially with a dwindling number of stations carrying them. Kevin Kelly of publicradiofan.com refers us to a detailed article about this in the independent weekly from St. Louis, Riverfront Times. http://www.riverfronttimes.com/issues/2001-03-07/muse.html However, a new NPR program, Symphony Cast will feature St. Louis and a variety of other orchestras in rotation. BBC RADIO TWO SPECIALS Although classical music is primary for me, I also enjoy the lighter music from BBC Radio 2 webcasts, especially in the 1800 to 2130 period on Tuesdays, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2 In the sw programs group, Paul David in Britain recommends BBC Radio 2, counting down the top 100 singers of the last century, this weekend. The first two hours were on Friday, but you may be in time to hear the last five-sevenths, or surely the last two-sevenths: Saturday the 14th at 1600 to 1900 GMT, and Monday the 16th at 1100 to 1300. [later: never mind re webcast: it was blocked on Saturday!] PUSHING RUSSIAN BUTTONS Wired broadcasting still exists in Russia, and a station`s priority among the buttons on the receivers, really speakers, is all- important. The St. Petersburg Times reports that Petersburg Radio has been shifted from the first button to the third button of wired receivers in Soviet-era apartments that only carry fixed channels. Now on the first button is the state run Radio Rossiya. The third channel is much weaker, and some apartments are wired to receive only the first button. The second button goes to the state-run Mayak, and this pattern is supposed to be followed nationwide. Until now there had been an exception for Petersburg Radio, which is a favorite of older listeners, and is now expected to die for lack of audience and advertising. Naturally, there are political reasons for this, BUT I won`t go into THEM. POWER LINE COMMUNICATIONS German radio listeners are dreading the advent of powerline communications, sure to cause unbearable interference to mediumwave and shortwave. Now Harry Sarkas sends an article in EE times, linked in this script, saying a system with four wideband carriers in the 10 to 30 MHz range will be introduced first in the US and Canada. And plans are also underway in Japan and Britain. http://www.eetimes.com/printableArticle?doc_id=OEG20010406S0058 GHANA OPENS UP GBC Radio 1, Accra, says the Ghanaian government will soon enact a broadcast policy to promote informative and pluralistic media in the country. I expect this opens the door to foreign missionary broadcasters, and perhaps to FM relays of overseas stations. SPECIAL FROM SOUTH AFRICA Wednesday, April 18th, is World Amateur Radio Day. Again this year, SENTECH in South Africa will make special broadcasts for the occasion, according to Kathy Otto via Alokesh Gupta. A 50 minute program on amateur radio providing disaster communications will be broadcast five times: at 1400 UT to South Asia on 21725; at 1800 to southern Africa on 3215; 1905 to Central and North Africa on 17590; 2005 to Europe on 15475. Radio RSA abolished broadcasts to North America long ago, but UT April 19th only, this special will also be aimed at us at 0200 on 9585. Comments and reception reports go to armi@intekom.co.za ``PATRIOTS`` SQUABBLE OVER SHORTWAVE STATION Nothing has been heard on 3260 uppersideband since the Norm Creek militia gathering in Kentucky. Clandestine Radio Watch and Cumbre DX report that the head of the Kentucky State Militia ordered the broadcasts to cease, and when Steve Anderson defied the order and continued them under a new name, United Patriot Radio, he was expelled. But now he ought to be free to pursue his own agenda. My thanks for editorial research go to Mike Cooper and BBC Monitoring. For VOA News Now, I`m Glenn Hauser.