[HCDX]: DX Listening Digest 00-44 March 23
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[HCDX]: DX Listening Digest 00-44 March 23
DX LISTENING DIGEST 00-44, March 23, 2000
edited by Glenn Hauser
{Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only providing
full credit be maintained at all stages}
THIS WEEK ON WORLD OF RADIO 1029: See topic summary at
http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio
WORLD OF RADIO ON WORLD RADIO NETWORK. New seasonal schedules go into
effect March 26, including for North America, where our time change
does not take place until one week later. Strictly in UT, WOR will be
on WRN1:
Europe: Sat 0330, Sat 0800
E Europe, Africa, Mideast, Asia, Pacific: Sat 0800, Sun 1030
WorldSpace on AfriStar channel 627: Sat 0330, Sat 0800, Sun 0530
North America: Sat 1600, Sun 0530, and NEW Sun 1030
WRN is also streamed, and past three months of WOR are archived at
http://www.wrn.org/ondemand with the new edition usually available by
about 1100 UT Fridays.
WOR listeners via WRN are encouraged to let WRN know they appreciate
this public service: feedback@xxxxxxx
** AFGHANISTAN. Kabul radio announces change in schedule Text of
report by Afghan Taleban radio on 21st March
Announcement by the Radio Voice of Shari'ah: From Sat Mar 25 schedule
changes to 0100-0330, 1300-1800 UT. Commercial advertisement, death
and lost and found announcements will be broadcast at 1435. Our
compatriots should take note (Source: Radio Voice of Shari'ah, Kabul,
in Pashto 1500 gmt 21 Mar 00, via BBC Monitoring, excerpted for WORLD
OF RADIO 1029, DXLD)
** ALBANIA. Radio Tirana 26 March - 29 Tetor 2000/ad in English:
England 1830-1845 Cerrik A/100 9510 31 305
Shijak /100 7180 41 310
------------------------------------------------------
2130-2200 Shijak /100 7130 41 310
Cerrik A/100 9540 31 305
Fllaka /500 1215 247 OND
------------------------------------------------------
U.S.A. 0145-0200 Cerrik A/100 6115 49 305
Cerrik A/100 7160 41 305
------------------------------------------------------
0230-0300 Cerrik A/100 6115 49 305
Cerrik A/100 7160 41 305
And Albanian to North America:
2300-0200 Shijak /100 6090 49 300
Cerrik A/100 7270 41 305
------------------------------------------------------
0200-0330 Shijak /100 6090 49 300
Cerrik A/100 7270 41 305
------------------------------------------------------------------
* All are daily transmissions. (Drita Cico, Mrs., ARTV Head of
Monitoring March 23 via Volker Willschrey, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BELGIUM. We asked RVI if the schedule is correct showing English
to NAm on Bonaire 15565 at 2230 will be on Saturdays only at 2130
instead ? (gh) Hallo, English to North America on Saturdays is also
at 22.30 UTC (Rita Penne, Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal, Mar 23, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** CONGO DR. 15725, R Liberte herd on 18-3 with very low signal at
2000 with prg in Lingala and full commentaries, short music pieces,
Signal S4 with local noise and 16 dB preamp. At 2153 significantly
better signal. Same for 19-3 (Zacharias Liangas, Greece, March 19, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** CONGO DR. DX Information from the British DX Club (BDXC-UK). Good
reception past couple of evenings from the new Congolese rebel
station Radio Liberte on 15725usb, broadcasting from Gbadolite in the
extreme north west of Dem. Rep Congo. Station is on air from 1800-
2300 approx and was audible throughout yesterday (20 March). Several
clear IDs in French heard around 1830 followed by talk in presumed
Lingala. The last half of the broadcast seems to be mostly continuous
music - both African and US/European. (Dave Kenny, UK, Mar 21, BDXC-
UK, WORLD OF RADIO 1029)
** FRANCE. If I correctly understood a brief reference on "Couleur
Tropicale," an African music show which celebrated its 5th
anniversary last week, RFI will be changing its program schedule
this coming weekend. "Couleur Tropicale" (two consecutive
programs, 20 minutes each, interrupted by 10-minute newscast)
will shift back to 2110 UTC instead of the current 2140 start
time (Mike Cooper, GA, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUATEMALA. Couldn't resist an attempt to try for this signal [R.
Verdad]. 4052.487 at 1156Z 3/21/2000 signal strength measured at -106
dBm; female heard singing slow tune; best in USB; ID given at 1159Z;
at 1223Z signal barely audible (Thomas B. Roach, Grass Valley, CA, HF-
1000 with Alpha Delta DX-SWL Sloper, hard-core-dx, WORLD OF RADIO
1029, DXLD)
** GUATEMALA. Our further checks of the new R. Verdad, 4052.5,
Chiquimula:
Tuesday, March 21: only checked briefly at 1205 when the habitual
``An~o 2000 Jubileo`` promo was running, ID in passing; relieved that
Monday`s 4053.0 carrier was gone and not heard subsequently either.
Losing out to T-storm and local noise level by 1215.
Wednesday, March 22: Carrier came on late at *1144, joining music at
1145, with no anthem. This day, T-storm noise increasing, and signal
also weaker and choppy. Love song, chimes (maybe vibes but does not
sound like marimba), 1150 ID with details, 1159 outro Tren show with
banjo theme; 1201 chimes, ID, mostly talk until fadeout.
Thursday, March 23: 1128 tune in, NA in progress, 1130 repeat of the
anthem history talk heard before. ID at 1133 has some location words
I have not been able to make out completely, just before he says
Chiquimula, but sounds something like ?`Desde Monte Oron de la
Gloria...`` and another time like ``Ministerio de la Gloria`` See if
you can tell on the tape I include on this weekend`s Radio-Enlace on
R. Nederland. A callsign starting with TG- was again mumbled in the
1149 announcement. 1201 outro to Tren del Evangelio show ``con himnos
espirituales`` credits somebody (for the records?) in el mercado
central de Chiquimula. Cuckoo, Big Ben, time check and talk, probably
bible reading mentioning ``capitulo``, ``Jeova``; gone into noise
level by 1208 ((C) Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** LIBERIA. Government lifts ban on Radio Veritas. The Liberian
Information Ministry has announced the lifting with "immediate
effect" of the suspension of the Roman Catholic radio station Veritas
for posing a security threat, the French press agency Agence France
Press reported on 22nd March. The previous week Liberian President
Charles Taylor ordered the suspension of broadcasts by Radio Veritas
and the immediate closure of a second independent station, Star
Radio, for allegedly inflammatory reporting. AFP reported the
Information Ministry's statement saying that the suspension was
lifted following talks between the ministers of justice, information
and postal affairs and the board of Radio Veritas headed by its
chairman Archbishop Michael Francis.... Taylor had said on 17th March
that the ban imposed on Veritas radio could only be lifted if the
station agreed to limit itself to only religious broadcasts.
Commenting on the closure of Star Radio, Taylor said he had been
contacted by the embassy of the United States, one of several
countries which funds the radio. "The matter will be resolved through
diplomatic channels," AFP quoted Taylor as saying (Source: AFP news
agency, Paris, in English 1908 gmt 22 Mar 00 via BBC Monitoring,
DXLD)
** NEW ZEALAND. Glenn, Heard RNZI this morning March 21 at 0745 tune-
in, excellent reception on 15115. Time pips at 0800, then silence
until 0806, continuing with regular programming. However, news was
heard at 0900. (Ivan Grishin, Ont., DX LISTENING DIGEST, WOR 1029)
** PHILIPPINES. Come via e mail is the full FEBC A00 schedule. Here
is English section. Note how the 0930 service has been dropped.
1300-1500 11995, 0000-0130 15175
Both via Bocaue TX Philippines (Karl Kruger, SE England, Electronic
DX Press March 22 via DXLD) Leading up to the previously reported
plan to drop all English by June or July (gh)
** RUSSIA. 29160 and 29525 Russian harmonics. I have been studying
ex-Soviet bcing since the late 60's, and my experience is that early
50/100 kW SW txs are notorious for their powerful hxs. Thus, the
problem is in the basic design of these txs. Unfortunately, quite a
number of these txs exist at various sites and are still in use. 9720
for many years was used from the Chkalovskaya site east of Moscow
(the txions were checked right outside the gates of the site by a
wellknown DXer in the early 90's). Some time during the second half
of 1999 this old and small site, as it appears, was closed
alltogether. The txion on 9720 was moved to another site, and my
studies show that with a high degree of certainty this new site is
Kurovskaya, the easternmost of the Moscow SW sites. This site is a
large and old one with quite a number of txs from the critical range.
Evenings the 9720 tx uses 5905 (!), mornings the freq is 6110, all
good for the winter period.
Novosibirsk site also has a number of the problem txs, which are also
leased by the VoA, Deutsche Welle, etc. The hx problem being a basic
design problem, the only thing the Russians can do is to throw in
other txs of a more modern design where available. A second problem
arising at some Russian sites comes from crosstalk in the antenna
systems. Two txs using adjacent antenna structures in the same band
may produce very strong signals determined by the difference freq of
the two signals. (To GB2RS from Olle Alm, Sweden, Mar 16, BC-DX via
DXLD)
** UKRAINE. Tentative frequency plan of Radio Ukraine International
transmissions valid from 26 March to 29 October 2000. [We have
extracted the frequencies indicated as applying to English
broadcasts, fewer than before. The only frequency designated for NAm
is 13590 at 2300-0400, 1000 kW, all in Ukrainian. Why they would
rather broadcast in English to North Kazakhstan than North America is
unclear. The channel 1 frequencies are 100 kW -gh]
2100 channel 1: 5905 269 CEu, 6020 ND, 9640 N Kazakhstan, 11950 NWEu
0000 channel 1: 5905 CEu, 6020 ND, 9640 N Kazakhstan
0300 channel 1: 6020 ND, 9640 N Kazakhstan, 12045 Russia
1100 channel 3: 21520 Au 1000 kW
(via Alexandr Egorov, Kiev, Ukraine via RUS-DX Mar 20, via Wolfgang
Bueschel via DXLD)
** U K O G B A N I. New English schedules for BBC World Service
Text of BBC press release on 3rd March
BBC World Service launches its new English schedules on 2nd April
with some new series joining established favourites - and all
broadcast at better times of day across the world.
"We have been working towards these new schedules for the past two
years," said Mark Byford, Chief Executive BBC World Service. "As we
broadcast to 24 different time zones, it is no mean feat to give
listeners the programmes they want to listen to at the right time of
day - but our scheduling experts have cracked it. No matter where you
are in the world, you will now be able to hear news and analysis in
the early morning, midday and early evening and tune in to favourite
World Service programmes at regular and appropriate times."
At the heart of the new schedule are news updates at key times of
day. There will be bulletins on the hour, every hour. Longer news
programmes include new ?World Briefing? slots encompassing business
news, sports news and British news, together with established
programmes such as the successful The World Today and Newshour.
In between these programmes will be regular scheduled sequences of
general programmes. The three slots: ?World Living?, ?World Showcase?
and ?World Insight? all feature in the morning, afternoon and evening
which will mean listeners can tune in to similar programmes at the
same time every week. The ?World Living? slot will include human
interest programmes (including World Service?s long running magazine
programme Outlook), a ?World Showcase? slot of arts and drama
programmes includes the established arts strand Meridian and the
World Service soap Westway, and the ?World Insight? slot of factual
programmes includes Discovery and Focus on Faith.
The flexibility of the schedules has been achieved with some changes
behind the scenes. From April, World Service will be producing a
continuous news and information stream and groups of general
programmes which will then be mixed and matched to produce a tailored
mixed schedule for their area that listeners can hear on short wave
or via a local rebroadcaster on FM and mediumwave around the world.
This new way of working means World Service can broadcast eight
English schedules for different time zones around the world instead
of the current three. Listeners on the Internet will be able to
choose to hear the usual mixed schedule or the continuous news and
information schedule. Both will be available through a simple mouse
click.
The English network has recently recorded its highest ever audience
at 40 million listeners across the world.
New series starting in April include:
The Big C - a four part series that looks at what can be done to beat
cancer looking at preventions and cures from around the world.
So Much Land, So Much Hope - part of a Brazilian season to mark the
500th anniversary of European settlement in Brazil. It reports on how
hundreds of thousands of peasant families and rural workers in Brazil
are engaged in a long struggle to win the right to a plot of land.
The Reith Lectures - for the first time the Reith Lectures will be
delivered by more than one lecturer on the theme of Respect for the
Earth. Lecturers are the Rt Hon Chris Patten, Dr Thomas E. Lovejoy,
Sir John Browne, Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland and Dr Vandana Shiva.
Electric Journeys - where do the world?s writers, cosmonauts,
inventors, politicians and even royalty go when they surf the net?
World Service asks eight very different people to take a personal
online journey revealing their interests as they search for their
favourite web sites.
Football in the East - with the World Cup in South Korea and Japan
just two years away, World Service looks at the rise of football in
Asia and asks whether teams from the continent can emulate the
progress African sides have made in recent years.
Speaking Lives - a new multimedia oral testimony series, produced by
the successful My Century Team. In each programme three people from
different countries reveal their shared ambition or experience.
All Back to Mine - some of today?s biggest pop stars invite World
Service listeners to eavesdrop as they rifle through their record
collections at home, revealing a few secrets on the way. Sean Rowley
pops round to Noel Gallagher?s, Fat Boy Slim?s, Damon Albarn?s and
The Chemical Brothers? pads.
Source: BBC press release, London, in English 3 Mar 00 (via BBC
Monitoring via DXLD)
** U K O G B A N I. And now the main gripe: I assume that you've seen
the April BBC On Air magazine by now. What a mess! What WERE they
thinking? I can understand them splitting the streams and arranging
programming to suit the various target areas. But to take the
listings and reduce the GMT time entries to minor side notes, while
filling the program entries with what they think is "local time", is
insane!
The concept of listing a multi-time-zone target area, like the
Americas, with one "local time", and that being Eastern Time, is a
great mistake. If the BBC has target areas with only one local time
zone, that is different. "Local Time" then can be correct. But the
listings in the April On Air for the Americas reflect the correct
local time for only one part of the continent-wide audience!
As an SWL, I know GMT. I know that serious SW addicts like you LIVE
by GMT. I'm not quite that much taken over by it, but I know what
time it is in GMT automatically (at least most of the year, except
for the "week of confusion" twice a year... :-). But for the BBC On
Air program listings for the Americas to have everything in Eastern
Time is wretched. First off, us midWesterners hate the effete
Easterners, and are annoyed enough by the constant TV-network
references to Eastern time as it is. We don't need to see it on our
SW schedules!
Secondly, we are used to converting GMT/UT to local, as I said, and
throwing a different zone conversion at us makes things next to
impossible to read and understand without wasting far too much time
doing mental arithmetic. And, as someone in the US Central time zone,
adjusting the printed times by one hour is annoying enough. How much
more annoying and mistake-prone will this be for those people in the
North American Mountain and Pacific time zones?
I subscribed to BBC On Air to get a GMT-based listing of all the BBC
SW programming, for all streams and target areas. I often listen to
programs aimed at other targets than the Americas; the BBC forces
this because they omit certain programs from this region's stream or
only air them at times when there is no relay transmission aimed
at us. Now, in order to look at the other region's streams and
determine what is on the air, I have to dig the GMT timings out from
the morass of local times, so it greatly reduces the appeal of the
worldwide printed schedule. I had been thinking about sending in a
renewal of my BBC On Air subscription, but now I wonder if I should
bother to do so. If this timing mess isn't corrected, and GMT isn't
restored to its rightful primary role, with the local times indicated
in a less-prominent fashion, it certainly reduces the value of the
magazine.
I intend to send this same comment on to Write On. I hope it is one
of millions of similar complaints! :-) Regards, (Will Martin, MO,
March 23, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. U.S. Settles Job Bias Case
A Record $508 Million Is Due Women in USIA Dispute
By Bill Miller and David A. Vise
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 23, 2000; Page A01
The federal government agreed yesterday to pay $508 million--the
largest award ever in an employment discrimination case--to end a
lawsuit filed 23 years ago by hundreds of women who said they were
denied jobs and promotions at the U.S. Information Agency and Voice
of America.
The agreement ends a tortured legal battle that began after
Carolee Brady applied for a job as a USIA magazine editor, only to be
told that managers were seeking a man.
Brady's complaint ballooned into a class-action lawsuit, with
roughly 1,100 women alleging that they, too, lost opportunities
because of their gender. Many said they were bypassed in favor of men
with far less experience who scored poorly on hiring tests.
"We never thought this would go on for 23 years," a jubilant Brady
said yesterday.
The settlement calls for the women to share in the award equally,
with each getting about $460,000. Plaintiffs' attorneys, who already
have received $12 million in taxpayer money for 65,000 hours of work,
said the case could have been resolved years ago at a much lower
cost, and taxpayer advocates said they were outraged.
"It is quite unbelievable," said David Sepp, vice president of the
Alexandria-based National Taxpayers Union. "Good prosecutors know
when to cut their losses and move on to the next case. Apparently
when the federal government was on the defensive, they couldn't
figure out the same thing. . . . Such a broad-based, expensive
settlement in government is almost unheard of."
The award is nearly three times as big as the largest private
sector discrimination case ever settled: the $176 million settlement
reached in 1996 by Texaco Inc. to resolve a race discrimination case.
The plaintiffs included women who sought work as international
radio broadcasters, radio broadcast and electronic technicians,
writer/editors and production specialists between 1974 and 1984. The
women said they were relegated to jobs as hostesses instead of
commentators on the USIA's broadcasting arm, Voice of America--put on
the air to break the monotony of the many male announcers. In the
technical field, they said jobs were nearly nonexistent.
One woman, a translator and journalist, contended she was turned
down in favor of a man who worked as an encyclopedia salesman.
Another, who had a doctorate and radio experience, said she lost out
to the son of a Voice of America official.
"It breaks your heart," said Rose Kobylinski, now 79, who once
hosted a Voice of America music program targeted at Poland. "The men
kept getting upgraded, not me."
The Justice Department had contested the women's claims at nearly
every turn. The government initially prevailed in U.S. District Court
in 1979, but an appellate court gave the women another chance. That
led to a 1984 decision by the trial judge that found the government
liable for discrimination, triggering a set of unsuccessful appeals
that dragged on until 1997.
In recent years, government lawyers kept up the fight by
challenging the women's claims about how much they were owed.
Steven A. Saltzburg, the special master who had been hearing the
compensation cases one-by-one, had concluded 48 claims since 1996 and
decided that 46 women were owed a total of $23 million. In light of
his awards, the Justice Department reassessed the case, and a year
ago began the negotiations that led to yesterday's agreement.
Bruce A. Fredrickson, who has represented the women from the
start, praised the Justice Department for showing "enormous courage"
in paying the record amount, which includes back pay and millions of
dollars in interest.
"There are two lessons here," Fredrickson said. "The cost of
discrimination can be enormous, and delay only compounds the cost."
The taxpayers' cost will reach beyond the $508 million because the
federal government has agreed to pay an additional $23 million to the
46 women whose claims had been adjudicated by the special master. In
addition to the $12 million paid to plaintiffs' lawyers so far, the
government must foot the bill for another 25,000 hours of legal work.
The final cost of the settlement, Fredrickson said, likely will reach
$550 million.
Some of the women have gone on to other jobs, including Brady, now
52 and a psychotherapist in San Francisco. About a dozen have died;
their heirs will collect. The judge who initially heard the case,
Charles R. Richey, died in 1997.
At times, Brady said, she thought the case was mired in legal
sludge. Different agencies offered varying reasons yesterday for the
length of time it took to unfold.
"The length of time the case was pending is a by-product of its
size and complexity," said Justice Department spokesman Charles
Miller. "Both sides vigorously advocated their respective positions,
and the resulting delays in bringing the case to a close were an
inherent consequence of that litigation process."
Joe O'Connell, speaking for the Voice of America's Broadcasting
Board of Governors, said the decision to settle was made because it
had gone on long enough.
"It had become clear that postponing the settlement would just
delay the inevitable, and we needed to put this behind us and
concentrate on continuing to improve the areas in which the court
found fault, and compensate those for whom the court provided
remedies," O'Connell said.
The USIA was folded into the State Department last October., State
Department officials said yesterday they moved to settle the matter
soon after becoming involved.
The money for the settlement will come out of the Treasury
Department's "Judgment Fund," which comes from reserves in the
government's general fund budget.
U.S. District Judge James Robertson gave preliminary approval to
the settlement yesterday, but said he will not sign off on the
agreement until the women have a chance to review it and respond at a
hearing June 27.
Staff writer Sharon Walsh contributed to this report.
Copyright 2000 The Washington Post Company (via Mike Cooper) See also
an AP story on the same subject (via George Thurman)
** YUGOSERBIA. R. Yugoslavia`s new sked, note effective date:
Period: 1300 UTC 2 April 2000 to 1330 UTC 29 October 2000
TX site in Bijeljina-Bosnia. All txions with 250 kW of power.
0000-0030 ENGLISH 1 (Exc Sun) 7e,8 N.AM/ce 9580 310
0430-0500 ENGLISH 2 6,7w N.AMERICA/w 9580 325
1830-1900 ENGLISH 3 27,28w EUROPE/w 6100 310
2100-2130 ENGLISH 4 27,28 EUROPE 6100 310
2200-2230 ENGLISH 5 (Exc Sat) 55s,58,59 AUS 7230 100
(ADDX Andreas Volk, Germany, Mar 21 via Wolfgang Bueschel, and via
Bob Padula; we excerpted English for DX LISTENING DIGEST. Look for
higher NAm frequencies in May)
** ZIMBABWE. ZBC can now be heard with Windows Media Player live
streams of Radios 1, 2, and 3 at: http://www.zbc.co.zw A live stream
of ZBC TV will be "available soon", according to the website. For a
programme guide and general information about ZBC, go to their older
website at: http://www.africaonline.co.zw/zbc/ (Dave Kernick, hard-
core-dx via DXLD) ###
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