On February 11 2011 at 8 AM local time all medium wave stations carrying
KNR
(Radio Greenland) - Upernavik (810 kHz), Uummannaq (900 kHz),
Qeqertarsuaq
(650 kHz), Nuuk (570 kHz) og Simiutaq (720 kHz) - will be switched off
for
good, and the transmitters will be dismantled. On the same day the relays
of
KNR newscasts twice daily via Tasiilaq 3815 kHz will also cease.
The decision has been taken by the Ministry of Housing, Infrastructure
and
Transport in the Government of Greenland.
After February 11 2011 KNR will only be available via Low Power FM-radio
in
inhabited areas of Greenland. Thus no coverage of the waste country
outside
the towns and villages - and KNR will no longer be available for the
fishermen at sea nor the Inuit population in Canada.
The decision was made because the transmitters were getting old and too
costly to maintain. Besides - very few people are using the MW
transmissions.
Weather forecasts will be available for fishermen and others via VHF
coastal
radio.
At a point it was considered replacing the aging MW transmitters with one
or
two new SW AM-transmitters near Nuuk, but it was estimated that it would
cost 4 million DKK (535.000 euro) to establish such a new SW operation.
It
was also felt that few listeners would invest in a SW receiver and the
quality would be 'doubtful' - suffering from 'atmospheric phenomena'. So
these plans were given up.
Full report (in Danish) here:
http://www.radionyt.com/artikel/default.asp?id=18070
Best 73s
Stig Hartvig Nielsen