LW channels 252, 225, 216, 270 kHz in 1930-2000UT slot, August 29

LW channels 252, 225, 216, 270 kHz in 1930-2000UT slot, August 29

Longwave test transmission from Sweden

An interesting test transmission will be conducted on 191 kHz from the old longwave transmitter site in Motala, Sweden. More information to follow later.

Polish Radio won't terminate its longwave transmissions

It appeared that the information in the international DX press that the Polish Radio is going to switch off its longwave transmitter is wrong. It appeared first on the EuroRadio forum and later was passed to many DX circles and mailing lists, but there's no such information on the "Jedynka" website, nor in its Facebook page.

Dominique from Poland got interested in the issue and contacted Roman Czejarek, Polish Radio employee and active participant in the construction of the Solec Kujawski transmitter site.

Here is the answer: "I do not know anything about such a plan. No one has given such information, at least here in Poland."

He also gave some interesting facts: The longwave transmitter is 40-50% cheaper for the Polish Radio than the network of FM transmitters. That's because the transmitter site in Solec Kujawski is wholly-owned by the Polish Radio and the FM transmitters are leased from a private company.

3 months ago marked the 15th anniversary of the PR1 longwave transmitter site. On the event, the general director of the Polish Radio said that more than 40% of the PR1 audience is listening to the station via longwave radio. He also said that they receive many listeners' letters from Poland and all over Europe.

In 2012, a new campaign for switching off the longwave transmitter began, but soon the station started to receive many listeners' letters of complain which were then read on the air and it was finally decided that the campaign should be terminated.

Polskie Radio 1 on 225 kHz and Radio Europe 1 on 183 kHz

Longwave closures

Deutschlandfunk and Deutschlandradio Kultur to close on LW

The German national public broadcasters Deutschlandfunk and Deutschlandradio Kultur will disappear from longwave at the end of this year. Wasteful channels are going off the air due to cost considerations. The money saved will be invested in digital terrestrial radio (DAB+). At the end of 2015 the mediumwave transmitters of Deutschlandfunk will also close.

Deutschlandfunk currently still broadcasts through longwave 153 and 207 kHz and seven mediumwave frequencies including 1269 and 549 kHz. Deutschlandradio Kultur broadcasts by means of the longwave frequency 177 kHz. The mediumwave frequency 990 kHz went off last year.

Keeping these transmitters on the air costs Deutschlandfunk and Deutschlandradio Kultur millions of euros a year in electricity costs. All these stations transmit with a fairly high power. The three longwave transmitters are each 500 kW, and the mediumwave transmitters range between 100 and 400 kW.

Meanwhile Deutschlandfunk and Deutschlandradio Kultur can be received on FM and DAB+ in large parts of the country. Further expansion of this network is proceeding rapidly. Earlier this year Deutschlandradio Kultur switched from the obsolete MP2 DAB standard to the modern DAB+, which is also used in the Netherlands.

In 2010 it was agreed that the public broadcasters will only get funding for the rollout of DAB+ if they cut down on other distribution methods. It therefore simply means that the medium- and longwave transmitters must be switched off. Meanwhile, several regional broadcasters have already turned off their AM stations. For example, MDR did so in March 2013.

In the Netherlands, the NPO will scrap the broadcast of Radio 5 via mediumwave in September 2015. Again listeners are advised to switch to DAB+.

(Mike Terry/via mwdx yg)

Polish Radio to close its longwave transmissions

In the same time, information appeared in the open_dx yahoo mailing list that the Polish Radio domestic service is going to switch off its longwave transmitter on 225 kHz by 1st March 2015. The reason, once again, are government cuts.

RTÉ postpones closure of long wave radio service

RTÉ is postponing the closure of its long wave radio transmitter, the Managing Director of RTÉ Radio has told the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications.

Jim Jennings said what was evident was that more time was needed to engage with groups affected.

The closure has been postponed to 19 January 2015.

RTÉ had previously announced that it would be ceasing its service from the Clarkstown long wave transmitter on 27 October and migrating its Radio One service to digital platforms.

Mr Jennings said the decision to cease any RTÉ public service is not something that RTÉ takes lightly or without serious consideration.

He said: "We know that such decisions affect audiences who enjoy and rely on RTÉ's services.

"However, we also know that the public expect us to manage our operations and services efficiently and evolve our services as technology changes and audiences adapt.

"In balancing these broad considerations we have come to the decision that now is the right time to cease our long wave Radio One service after ten years on air."

Mr Jennings said an RTÉ delegation will travel to the UK next week to meet organisations and see if there is a better solution to the long wave issue.

He said RTÉ is doing all it can to engage with community groups.

RTÉ accepts that the window given for closure was too short and a longer window was needed, he added.

Separately, RTÉ News has announced that it is to appoint a new London Correspondent.

RTÉ News and Current Affairs Managing Director Kevin Bakhurst said it would be a smaller operation than before, but "would continue to provide the same high quality of coverage expected by the public of RTÉ News".

Mr Bakhurst said the appointment "has been in our plans for some time, but has been curtailed by the ongoing financial restraints facing RTÉ".

"Thanks to significant savings in closing our old office over the last two years as well as redeploying the staffing costs of the Europe Correspondent post we are now in a position to make an appointment."

The post will be advertised internally in the coming weeks.

RTÉ’s decision to cut long-wave radio service will sever a vital link with Irish abroad

RTÉ has announced the imminent closure of its longwave service, which was the last remaining broadcast radio service still available to the Irish in the UK. The move comes six years after the shutdown of its medium-wave service. At that time, RTÉ officials assured the Irish abroad of its commitment to them, and that the longwave service would continue.

The shutdown, announced with only one month’s notice, is scheduled to take place on October 27th. The news is unlikely to cause a stir in Ireland. RTÉ says 98 per cent of its listeners have other options. Most of us used to spending our days online could be forgiven for wondering why on earth this technology wasn’t mothballed years ago.

Who will be affected? The Irish in the UK, particularly the elderly and vulnerable, will have a vital link with home permanently severed. This is a group that is unlikely to protest. Many won’t even know they’re about to lose their radio service until the day they go to turn it on and it’s not there.
RTÉ has been broadcasting Radio 1 to Britain since 1932. Older people rely on it as a valuable link with a country they left years ago; for many, it is their last link with Ireland.
RTÉ says listeners in the UK can tune into the station on the internet or satellite, but these solutions, which require cost and know-how, will be inaccessible for many. RTÉ’s digital radio alternative, DAB, has no reach in either Britain or the North. Longwave is not perfect: it’s unusable at night, when its signal is overpowered by an Algerian station sharing the same channel. But it keeps people connected during the day, and many people use it to listen to GAA matches from home.
Last week Brendie O’Brien, chairman of the GAA in Britain, described the impending shutdown as “a massive setback to the whole of the Irish community”.

“We have a lot of old people who won’t have any access to Ireland whatsoever once that [the longwave service] goes.” O’Brien described Radio 1’s role in the lives of many emigrants as that of providing “a home from home, and the shutdown would be depriving them of that.”
Six years ago, I was among those who campaigned against RTÉ’s move to shut down medium-wave radio, which also served the Irish community in the UK, because it would adversely affect the emigrants of the 1950s and 1960s.

That generation sent home millions of pounds in remittances and were, in return, largely forgotten by Ireland, until a spate of consciousness-raising in the 1990s. Then the media revealed there were high levels of poverty and isolation among this elderly group.

Ireland began to step up its commitment to Irish emigrants and the diaspora. The appointment of Jimmy Deenihan as Minister of State for the Diaspora is the latest in a series of positive steps. There are blind spots, however, and the shutdown of medium wave and now the shutdown of longwave demonstrate how far we need to go in ensuring we look after the last of that generation of emigrants who gave so much and were given so little in return. It would cost little to continue the service for a few more years, until digital forms of broadcasting become a viable alternative for our oldest citizens. We’re just not there yet.

RTÉ, which turned a pre-tax profit last year of more than €1 million, hasn’t said how much it will save by shutting down the service. The main savings will likely be in power costs. RTÉ has refused an FOI request to reveal those, but a reasonable estimate would suggest the electricity to run the transmitter costs about €150,000 per year.

As for how many people are affected, the facts are unclear. The Irish community in Britain number over 400,000 first-generation Irish alone. They come from a country where more than 80 per cent of people are daily radio listeners. But RTÉ doesn’t count its overseas audience, so we just don’t know.
Will anyone care about the effects of shutdown? The decision-makers at RTÉ seem to be dismissing them. Will the new diaspora minister? Our politicians? The rest of us? Possibly. But we should be aware of what this means: our public broadcaster is severing a vital link with Ireland from a generation that gave so generously when Ireland had so little. It is the oldest, the most vulnerable and the most isolated who will miss it the most. This move should be postponed until there are better options that will suit all the Irish in Britain. Noreen Bowden is a web editor and advocate on Irish diaspora issues. She was formerly director of the Emigrant Advice Network and is the founder of GlobalIrish.ie.

Russia: End of an era for long-wave listeners

Russia has quietly switched off nearly all of its long-wave transmitters, ending almost nine decades of broadcasting - as cost finally catches up on the medium.

At 1am on 9 January, state-run Radio Rossii wound up its broadcast as usual with the national anthem. There was no mention that long-wave transmissions were coming to an end, and the following day listeners found they had to rely on local FM broadcasts and the internet to hear the station. The only state radio station with truly national coverage, Radio Rossii can be compared to BBC Radio 4 with its mix of news, drama and educational programmes.

Long-wave suited Russian broadcasters because a single transmitter could reach a wide area at all times of day and night. But they are expensive, and as most listeners have begun listening on FM, or through cable, satellite and the internet, the authorities decided to bring the service to an end..

Long-wave radio played a role in the Cold War, with the United States building a powerful transmitter near Munich and broadcasting its Russian service on the same frequency as Moscow's programmes. Listeners in parts of the Soviet Union found state radio drowned out by the Voice of America - the US equivalent of the BBC World Service.

A modern radio receiver, tuned to Moscow's 171kHz frequency

Long-wave radio broadcasting has become a victim of technology and finance
Now only one LW transmitter remains in the country, broadcasting Radio Kavkaz to the North Caucasus region on a limited schedule.

The BBC says that although it is planning to end its use of long-wave radio at some time in the future, there is no specific date for the closure of its Radio 4 transmissions on 198 kHz, much loved by listeners of the shipping forecast and Test Match Special.

Radio Rossii still on the air on long-, medium- and shortwave

Radio Rossii is still active on long- and mediumwave although a few months ago VGTRK announced that they will cancel all AM broadcasts by the end of 2013. By 2000UTC on 3 January 2014, the situation is the following:

• the longwave broadcasts from European Russia are still active: 171 kHz (Bolshakovo/75kW) and  261 kHz (Taldom/250kW)
• the mediumwave transmitters on 873 kHz (Lesnoy/250kW, Samara/100kW, St. Petersburg/75kW, Kaliningrad/50kW) are active, too. I can clearly hear them under Radio Moldova Actualitati, which is pretty strong at my location. The audio of the transmitters is not synchronized and is causing strong echo.
• the mediumwave transmitter in Grozny on 1287 kHz is active too, but it's carrying different program, most likely GTRK "Vaynah". Its power is rated at 50kW and provides good reception at my location.

Radio Rossii regional broadcasts on shortwave as well as the European broadcasts on 5905, 6095, 7310 and 12075 kHz are still on the air too.