Happy 75th anniversary Radio Sweden! #RadioSweden75

Radio Sweden celebrates 75 years on 13 December. It was that grim first December of World War II that the station took to the airwaves in English (a Swedish service started a year earlier). They were mostly heard on shortwave back then,  although the English service of the station left the airwaves a few years back, I listen to their weekday 30 minute podcast several times a week.

The hashtag #RadioSweden75 is being used on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter as listeners are encouraged to share their stories and photos of station memorabilia.

I am fairly sure that Radio Sweden in English with its lovely interval signal and identification was the first station I heard on shortwave back in the 1970s. Their programmes have always shown me an intelligent, liberal-minded and culturally rich country. I was hooked as I became a teenager and have not veered far from their delightful Nordic news and views of the Nordic countries ever since- they remain a favourite and are a voice of reason on what is often an otherwise propaganda-led, rather dumbed-down radio dial. 

I have a smattering of QSL cards which I must photograph and put on Instagram this week, I also have happy memories of their paper schedules, and of proudly wearing a “Keep In Touch - Radio Sweden” T-shirt in dark blue with that familiar Radio Sweden font in yellow, in the early 1980s. I wonder if they still produce such clothing items- a tote bag is available?

The 2014 Swedish General Election coverage was fabulous, as was the Green Party forming the collation government. I hope the 22 March 2015 snap election produces similar successes.

It would be nice to hear relays of Radio Sweden programmes return to shortwave on Global 24 Radio. I hope they sign up, as many other stalwart shortwave stations already have re-established a shortwave voice this way since October 2014.

Happy 75^th anniversary Radio Sweden! Have a listen to them, both their daily programmes and their archive material.

Good news on SW: Global 24 & Voice of Mongolia

Some good shortwave news for a change!

Hats off to Radio 700 in Kall, Germany. Their trial relays of the Voice of Mongolia’s English service in early autumn resulted in such a deluge of correspondence to both Radio 700 and The Voice of Mongolia that the arrangement is continuing to the end of 2014 (and hopefully beyond).

Don’t miss out on these three opportunities every day to hear the Voice of Mongolia. Tune to 7310kHz at 1600 to 1630 UTC; 6005kHz from 1700 to 1730 UTC; and 3985kHz at 2000 UTC.  You can email reception reports and comments to vom_en@yahoo.com or write to: Voice Of Mongolia, English Section, CPO Box 365, Ulaanbaatar 13, Mongolia

Good news too that from today, 31 October, at 2300 UTC  you can tune to 9395kHz for hours of quality English  programming from Global 24.

"Eire viva España"- sign RTE and REE petitions!

Fight the cuts to Radio Exterior de España on shortwave and also the proposed end to Radio Telefis Eireann (RTE 1) on 252kHz  long wave.

Please sign these two petitions, links below.

"We are requesting that RTE keep its broadcasting services to the Irish in Britain. This move was done with no consultation with its listeners, and will be a significant loss to the whole Irish community." https://www.change.org/p/rte-don-t-cut-off-the-irish-in-britain

The petition against the closure of Radio Exterior de España  is at http://tinyurl.com/ka2vegt Although the station has been taken off of the air, Radio Exterior de España presenter Alison Hughes asked people to sign this petition to the Spanish government, to try and reverse the decision.

Adios amigos, Good night Madrid

Radio Exterior de Espaňa QSL card 

Extracts below from Broadcast Matters by Chrissy Brand, for Radio User, 2014. 

Two autumns ago Radio Exterior de Espaňa was under threat of shortwave cuts but it managed to hang on. A new management structure was implemented at the station in the summer and it was announced on the Listeners’ Club programme that from later this month the Radio Exterior de Espaňa are giving up use of their shortwave transmitter site at Noblejas, due to the vast amounts of electricity that it uses. The Nobeljas transmitter site, in the province of Toledo, first came into operation in 1971, replacing a weaker transmitter which was sited at Arganda del Ray.

I hoped that the station’s new management would not take the decision to close the English service. It has always been small in number with Alison Hughes, Frank Smith and Justin Coe being the mainstay of the presenting team, however, the range of quality programmes has always been stunning. 

I’ll be downloading podcasts when their shortwave services close (http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/audios/emision-en-ingles). I hope that an online presence with the same programming is retained.

Programmes and features I enjoyed on REE over the summer included North by Southwest visiting La Case del Lector in Madrid for a European publishing conference, the weekly press reviews, and other bizarre items such as the falling cedars and pine trees in Madrid’s Retiro Park. I enjoy REE’s musical features too, such as offerings from the summer Mar de Músicas Festival in Cartagena.

Listeners’ Club was a must-listen, although sometimes I feel sorry for the presenters having to explain time and again that they are no longer in a position to send QSL cards out (although they did issue one for their 70^th anniversary a few years back). The English Service (and I daresay their other language services too) receive letters from all over the world. Listeners and DXers from Bangladesh, Canada, India, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the USSA had written or emailed in to recent editions of Listeners’ Club that I heard but it was almost embarrassing to hear so many of them seemingly writing in solely in pursuit of a QSL card.

Although comments were made on the programme content too, it served as a reminder to me that the remaining shortwave stations are often dependent on listener contributions to make up such programmes: we should try and ask interesting questions and give feedback. It helps a station monitor and estimate its audience numbers and I would think a station has a better chance of survival (whether that is on shortwave or online) if it can prove its audience is engaged with successively and is responsive to the programme content rather than only requesting freebies, such as pens, stickers and QSL cards.

Radio in Bulgaria, Greece, Portugal...

Extracts below from Radio Websites by Chrissy Brand, for Radio User, 2014. 

It's time to track down some former shortwave broadcasters and see what they are up to. Radio Bulgaria is running a series marking 80 years of radio in the country. It will last for 80 weeks and you can hear the latest and previous programmes by going to  http://bnr.bg/en/post/100423681/bnr-80-years-in-80-weeks-peter-uvaliev-and-the-bnr-international-service

Radio Bulgaria and their Facebook page cover more recent events too at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Radio-Bulgaria-English-Service/314692588565772 The exploits of tennis star Grigor Dimitrov, a jazz festival in Stara Zagora (the city of the linden trees) and young Bulgarian rock band PSS have all featured of late. PSS are fronted by Sandra Petrova and cover the genres of alternative rock mixed with blues and progressive motifs. There is also a great online magazine called Zoom which almost makes up for Bulgaria's lack of shortwave activity (almost!) http://bnr.bg/en/page/zoom


The Greek state broadcaster ERT was replaced last year by NERIT and has still been heard on shortwave. NERIT now has a website at http://www.nerit.gr/ Like many other radio stations' websites it's modern, clear and easy on the eye; packed with photos and news stories. In the absence of Greek radio in English I go here instead to read up on Greek news and views, although as with all state-run broadcasters I also search out alternative opinions from people on the street via social media.


Radio Portugal's English service left shortwave late last century. RDP has a website at http://www.rtp.pt/radio/where you can hear the eight national broadcasters in Portuguese- with a range of music stations. For English you have to head for the Algarve and Kiss FM's programmes for holidaymakers at http://www.kissfm.pt/

London Shortwave is a blogger I've mentioned before at http://london-shortwave.blogspot.co.uk/ who is more active these days with his videos on You Tube . The channel has the over complex address of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOX41wIS1Qk&feature=youtu.be I created a shortened url of http://tinyurl.com/prsa6qo for you through Tiny url


He shows in various videos how he is set up receive shortwave in every room, based on "a drawing from the 1930s issue of a shortwave listening magazine, my way of listening to what's being received in my radio shack wirelessly around the house." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCTrSZdZOGk

Another YouTuber who uploads interesting radio recordings and videos can be found at https://www.youtube.com/user/qwertyamdx with recent catches of Polish Radio, Radio France International and a wonderful sign on from Oblastnoye Radio Mogilev in Belarus on 7255 kHz.

Amoeba, Jersey City and California

Extracts below from Radio Websites by Chrissy Brand, for Radio User, 2014. 

The Amoeba blog covers music and sometimes radio from California. There are several contributors which ensures plenty of different views. http://www.amoeba.com/blog

Recent posts include gig reviews of an amazing band from the city of angels, called Kan Wakan (http://www.kanwakan.com ) They are hard to describe but the combination of organ, guitars, strings and a melodic female vocalist all make for a heady sound. Their new album "Moving On" is already one of my summer favourites.  Amoeba major in music but other arts are also covered, mostly in the USA but also globally.

They have links with the great alternative radio station from Jersey City, WFMU, which has been on air since the 1950s. http://www.wfmu.org It's also streamed online of course and is a station I often turn to when I am in an eclectic mood. Their playlist covers "flat-out uncategorizable strangeness to rock and roll, experimental music, 78 RPM records, jazz, psychedelia, hip-hop, electronica, hand-cranked wax cylinders, punk rock, gospel, exotica, R&B, radio improvisation, cooking instructions, classic radio airchecks, found sound, dopey call-in shows, interviews with obscure radio personalities and notable science-world luminaries, spoken word collages, Andrew Lloyd Webber soundtracks in languages other than English as well as Country and western music." So that is just about something for everyone. If you use Facebook there are extras snippets posted there too. https://www.facebook.com/wfmuradio

International Radio Festival Zurich 21 August to 7 Sept #irfradiofest

Several international radio stations will meet to celebrate all things "Radio" and broadcasting live as part of the “On Air” programme at the 5th International Radio Festival. They include BBC Radio 1, Kiss92 Singapore and Dubai Star FM Dubai coming to Zurich to celebrate all things radio.  This year’s is running from 21st August to 7th September 2014 transforming Zurich’s Kaufleuten Club & restaurant into a place for music lovers. The IRF radio studio will host live shows by international radio broadcasters presenting a multi-faceted programme with guests, food and drinks on the terrace and of course lots of music. The International Radio Festival can be heard on 104.1 MHz (Zurich Nord) and 96.9 MHz (Zurich South) and online around the world, and back home where the IRF radio guests originate from. Radio stations broadcasting as part of the “On Air” programme include; BBC Radio One, Kiss FM Berlin, Kiss92 Singapore, RTL102.2 Milano, Star FM Dubai, Radio Nova Paris, Radio Romantika Moscow, XFM UK, SRF Virus Switzerland, Soho London Radio, Radio 24 Zurich, Ibiza Sonica, Radio Fiume Ticino, and web radio Creatures Of The Night. Each station will broadcast a radio show with its own music programme in their local language. The IRF is the only international radio festival in the world which broadcasts an on-air program, celebrating the most consumed and most influential medium in the world – radio. The boutique event has blossomed into one of the most important meetings of the global radio landscape, welcoming radio producers, industry professionals and radio jockeys from around the world to join together in Zurich. One of the show highlights will be Tony Prince presenting "Flashback Radio" the best of 50 years of Radio Caroline and Radio Luxembourg with many original interviews from the past. 50 years ago the ship was anchored under the Panamanian flag in the North Sea and Prince aka "Your Royal Ruler" was a crew member infamous MV Fredericia. Radio Caroline was a fundamental part in the revolution of the British music industry giving young people to access pop music, which had previously been withheld from them. Other highlights include Kiss FM creator Gordon Mac and his new Mi-Soul internet radio, Acid Jazz founder Eddie Piller from Soho Radio and film and music composers Lionel and Diego Baldenweg of Great Garbo. SwissRadioDay On Wednesday, 3rd September the IRF will celebrate SwissRadioDay with a programme designed by Swiss radio stations including; Switzerland’s number one station Radio24 Zurich, SRF Radio Virus, Radio GRRIF, Radio Fiume Ticino and Radio 105. IRF B2B Forum In addition to the live broadcasts the IRF also features an exclusive B2B Forum, bringing together people who are passionate about radio from around the world to deliberate, collaborate and network to discover the future trends and evolution of their Industry. This year’s forum will be an informal round table discussion headed up by Tony Prince and new and IRF Advisory Board President Gordon Mac on "UK radio yesterday and tomorrow". All frequencies and the detailed programme can be found at www.internationalradiofest.com www.radioday.ch and www.kaufleuten.ch/ Listen to shows from previous editions on Mixcloud here: www.mixcloud.com/IRF See photos from the event here: www.flickr.com/photos/internationalradiofestival/ See what people in radio say about the IRF here: www.internationalradiofest.com/what-the-radios-say/