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BBC IN TALKS WITH U.S. NETWORKS NBC AND ABC. About forming international joint ventures in programming and channel distribution. Dream job: BBC will appoint "director of international channels." Financial Times, 31 January 2005. BBC World, the global English news channel, launches new "putting news first" promos in on National Geographic and Hallmark channels, and on BBC World itself. MediaWeek, 26 January 2005.U.S. Defense Science Board senior fellow calls BBC World Service (radio) "spectacularly effective in telling the truth around the world." Armed Forces Information Service, 25 January 2005.

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS AND RADIOSCAPE IN DRM DEAL. Will provide a "cost effective platform for designing consumer receivers" for Digital Radio Mondiale, a digital transmission system for shortwave, medium wave, and longwave. DRM still lacks cheap receivers with reasonable battery consumption. TI press release, 31 January 2005.

RADIO SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL EXPLAINS SHORTWAVE DXING. With help from Finnish DXer Mika Makelainen. RSI "Undertones" program, 31 January 2005.

AL JAZEERA UNDER THE PRESS SPOTLIGHT. New York Times reports Qatar may sell the station to sidestep pressure from United States. "Shouting matches" within Bush Administration between those who want to shut down Al Jazeera and those prefer to work with it. Via Seattle Times, 30 January 2005. Al Jazeera ranks fifth in readers' vote on brands with most global impact. Brandchannel.com, 31 January 2005. And has largest audience among Egyptian satellite television viewers. Per Arab Advisors Group: Al Jazeera 88%, Al Arabiya 35%, Nile News 9%, CNN (English) 7%, Alhurra 5%, BBC (English) 3%. But news account doesn't say if this is daily or weekly or what. Mena Report, 26 January 2005. Reporters Sans Frontières criticizes treatment of Al Jazeera by Saudi Arabia, USA, Algeria, Iran, Tunisia, Canada, and Iraq. RSF, 27 January 2005.

SHORTWAVE SUCCESS STORY. Interview with Tin Htar Swe, head of BBC Burmese Service. With tightly controlled government media monopoly, Burma has one of the largest audiences for international shortwave broadcasts, and BBC is the most popular Burmese-language service. She describes succinctly the mission of successful international broadcasting: "Our job is to give an accurate and balanced account so that people are better informed, enabling the listeners to form their own views. Our medium is not only to help keep people informed but also to give an opportunity for the listeners to express their views. This is important for people in a country where there is a lack of freedom of expression." The Irrawaddy, 30 January 2005.

THE SOUTH PACIFIC IS ANOTHER PLACE WHERE THEY STILL LISTEN TO SHORTWAVE. "In the Banks and Torres, they listen to Solomon Islands radio, or Radio Australia short wave. They can't hear VBTC, our national broadcaster." The Independent, Vanuatu, 30 January 2005. In the Cook Islands, shortwave came to the rescue, for news and e-mail, when the Intelsat IS-804 satellite failed, New Zealand Herald, 19 January 2005.

GERMANY CALLING GERMAN POW'S. At prisoner of war camp in Texas, sixty years ago. "German inmates found ways to convert 80 percent of the ordinary AM radios in the camp into short-wave radios so they could listen to German broadcasts of the war news -- a more optimistic and inaccurate version than American networks were airing." Dallas Morning News, 29 January 2005. (Free registration required. That was the only sentence that referred to shortwave. There might be more information in Michael Waters, Lone Star Stalag: Prisoners of War at Camp Hearne, Texas A&M Press).

WRN INKS ANOTHER DEAL WITH CRI. London based World Radio Network will continue to provide rebroadcasting and satellite services for China Radio International. This was followed by the usual discussion of "issues of mutual interest" and, I'll bet, some great Chinese food. WRN press release, 28 January 2005.

WHAT HAPPENS TO OLD SHORTWAVE TRANSMITTING STATIONS? At VOA Bethany (Ohio) facility: leaky roof, failed boiler, conversion to a museum. Cincinnati Enquirer, 27 January 2005.
 
DEATH OF ZHAO ZIYANG POINTS OUT CONTINUING NEED FOR INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING. News about the former Communist Party chief, who sympathized with the Tiananmen protesters in 1989, was largely unreported in China, blocked from the internet, South China Morning Post via Asia Pacific Media Center, 18 January 2005, and even scissored out of foreign newspapers, Chosun Ilbo, 19 January 2005. This was presaged in David Wall's commentary about the lack of sensitive political news in the PRC, Japan Times, 10 January 2005. Reporters Sans Frontières says foreign TV channels were blocked, RSF, 28 January 2005. Radio Free Asia helped fill the void, including exclusive broadcast rights to a eulogy by Zhao's aide Bao Tong, RFA, 17 January 2005. Presumably "exclusive" means the archrival of U.S. government funded RFA, U.S. government funded Voice of America, could not use the story. But VOA puts a better signal into China because of its exclusive use of relay facilities in Thailand and the Philippines. So RFA had the story, and VOA had the signal, demonstrating again that U.S. international broadcasting remains an unassembled kit.

NEW MAJOR WHITE PAPER ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY BY DISTINGUISHED PANEL. Du jour. Public Diplomacy Council calls for a billion here, a billion there... Kim's notes, 26 January 2005.

BUSH'S SECOND TERM: BIG PLANS FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY. But his Secretary of State designate Condoleezza Rice acknowledges the "line" between the State Department and U.S. international broadcasting. Kim's analysis, 22 January 2005.

ALHURRA POSITIONING ITSELF AS OFFICIAL STATION OF THE IRAQI ELECTION. Broadcasts debate of candidates from six parties. Alhurra press release, 21 January 2005. Alhurra continues to receive press attention from all perspectives: Arab News, 20 January 2005, The Sunday Times, 16 January 2005, Human Events, 11 January 2005.  

DEUTSCHE WELLE HELPING TO REBUILD RADIO STATIONS IN TSUNAMI-STRICKEN ACEH. DW press release, 20 January 2005. International religious broadcaster HCJB donating two FM transmitters to Aceh, The Christian Post, 20 January 2005. My friend Jonathan Marks has developed a special website looking at the reaction by broadcasters to the Tsunami disaster in Asia. Will international broadcasters sound the warning -- next time? Crackpot commentator thinks international broadcasters can alert audiences to incoming disasters. Radio Netherlands Media Network, 6 January 2005.

BROADCASTING BOARD OF GOVERNORS CHAIRMAN TOMLINSON PRAISES RADIO SAWA. "Reaction has been fantastic from listeners." AP via Newsmax, 15 January 2005. He was responding to recommendations from State Department Inspector General, AP via Fort Wayne News Sentinel, 13 January 2005. Crackpot commentator wrote about this IG report back in October: Radio Netherlands Media Network, 28 October 2004. It refers to a Washington Post  article available here (cursor down to USA): DX Listening Digest, 14 October 2004.

NO PAKISTANI GOVERNMENT PRESSURE IN ELIMINATION OF VOA FM OUTLETS. According to unnamed U.S. official. Daily Times, Pakistan, 12 January 2005. Original report in Daily Times, 1 January 2005.

RFE/RL JOINT ARMENIAN/AZERBAIJANI/GEORGIAN PROGRAM TO "HELP BRIDGE THE DIVISIONS" IN THE SOUTH CAUCASUS. Produced in cooperation with OSCE and the German technical cooperation agency GTZ. RFE/RL press release, 7 January 2005.

POST-TSUNAMI CALLS FOR A REVIVED RADIO AUSTRALIA. Labor Party shadow foreign minister laments sale of Darwin shortwave facility, commenting in The Australian 5 January 2005, interviewed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation 7:30 Report, 7 January 2005. Radio Australia director says that a 24-hour service would have helped station assist with tsunami recovery, The Border Mail, Wodonga, Victoria, 5 January 2005.

CUTS AT RADIO CAIRO. One of the largest international broadcasters in terms of transmission hours and number of languages (33), will be reduced to eleven languages. This according to Tarek Zeidan in Egypt, who called us on VOA's Talk to America, 31 December. Details to follow...

IRAN BROADCASTS TO ISRAEL, IN HEBREW, ON "KOL DAVID." Article does not mention that Kol Israel is slated to end its shortwave broadcasts in March, including Persian to Iran. Jerusalem Post, 30 December 2004. 

ANDY SENNITT COMPILED AN EXCELLENT REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING IN 2004. So I won't even try. Radio Netherlands Media Network, 22 December 2004.

U.S. ONLINE NEWS USERS RATE BBCNEWS.COM HIGHLY. More precisely, American users of elite news sites who responded to a pop-up survey. BBC World Service press release, 20 December 2004.

BROADCASTING IN AFAR FROM AFAR. Former ambassador calls for more U.S. public diplomacy to the Horn of Africa, VOA broadcasts in Somali and Afar. USINFO.state.gov, 20 December 2004.

GERMANY CALLING (VIA THE WEB). I don't know if germany.info is new, but I just heard an advertisement (underwriting announcement) for it on a local public radio station, during the "Thistle and Shamrock," a program about music from Ireland and Scotland. Doesn't that make complete sense? Germany.info, from the German Embassy in Washington, is a good example of public diplomacy as opposed to international broadcasting, which is the purview of Deutsche Welle.

INTELLIGENCE REFORM ACT INCLUDES LANGUAGE ON INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING. Involves Arab and Muslim audiences gathering around their televisions to watch broadcasts promoting U.S. values.  Kim reports, 17 December 2004

COLD WAR MODEL WON'T WORK TO COMBAT TERRORISM. According to Cokie and Steve Roberts in critique of Bush Administration public diplomacy effort. Syndicated column via Decatur Daily Democrat, 17 December 2004.

MACEDONIA CALLING WESTERN EUROPE, USING DRM AND 720 KW, ON 810 KHZ. And what did Europeans hear on 801 and 819 kHz?  Thales Broadcast press release, 16 December 2004

HOW TO FIGHT JIHADI TV CHANNELS? Ban them. Then create a new bureaucracy, oops, sorry, political action arm to launch pro-Western radio and TV channels.  Tech Central Station, 15 December 2004

THEY'RE STILL BASHING CHARLOTTE BEERS. From five different directions, no less.  Common Dreams, 13 December 2004

HOW TO WIN IRAQI SUPPORT?  Magazine asks "propaganda scholars."  Government Executive, 13 December 2004

LARGE AUDIENCES FOR RADIO FREE AFGHANISTAN IN (APPROPRIATELY) AFGHANISTAN. Also for that other U.S. station. RFE/RL press release, 10 December 2004

IN IRAQ, RADIO SAWA'S HOT, ALHURRA'S NOT. Says returning Washington Post Baghdad bureau chief. USC Center on Public Diplomacy, 10 December 2004

NEXT GENERATION VOA VIA DISPOSABLE TELEVISIONS? Consulting firm suggests "positive messages," in which case the audience may well want to throw them away. Gizmag, 8 December 2004

PSYOPS LOOKS TO AD AGENCIES TO MAKE "SLICK" AUDIO, VIDEO, PRINT AND WEB PACKAGES. See store for details. St. Petersburg Times, 8 December 2004