Month: March 2023

United Kingdom

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In an exciting rebrand, West Sound will be changing our name to Greatest Hits Radio Ayrshire in April 2023 as we join Scotland’s first ever nationwide commercial station [1035 kHz].

In April 2023, Bauer Scotland stations, West Sound in Ayrshire, and West Sound in Dumfries & Galloway, Clyde 2, Forth 2, MFR 2, Northsound 2, Tay 2, will all unite under one name and rebrand to Greatest Hits Radio. Listeners across Scotland can recognise the Greatest Hits Radio name as they listen to their favourite music soundtrack of the greatest songs from the 70s, 80s and 90s, along with presenters they know and love
https://planetradio.co.uk/westsound/station/on-air/greatest-hits-radio-ayrshire-information/

Mark Hattam to mwcircle iog (2023-03-23)

Turkey

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Translated from French:
TRT intends to reinvest in medium waves following the earthquake.
In 2008, TRT turned off its medium and long wave transmitters or reduced broadcast time to a few hours a day without any explanation. These broadcasts were listened to by Turks but also by many citizens of Greece, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan and other neighboring countries of the Black Sea and Mediterranean basin.
TRT hoped to see its listeners migrate to satellite reception, but it was not successful. For many listeners, there was no possibility of installing satellite dishes, whether on the move, in buildings but also in neighboring countries where the authorities are hunting for satellite dishes.
TRT preferred to ignore that medium wave and long wave was the most reliable means in the event of a disaster or in the event of war, to the chagrin of the Civil Services Directorate of Total Defense which was not heard.
13 years later, Turkey is facing the biggest earthquake it has ever known. Although RTÜK has the ability to order all TV and radio stations to switch to singlecast in an emergency, the measure is proving illusory. Mobile networks and the Internet were impacted, as were FM and television transmitters.
Only medium waves could still be broadcast from transmitters located outside the impacted area. TRT Radyo 1 returned to the Mersin Kazanlı transmitter (36°49’29.4″N 34°44’28.7″E) with its 300 kW on 630 kHz, all day long, instead of local broadcasts which n only aired a few hours a day. These broadcasts can be accessed from anywhere in the affected region, from any battery-powered radio.
The TRT “discovers” as well as the broadcasting in medium waves remains the least expensive method of communication and the only one valid in the face of earthquakes.
Luckily, following pressure, TRT stopped the medium waves while keeping five of the twelve installations in working order. The remaining transmitters continued to broadcast for a few hours a day.
A chance that they did not act like many European countries, by destroying the transmitters and the antennas.
Now, the TRT is looking for medium wave transmitters to renew its fleet. These would be recent transmitters that have been withdrawn from service in another European country.

Medium wave frequencies.
Antalya Aksu (36°55’38.8″N 30°56’30.4″E) 600kW reduced to 100 kW 891 kHz
Izmir Tobali (38°14’59.1″N 27°15’29.7″E) 200 kW reduced to 100 kW 927 kHz
Mersin Kazanlı (36°49’29.4″N 34°44’28.7″E) 300kW 630kHz
Diyarbakır Çınar (37°49’10.5″N 40°19’05.2″E) 300 kW 1062 kHz
Trabzon Deliktas (40°59’13.4″N 39°46’02.5″E) 300 kW reduced to 100kW 954 kHz

Radio Magazine FB group (2023-03-22)

United States

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The Courtesy Program Committee (CPC) of the International Radio Club of American (IRCA) and the National Radio Club (NRC) are pleased to announce the 2023 “Spring into DX” tests from the Bluegrass State! Stay up late with us on Saturday night/Sunday morning as WWKY 990 in Winchester, KY and WMST 1150 in Mount Sterling, KY will both be conducting maintenance tests for two full hours. 

The test starts at one minute after midnight 00:01 AM EDT, Sunday morning March 26 (0400 UTC) and lasts until 2 AM EDT (0600 UTC). Both stations will run at their daytime power and pattern. That’s 2,500 watts for WMST and 1,000 watts for WWKY. Snagging this dynamic duo will be a challenge. To help make it easier, the station is broadcasting some of the best DX test material available. 

The test will consist mostly of sweep tones, Morse code at 20WPM & 12 WPM (1 kHz), 1kHz long tones, and proven sound effects to cut through the noise. The stations also plan to run some “special programming” that is sure to be fun. 

CREDITS

This “Spring Into DX” test is a direct result of the outreach efforts of Harry Dence and the generosity of Hays McMakin of Gateway Radio Works, Inc., who own both stations. Again, Hays and his team had to work around high school basketball and March Madness to make this test go, so you have our thanks. Kudos to our all-volunteer CPC team as well! 

Thank you Hays McMakin! 

QSL INFORMATION

The usual rules for a CPC-scheduled test apply: 

  • Email reception reports to dx@highnoonfilm.com
  • Reception reports must be received within 30 days (May 10, 2023) 
  • QSLs for all DX Tests from the 2021-2022 will be answered when the season is over. Be patient.
  • Reception reports must include a recording of no more than two minutes in length. .MP3, .WAV or .MP4 video accepted. 

SEE YOU THIS COMING LATE NIGHT SATURDAY/EARLY SUNDAY FOR THE “SPRING INTO DX” TEST! 

73,

Les Rayburn, N1LF to mwcircle iog (2023-03-21)

Norway

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The Northern Star stations update:
Radio station “The Sea“-soon to close down, but will be kept in storage.

Some changes in our radio operations from February 6th, March 14th, with more to come as of April 1st, 2023.
On February 6th, our mother station Radio Northern Star came back to 1611 kHz Medium Wave leaving our Country station “The Sea” on Shortwave and streaming only. From March 14th in the morning “The Sea” has left the AM Band permanently. It also at the same time swapped streaming address with Bergen FM station Kysten/The Coast and is available until the end of the month here:
http://kysten.cc/stream

Kysten/The Coast holds a Norwegian FM license for Mid-Vestland, is owned by Radiogudstenesta and is produced by Northern Star. It has a similar format to “The Sea” (Classic Country/Scandinavian/General Gospel music) and since March 14th is sharing 5895 kHz shortwave with our classic rock and pop station Radio Northern Star.
It is on FM 93.8 MHz each day 1000-1100, Sundays also 1100-1300, also broadcasting programs of VFG Voice of the Free Gospel, Norea Radio and P7 Christian Radio Norway.
The address for reception reports is the same as before: 1000 at northernstar.no

Also on March 31st “The Sea” will be shut down, but will be kept intact. A later return with a new format is possible later.
Country music may also get more airtime on our mother station, The Northern Star, which already since many years is broadcasting Emperor Rosko’s “Coast to Coast Country Connection”.

Northern Star Media Services holds 3 AM licences, 1 FM digital test license, produces Kyst-FM/The Coast, and by April 1st has 2 web radio stations streaming from abroad.

Thanks for listening!
www.northernstar.cc
1000 at northernstar.no

Svenn Martinsen on Facebook (2023-03-20)

United States

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3 Towers Broadcasting has purchased Full Service Classic Hits 1050 WTCA/106.1 W291BQ Plymouth IN from Kathy and Jim Bottorff’s Community Service Broadcasting for an undisclosed amount.

3 Towers will begin operating WTCA via Time Brokerage Agreement on April 1 and intend to bring their “Giant FM” brand to the station. The company operates digital news publications in conjunction with each of its radio properties and intends to launch MarshallCountyPost.com alongside WTCA.

The Johnny McCrory and Scott Huber led 3 Towers Broadcasting also owns 1520 WSVX/96.5 W243CL Shelbyville/106.3 W292FH Greenfield and 92.1 WROI Rochester IN, and operates 94.3 WREB Greencastle IN via LMA with a purchase still pending. All operate under the “Giant-FM
https://radioinsight.com/headlines/250079/3-towers-broadcasting-acquires-wtca/

Lance Venta, RadioInsight (2023-03-21)

United States

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Following the move of Classic Country “Big Country” from 107.1 WKBE Corinth/Glens Falls to 1230 WMML/97.9 W250CC Glens Falls earlier this month, Pamal Broadcasting flipped WKBE to a simulcast of “100.9 The Cat” WKLI-FM Albany today.

The move gives The Cat a signal in the northern portions of the Albany market including Saratoga to better match Townsquare Media’s 107.7 WGNA-FM. It also creates format overlap with co-owned Country “Froggy 100.3” WFFG-FM Warrensburg/Glens Falls.

WKLI-FM is currently ranked thirteenth in the Albany/Schenectady/Troy market with a 1.7 share in the January 2023 Nielsen Audio ratings. WGNA-FM is tied for fourth in the market with a 5.5 share.
https://radioinsight.com/headlines/250087/the-cat-expands-in-albany-area/

Lance Venta, RadioInsight (2023-03-21)

IRCA Reprints

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The International Radio Club’s Reprints collection of over 1100 articles about antennas, radio propagation, receivers, accessories, plus items of general interest to MW DXers, continues to grow.   We’ve published an update to the index, at
http://dxer.ca/images/stories/2019/irca-reprint-index.pdf , so that everyone can get access to these latest additions.  (also accessible
at https://www.ircaonline.org/ “Free IRCA Reprints” button)

The latest update includes items from DX Monitor up the end of June 2022. as well as many items of interest from elsewhere, used with permission.

Added items in this update are marked “(NEW)”,  plus there are a few updated articles as well.

Please pass on this information to others as you see fit. (if you’ve used the index before, you may need to refresh your
browser page to see the latest update, dated December 2022)

Nick Hall-Patch, Victoria, BC, Canada (2023-03-21)