[Idea! Let's start a thread on English language stations available via wifiradio that at least approximate the shortwave outlets lost or to be lost. I'll start with these two.]
With the continued and steady decline in shortwave English services from Europe (Slovakia and the Czech Republic being only the most recent announcements), there are two prominent ones via wifiradio that I can recommend, one from Austria and the other from Switzerland, that can serve as somewhat of a replacement for lost services on shortwave. 1. ORF-fm4. http://fm4.orf.at/ "FM4 is the fourth and youngest radio station at the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation. FM4 is the brain-child of a group of radio producers who, in 1994, made it their goal to create an on-air space which reflected the increasingly relevant alternative music scene and culture plus the steadily growing alternative music scene in Austria. As of the 16th of January, 1995, FM4 went on air in the form of a six-hour evening program platform on Blue Danube Radio. In 1997, FM4 added another five hours to that programming and the ‘split station’s respective teams decided to unite and come up with a new concept, the result of which turned out to be the ‘new’ FM4 which went on-air as a 24-hour bilingual youth-oriented radio station on January 2nd, 2000. Though bilingual, English is spoken predominatly (all programming is in English from 1 am until 2 pm) [2300-1200 UT - ed.]. The News bulletins are read in English and twice a day, they are even read in French. FM4’s hosts and on-air guests are encouraged to follow FM4’s ‘Native Speaker Principle’ and speak in their mother tongue. FM4 is obligated to present all that’s new and what others may consider ‘risky’ not just on-air but on-line as well. Although it is an official mandate of the public Austrian Broadcasting Corporation to provide quality educational and cultural programming, the passionate and talented FM4 team can’t help but deliver exactly that." [While not Austria Calling or ROI as we remember it, some of the personalities that used to be heard there do show up on fm4 from time to time. For example, Kerry Skyring--a familiar voice from ROI--delivered a newsroom report this morning. http://fm4.orf.at/kerryskyring -ed.] 2. World Radio Switzerland. http://www.worldradio.ch/ http://worldradio.ch/wrs/shows/index.shtml "World Radio Switzerland is part of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, Switzerland’s national public broadcaster. WRS is a national media broadcast in English for Anglophones, Anglophiles and Anglo-professionals in Switzerland who enjoy listening to English-language content and music. It’s the only English-language radio station in Switzerland, available on 101.7 FM in Geneva and on DAB, cable and satellite across the country." [While it's not SRI as we remember it, it is a developing and improving service that at least gives a bit of the kind of flavor of the country that SRI once provided. -ed.] A third, though limited, outlet worth mentioning is from Italy. RAI International and Satelradio broadcasts "Notturno Italiano" from 2300-0500 UT which carries a short news bulletin in English (among other languages) each hour during the program. [Come to think of it, that was all RAI used to provide on shortwave for the most part... -ed.] www.rai.it John Figliozzi Halfmoon, NY _______________________________________________ Internetradio mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/internetradio To unsubscribe: Send an E-mail to [email protected]?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown above.
