18 June 2003

Dutch Royal couple expecting first child The Government Information Service has confirmed that Princess Máxima, the wife of Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, is expecting a child in mid-January. The child will become second in line to the throne. The news is being received with great joy, as the Argentinian-born Princess Máxima has quickly become a much-loved member of the Dutch Royal Family. There will, however, be questions about the manner in which the news broke. It became public through the unlikely channel of commercial broadcaster Business Nieuws Radio, which had apparently seen a copy of a personal E-mail sent by the Princess to a friend, confirming she was pregnant. News of this kind is normally sent out via the Government Information Service, which was wrong-footed by the decision of Business Nieuws Radio to broadcast the news. Public broadcasters here, including Radio Netherlands, have traditionally observed strict protocol in matters relating to the Royal Family. 8:26:51 PM     comment on this entry []

Radio Jackie comes home to SW London I'm indebted to Rob Lee for drawing my attention to the fact that Radio Jackie Ltd., the company that ran the most famous - and arguably the most professional - of all the UK landbased pirate radio stations, has bought ailing Thames Radio for the princely sum of one pound. The transfer was approved by the Radio Authority in April, and already some of the great broadcasters from Radio Jackie's past are re-emerging. Radio Jackie always operated as a community radio station for South West London, so taking over an established community station on 107.8 MHz should be simple. We published this story about Radio Jackie nearly three years ago, and as Rob Lee points out, it now needs an update! Congratulations to Tony Collis on finally fulfilling his dream to run a *legal* community station for South West London. I've seen reports that they're going to change the name to Radio Jackie: that really would be the icing on the cake, and a tribute to all the people who worked on the original station between the late 1960's and 1985. 12:08:36 PM     comment on this entry []

Trouble at Media Network (the Iraqi one) Reuters is reporting that media employees in Baghdad have threatened a strike that would put two US-backed radio stations and a TV channel off the air. The employees of the Iraqi Media Network, set up by the US-led administration after the fall of Saddam, said they had yet to be paid. "We are working 12 hours a day and we have received nothing but promises," said Eman Sadaq, a presenter. 11:15:56 AM     comment on this entry []

Don't mention the report It was good to hear from Wojtek Gwiazda of the RCI Action Committee at Radio Canada International. Wojtek writes: Don't know if you're aware, but the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage came out with a massive report on Canadian broadcasting (872 pages) called "Our Cultural Sovereignty" and among its 97 recommendations, one that RCI be strengthened. Details at: http://www.geocities.com/rciaction/HeritageCttee20030611.html What's a bit strange is that neither CBC, nor our own management has informed staff. This morning (Wednesday, 18 June) they'll get a note from the RCI Action Committee. The entire text of the report is on the Heritage Committee Web site at http://www.parl.gc.ca/InfoComDoc/37/2/HERI/Studies/Reports/herirp02-e.htm The text on RCI is in Chapter 7, in the section on International Services. 11:03:26 AM     comment on this entry []

The soap opera continues... News from The Hague is that the Dutch government has officially informed the lower house of Parliament that a second batch of commercial radio licences will be awarded, hopefully in the autumn. There are seven packages, for which there were no suitable or qualified applicants the first time round. One is a national FM licence, and there are three regional FM and three regional AM licences. The national FM licence is for either a jazz or classical music station, while the others have no programming conditions attached. Anyone can apply for these licences, both unsuccessful applicants from the first round and any newcomers who fancy their chances. It doesn't look as if the announcement has much significance for Radio 10 FM, which goes to court next week over the award of the national golden oldies licence to rival Sky Radio. However, in the event that the court overturned that decision, and said Radio 10 could have its frequencies back, Sky Radio would then have the option of re-applying for the classical licence. Because no company is allowed to have more than two national licences, Classic FM was sacrificed for the golden oldies station Radio 103. A lot of people here would be delighted if that were to be the outcome, but somehow I don't see it happening. Meanwhile, Radio 538 has announced its intention to apply for the classical licence. Radio 10 can, of course, apply for the various regional AM and FM licences. That would be better than nothing, and given the strength of support they've had since losing out to Sky Radio, I suspect they'd be successful in getting at least one, if not more. In theory, you could cobble together a quasi-national network by putting together several of these regional franchises. However, I don't believe that was the government's intention, and in any case they'll probably be up against strong competition. One option that definitely seems off the agenda is hiring the British mediumwave transmitter at Orfordness on 1296 kHz, as Radio Nationaal did last year. We're awaiting confirmation, but it's almost certain that this transmitter will be doing regular daytime DRM transmissions of BBC World Service starting next week. This week, they're on the air in the evenings to demonstrate the service to delegates at the Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva. Reception in Hilversum was superb on Monday evening, encoded at 30.9 kbps. It's amazing to hear what sounds like an FM signal coming out of an NRD-525! 10:35:32 AM     comment on this entry []

© Copyright 2003 Andy Sennitt.