Wie zit waar?
That's the title of a booklet just-issued by dgTP, the Directorate General of Post and Telecommunications at the Ministry of Economic Affairs here in The Netherlands. The title literally means "who sits where?" and is an overview of FM and AM frequencies in this country. And a strange affair it is too. A disclaimer says that dgTP accepts no responsibility for errors, which is just as well because there are quite a few. The booklet was actually produced by an advertising bureau in The Hague.
The listings are by province, and the programme formats are colour coded, which in theory is a nice idea. Unfortunately, when it comes to the mediumwave band, every active station is indicated as golden oldies, even the station called Amsterdam Talks on 1557 kHz, which is not actually on the air. 1008 kHz is indicated throughout as Smooth Radio, with no mention of Radlon or Radio London anywhere to be found. 675 kHz is listed as Arrow Classic Rock, which led some over-excited anoraks to proclaim that this means it is "officially" using the frequency. In fact, as we reported on our media news page, the official status of that frequency is still under discussion. There's no mention of Radio 10 FM, incidentally. All references to 1395 show Liberty Radio, one of Ruud Poeze's numerous stations that will probably never materialise. Though the introduction explains that "the stations are indicated by the names they call themselves." Oh yeah?
There are typos too. One shows Radio 747 AM as using "1291" in Limburg, which is a typo for 1251. So much for the claim that the information in the brochure has been compiled with great care! And how's this for a statement: "AM - also known as mediumwave - is an older technique that can no longer be received on some modern radios."
That a government department could have produced such a shoddy piece of work is a further indication that those in charge of the broadcasting infrastructure here are really not up to the task. A group of DXers could have done a far better job compiling this material. Indeed, more accurate information is available on numerous Web sites. What a pity that, just because civil servants produced this booklet, it is being treated by some as though it has some legal validity.
If I were a schoolteacher and this piece of work was submitted to me, I'd probably give it 3 out of 10 - provided I was feeling in generous mood!
11:14:07 PM 
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