KFBS Saipan closed down April 30

There have been questions in the past couple of weeks about the current status of religious broadcaster FEBC’s shortwave station KFBS on Saipan. Now we have the answer: Oleg Cherny, FEBC Russia’s chief engineer, has confirmed in a letter that KFBS ended transmissions on 30 April.
(Source: Aleksandr Diadischev, Ukraine via Alokesh Gupta on Twitter/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)

Andy Sennitt adds: This decision appears to have been taken at short notice. The FEBC Russian Ministries website now says “With stations in Moscow, St Petersburg, Khabarovsk and Ussuriysk, as well as satellite and internet service…” The first edition of Update for 2011 makes no mention of the closure. However, Saipan has been removed from the list of sites in the online schedule. The current HFCC schedule for FEBC stations is at http://www.hfcc.org/data/schedbybrc.php?seas=A11&broadc=FEC
(R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)

Radio - A Priority in Philippines Flooding

As disasters piled up all across FEBC's broadcast areas in the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia this week, staff struggled to keep the radio broadcasts on air to guide those in crisis.

In the Philippines, Ella and Peter McIntyre (Feba UK staff working with FEBC since 1988) witnessed the storm damage from Typhoon Ketsana and FEBC in action. Ella writes: “Many of our own broadcasters and colleagues were directly affected themselves. Church property washed away, homes damaged, possessions destroyed. At one bridge near FEBC, a bulldozer scooped up the mountain of black mud – poking out of the pile, a rolled up carpet, an armchair. Pitiful evidence of a home completely swept into oblivion.”

Additional story at: http://www.feba.org.uk/newsbriefs/febc-philippines
(Alokesh Gupta, India)

FEBC returns to radio operations in Philippines

As disasters piled up all across international Christian broadcaster FEBC’s coverage areas in the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia this week, staff struggled to keep the radio broadcasts on air to guide those in crisis.

FEBC swung into well-practised crisis mode. DZAS (its local community radio station in the Philippines) was back on air by Sunday. DZFE (its other Manila-based FM station) is also functioning as a coordination and distribution centre for aid.

Flood waters poured into the FEBC shortwave installation building in Bocaue, Philippines, with four high-powered transmitters that broadcast to 54 language groups of Asia (36 hours total daily). These were taken off air for a few days, while staff worked around the clock to clear the mud and dry out the equipment, in order to restore broadcasts as early as possible. By Thursday the transmitters were back in action, with no permanent damage.
(Source: FEBC)

FEBC ministry adds new language to shortwave lineup

Far East Broadcasting Company is now broadcasting in the Black Hmong language, the 159th language now on the air on FEBC. (Photo by Melanie Gray
Augustin) Asia (MNN)
Reaching as many people as possible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the goal of many missionary radio broadcasters, and one organization has just added
another language.
Last month, Far East Broadcasting Company added a new language to their roster -- Black Hmong - which brings the total to 159 languages heard on FEBC’s programs. Black Hmong is the third Hmong language offered through FEBC’s international ministry. The addition of this new language is an opportunit to share the message of God´s love with even more people of Southeast Asia.
The Hmong, located in southern China, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Burma, total 4-5 million people. Until the 1950s when the Hmong began tuning in to shortwave Christian broadcasts, they worshipped evil spirits. But when they heard about God and Jesus, they recalled legends passed down from their ancestors that spoke of a redeemer King. http://www.mnnonline.org/article/11144
(Program Matters/ODXA Listening-In, May 08)