A new Kurdish radio station identifying itself as the Voice of the Kurdistan Democratic Party was observed on 5 January. It was noted on-air for 30 minutes from 0400 to 0430 gmt. The broadcast consisted of 15 minutes continuous music and 15 minutes announcements.
The station identified in Kurdish as “Erah Radyoy Dengi Kurdistana” and in Persian “Im Radyo Seda-ye Kordestan-e”. The station, which broadcast on 3930 kHz, signed-off at 0429 gmt.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDP-I, or PDKI) already operates a radio station called the Voice of Iranian Kurdistan.
This new station is possibly operated by a group which broke away from the KDP-I last month - an item on the Kurdish Media website explains, stating: “These former comrades have fabricated the PDKI’s name for their new organization, this will cause confusion…” However, the article doesn’t give the name of the breakaway organization.
(Source: BBC Monitoring research, in English 0520 gmt 5 Jan 07/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)