Already, astute international radio monitors on all continents have become aware that Adventist World Radio is making a return visit to the island of Sri Lanka. For a period of nearly 40 years, AWR programming was on the air from the radio broadcasting service in Colombo Sri Lanka, beginning in the year 1950. Then when the shortwave station KSDA on the island of Guam became fully functional, the Asian programming from Adventist World Radio was transferred to this new station. After a quarter century absence from the radio broadcasting scene in Sri Lanka, AWR is now returning to this island once again, but this time from another station, the large shortwave station that was on the air previously with the programming of Deutsche Welle. This is the story.
It was back in the year 1950, at 8:30 am local time on Sunday morning October 1, 1950, that the first broadcast of the “Voice of Prophecy” radio program went on the air from the shortwave service of Radio Ceylon, as it was known in those days. During that era, the Commercial Service of Radio Ceylon was on the air with just two shortwave transmitters, one at 100 kW and another at 7½ kW, both located at Ekala, a dozen miles north of the national capital, Colombo. This was the first Adventist broadcast from Radio Ceylon, and it was also the first syndicated Christian broadcast from this station.
As time went by, Radio Ceylon became the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, and the Adventist radio programming over this station was organized as the original Adventist World Radio in Asia, AWR-Asia. It was at the end of the year 1988, that the final AWR broadcasts ended over SLBC Colombo, in favor of AWR’s own shortwave station, KSDA Guam.
Beginning on Sunday March 25, AWR will again be heard from Sri Lanka, and this time, from the large Deutsche Welle station located near Trincomalee on the eastern coast of the island of Sri Lanka. It is intended that these broadcasts from this new AWR location will be on the air for a period of a little over three months, terminating at the end of June this year.
The reason for the temporary transfer of AWR programming from KSDA Guam to ex-Deutsche Welle Sri Lanka is so that technical personnel can perform antenna maintenance on Guam on curtain antennas 1 & 2, and also for the installation of an additional curtain antenna at the same location.
International radio monitors around the world are invited to submit reception reports on the temporary AWR usage of the Trincomalee shortwave station. A special QSL card honoring the temporary return of Adventist World Radio to Sri Lanka is under preparation, and this will be available only from the AWR address in Indianapolis in the United States. Reception reports via the postal system, together with a suitable form of return postage are preferred, though email reports will also be welcome.
It can also be remembered that the long time AWR DX program, “Radio Monitors International”, was “born” in the Torrington Square studios of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation and the first broadcast went on the air on Sunday June 1, 1975. Thirty seven years later, and a few thousand scripts later, we are still on the air with the same DX program, though the title was modernized in more recent time to “Wavescan”. The scheduling for “Wavescan” beginning on Sunday March 25 is given below:-
Sundays 1200 - 1230 UTC Wertachtal Germany 17535 kHz 250 kW
1530 - 1600 Wertachtal Germany 15255 250
1600 - 1630 KSDA Guam 11750 & 15360 100
1630 - 1700 Trincomalee Sri Lanka 11740 125
2230 - 2300 Trincomalee Sri Lanka 9730 125
The AWR DX program, “Wavescan”, is researched and written in Indianapolis by Dr. Adrian. M. Peterson and it is recorded in the studios of Radio Miami International WRMI by Jeff White. The scheduling for “Wavescan” via WRMI for the new A12 broadcast period will be obtainable from the WRMI website. Two QSL cards are available for the broadcast of “Wavescan”, one from AWR and another from WRMI.
“Wavescan” is also on the air from shortwave station WWCR, and likewise, their new scheduling will be available from their website.
Sri Lanka, AWR Asia
Effective: 25 March - 30 June 2012
Burmese
0000-0030 11955as
Cantonese
2100-2200 Sun 11750as
English
1630-1700 11740as
2230-2300 9730as
Indonesian
1100-1130 15540as
2200-2230 9455as
Javanese
1130-1200 mwf 15540as
2200-2230 sth 9545as
Karen
0030-0100 11955as
1500-1530 15715as
Khmer
1300-1330 17635as
1330-1400 Sun 17635as
Lao
1330-1400 ha 17635as
Mandarin
1200-1300 15490as
1400-1500 12105as
2100-2200 mtwhfa 11750as
Marathi
1530-1600 7410as
Sudanese
1130-1200 stha 15540as
2200-2230 mwfa 9545as
Thai
1330-1400 mtwhfa 17635as
Urdu
1600-1630 11835as
Vietnamese
2300-0000 9730as
(Adrian Peterson/AWR & Alokesh Gupta, New Delhi, India) Reformatted by Gayle Van Horn, Frequency Manager-Monitoring Times