From the Italradio newsdesk in Florence, here’s
European Perspective, a monthly feature about international broadcasting from
the Old Continent.
Are Italian Medium Waves really so near to
disappearance that an announcement was necessary to inform listeners to switch
to the FM network? Last December 14th,
local newscasts in at least twelve out of twenty Italian regions informed
listeners about frequency changes and/or the suppression of Medium Wave
broadcasts. The announcement was aired
only once but worries are growing about a possible winding up of all Medium
Wave operations by RAI.
The RAI Medium Wave network was starkly reduced in 2006,
and earlier last year also when Naples (657 kHz) and Bari (1116 kHz), two
historical stations, were dismantled.
Sources agree that 6 to 12 stations are to survive but no official
information is available nor is any announcement repeated.
Italradio
was able to confirm that Pisa Coltano on frequency 657 kHz will be operational
also in the future. Plans have been
prepared to use the station also for DRM experiments.
Italian Medium Wave stations are operated by RAI under
the provisions of a State mandate as a part of general public broadcasting
service. Nevertheless a list of
mandatory Medium Wave stations is not available.
In the mean time, on December 31st, 2012
the last three broadcasts in Italian, German and French were relayed from
Moscow through the antenna in Monte Ceneri, Switzerland, on 558 kHz, from 1000
to 2000 UTC. This historical station was
used by Italian Swiss Radio until June 2008, and by the Voice of Russia from
2011 for which a five year license was granted to the Russian international
radio. The Voice of Russia confirmed that all broadcasts from Monte Ceneri will
be discontinued notwithstanding the fact that they received a five year license
in 2011 from the Swiss Federal Telecommunication Regulatory Board.
Until
30 June 2008 the station was used by Italian Swiss Radio. Shortly afterwards, BAKOM-UFCOM collected
declarations of interest from private companies, among them the Italian
religious station Radio Mater, but in 2011 a license (due to expire on 31
December 2015) was granted to the Voice of Russia after diplomatic contacts
between Switzerland and Russia.
The Monte Ceneri station is the only Swiss Medium Wave
plant still on the air, after both stations in Sottens & Beromuenster were
dismantled. It is operated by Swisscom,
but no official information about the future of the station has been released
until now.
Finally an item of good news for Medium Wave listeners
in Southern Europe. Radio Capodistria, the Italian language station serving Italian
communities in Slovenia and Croatia, will extend broadcasts to 24 hours
daily. As from 1 January 2013, Italian
programs cover also the nightly hours, from midnight to 6 am CET. This will present a new opportunity for
listeners to hear Italian broadcasts on Medium Wave (1170 kHz).
This station, part of the Regional Studio
Koper-Capodistria of RTV Slovenia, has extended their DALET control system,
enabling it to automatically repeat broadcasts at night in two segments (8 pm -
MN CET and MN - 6 am CET). Music and
repeats of daily broadcasts will be included. Italian
communities scattered in Istria, Dalmatia and Fiume (Rijeka) regions became a
national minority after the area was included into former Yugoslavia at the end
of World War 2. Under existing laws they
were granted special rights in Slovenia and Croatia including radio and TV
broadcasting.
The medium wave station in Croce Bianca (Beli Kriz by
Pirano - Piran, Istria) is operated by Radio Capodistria (1170 kHz) and
their Slovenian sister station Radio Koper (549 kHz) with 15 kW. Listeners
confirm that the station is being heard as far as Central and Southeastern
Italy and the eastern Adriatic Coast.
There
is a
new opportunity for tourists in Pisa.
After visiting the famous leaning tower, a short walk to the Arno side
leads to the State Archives where documents are now exhibited to explain the
early years (1904-1918) of the Coltano trans-continental wireless station built
by Marconi over a hundred years ago. This exhibition
offers plans and texts about the building of the station which proved to be
decisive in connecting Italy to the Americas and Africa up until its
destruction in WW2.
Until
today a little Marconian building is still visible along with the remains of
the aerial abutments at Coltano (a rural area very near to the city
centre). Documents found at the State
Archive show the technologies that were used back in 1904 to build the station
in a wet area which was good for transmission but very difficult for the
construction of metal and wooden buildings. The exhibition
is a new positive effort to preserve Marconi's memories in Pisa, and it can be
visited at the Pisa State Archive (Archivio di Stato) until January 31st,
2013.
And
that’s all from Florence this month; if you wish to be informed on what’s going
on in the Italian and European international broadcasting scene, please check
our web site at www. italradio. org. You can also find a “portale” that’s to
say a web portal with current news, in English too. Thank you for listening and we wish you a
very good year 2013.
(AWR Wavescan/NWS 204 via Adrian Peterson)