Monday, January 31, 2011

Radio Prague :: International service ends broadcasting on shortwave after 75 years

The international service of Czech Radio, Radio Prague, ends broadcasting on shortwave on Monday, 75 years after regular broadcasts on shortwave were first relayed from the Czechoslovak (now Czech) Radio building in Vinohradská Street. The first broadcast was on August 31, 1936 and included recorded music and live announcements in several languages. It also included a speech in English by technical director of Czechoslovak Radio Eduard Svoboda. The station’s decision to cut shortwave after 75 years followed a severe budget cut by the Foreign Ministry in line with government austerity measures aimed at reducing the state deficit. The station, which has seen some reduction in staff, will continue its broadcasts in six languages via the internet as its main platform, as well as on satellite; it will also continue cooperation with partner stations in re-broadcasting.


via http://www.radio.cz/en/news

Thursday, January 06, 2011

The Personality of the Year 2010 on RRI

From: Babul Gupta via IDXC
Date: Wed, Jan 5, 2011 at 3:43 PM


The Personality of the Year 2010 on RRI

RRI has continued its traditional survey among its listeners, Internet and
social network users around the world. We have challenged you to nominate
personalities from any field of activity who have contributed to the progress of
the world in 2010, through their actions, proposals, attitudes and ideas.
You have nominated such personalities as Australian Julian Assange, the
director of the world famous site WikiLeaks, specialized in posting classified
documents, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, the
winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, world famous Peruvian writer Mario
Vargas Llosa, the US President, Barack Obama, the new Brazilian president,
Mrs Dilma Rousseff and a living legend of today's world, Nelson Mandela.
From the world of sports, you have nominated the 2010 World Football
Champions, Spain, the Formula 1 World Champion, German Sebastian Vettel
and two well known Romanian footballers, Adrian Mutu and Cristian Chivu.
An interesting nomination was that of Romanian born scientist and expert in
cellular biology, Nicolae Ghinea, who is currently living in Paris and who has
made considerable progress towards identifying the print of cancerous cells.
But….. "the Personality of the Year 2010 on RRI" comes from a totally
different area. Actually RRI has designated more personalities, a group of
people whose fight for survival and solidarity kept millions of people around
the world almost out of breath.
So…."The Personalities of the Year 2010 on RRI" are:...the 33 Chilean
miners rescued on October the 13th, who fought to survive underground for
almost 70 days. They remained captive underground, after the walls of the mine
they were working in collapsed.
"Their rescue was a victory for the whole country. After years of
dictatorship, marked by internal conflicts, the whole Chilean society got united.
Somehow, this tragedy offered Chileans the opportunity to regain a sense of
unity", our faithful listener Christian Ghibaudo of France motivated his
nomination.

Babul Gupta