NPR to begin Broadcasts from Berlin

[kdavies5]

From Rawstory.com ....
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/NPR_to_begin_broadcasts_from_Berlin_0212.html

NPR to begin broadcasts from Berlin
02/12/2006 @ 7:18 pm
Filed by RAW STORY

A familiar American institution, NPR, is raising its voice in a bid to build a global brand as well known as the BBC, the New York Times is set to report.
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In a few weeks, NPR will begin broadcasting in Berlin with the first radio license under its control in its 35-year history.

National Public Radio will be taking over Berlin frequency 87.9 FM which "has been in American government hands since the end of World War II" most recently by Voice of America (VOA). According to Germany's Der Spiegel, "Since 1997, the 87.9 frequency has been used to provide a dwindling number of listeners a few minutes of VOA news every hour with the rest of the 60 minutes taken up by rock-music station Star FM."

Although Der Spiegel reported last fall that VOA intended to renew it's expiring contract, President Bush's 2007 budget "proposed pulling the plug on just about all of the Voice of America’s English-language broadcasting and telecasting (link)."

NPR has been accused by Republicans of being a "bastion of liberal" politics. Former chair of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Kenneth Tomlinson, "pursued ways to monitor NPR's coverage of the Middle East, which he says skews against Israel (link)."

Der Spiegel also reported that Tomlinson banned NPR content from running on the Berlin frequency while under VOA control. Although Tomlinson resigned from the board in November after the release of an Inspector General report which, among other things, criticized his attempts to "balance" public broadcasting by utilizing "political tests" to recruit CPB executives, he remains chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors which is responsible for "all government and government sponsored, non-military, international broadcasting."

 

[dampier]

VOA Plans to Cancel Virtually All English Services; NPR Fills the Gap

> Although Der Spiegel reported last fall that VOA intended to
> renew it's expiring contract, President Bush's 2007 budget
> "proposed pulling the plug on just about all of the Voice of
> America’s English-language broadcasting and telecasting

The appearance of NPR in Berlin may also be echoed on many other VOA rebroadcasting facilities on FM and mediumwave as the Bush Administration proposes to completely gut the Voice of America's English service. In fact, the only English programming that would appear on VOA is one hour a day directed to Zimbabwe (a special service opposing the Mugabe government) and the s.l..o....w Special English service for speakers of other languages.

Everything else, including 14 hours a day of News Now would be axed, along with hundreds of jobs. Resources would instead be directed to the surrogate radio services, such as the very low rated Arabic Radio Sawa service, which nobody in the Arab world trusts, and few listen to.

It's the absolute gutting of VOA news programming in English. Say goodbye to more than 60 years of quality programming from the VOA, all history if this moronic budget proposal gets passed.

Meanwhile, al-Jazeera is launching their 24 hour English service in a few months and China Radio International goes 24/7 in English to all continents in 2006. Good to know the American point of view will not be on the international airwaves in English anymore. That helps with the war on terror real good.

But the Germans will now get to hear Diane Rehm.

 

[JohnnyMorganWXJX]

Re: VOA Plans to Cancel Virtually All English Services; NPR Fills the Gap

> > Although Der Spiegel reported last fall that VOA intended
> to
> > renew it's expiring contract, President Bush's 2007 budget
>
> > "proposed pulling the plug on just about all of the Voice
> of
> > America’s English-language broadcasting and telecasting
>
> The appearance of NPR in Berlin may also be echoed on many
> other VOA rebroadcasting facilities on FM and mediumwave as
> the Bush Administration proposes to completely gut the Voice
> of America's English service. In fact, the only English
> programming that would appear on VOA is one hour a day
> directed to Zimbabwe (a special service opposing the Mugabe
> government) and the s.l..o....w Special English service for
> speakers of other languages.
>
> Everything else, including 14 hours a day of News Now would
> be axed, along with hundreds of jobs. Resources would
> instead be directed to the surrogate radio services, such as
> the very low rated Arabic Radio Sawa service, which nobody
> in the Arab world trusts, and few listen to.
>
> It's the absolute gutting of VOA news programming in
> English. Say goodbye to more than 60 years of quality
> programming from the VOA, all history if this moronic budget
> proposal gets passed.
>
> Meanwhile, al-Jazeera is launching their 24 hour English
> service in a few months and China Radio International goes
> 24/7 in English to all continents in 2006. Good to know the
> American point of view will not be on the international
> airwaves in English anymore. That helps with the war on
> terror real good.

Not to defend this idiotic move, but if VOA is already broadcasting to target audiences in native tongues, why do they need to duplicate the programming in English? It's been law that VOA cannot "direct" its programming at Americans (though we know in practice that doesn't mean anything), and with the exception of our already allied Anglo countries (UK, Ireland, Australia), what benefit is received by duplicating programming?

Again, I'm opposed to this move, but I just thought I'd throw out that pretty good point for the administration.

 

[dampier]

Re: VOA Plans to Cancel Virtually All English Services; NPR Fills the Gap

> Not to defend this idiotic move, but if VOA is already
> broadcasting to target audiences in native tongues, why do
> they need to duplicate the programming in English? It's
> been law that VOA cannot "direct" its programming at
> Americans (though we know in practice that doesn't mean
> anything), and with the exception of our already allied
> Anglo countries (UK, Ireland, Australia), what benefit is
> received by duplicating programming?

News Now is created in English for English speaking audiences. Foreign language programming is developed by each language unit. They can tap into the same internal newswire, but each service tailors its programming for specific target areas.

Further, there are English speaking areas, especially former British colonies, which would be cut off from service. News Now and VOA programming is also provided on network feeds for affiliated radio stations and/or relays which carry the full service.

 

[NewsVet]

Re: VOA Plans to Cancel Virtually All English Services; NPR Fills the Gap

I worked at the VOA (many years ago) and got the impression that most of the listeners to the English language service were people whose first language was not English, but who wanted to improve their English language (and specificaly American English) skills. Furthermore, the English language service was on the air 24 hours a day, while many of the other language services were on a much more limited schedule. So now they'll be listening to the BBC, learning to speak with British accents and getting the news from a British point of view.

> Not to defend this idiotic move, but if VOA is already
> broadcasting to target audiences in native tongues, why do
> they need to duplicate the programming in English? It's
> been law that VOA cannot "direct" its programming at
> Americans (though we know in practice that doesn't mean
> anything), and with the exception of our already allied
> Anglo countries (UK, Ireland, Australia), what benefit is
> received by duplicating programming?
>
> Again, I'm opposed to this move, but I just thought I'd
> throw out that pretty good point for the administration.
>

 

[JohnnyMorganWXJX]

Re: VOA Plans to Cancel Virtually All English Services; NPR Fills the Gap

> I worked at the VOA (many years ago) and got the impression
> that most of the listeners to the English language service
> were people whose first language was not English, but who
> wanted to improve their English language (and specificaly
> American English) skills. Furthermore, the English language
> service was on the air 24 hours a day, while many of the
> other language services were on a much more limited
> schedule. So now they'll be listening to the BBC, learning
> to speak with British accents and getting the news from a
> British point of view.

That makes perfect sense, and one of the reasons I think this is an idiotic move.

> > Not to defend this idiotic move, but if VOA is already
> > broadcasting to target audiences in native tongues, why do
>
> > they need to duplicate the programming in English? It's
> > been law that VOA cannot "direct" its programming at
> > Americans (though we know in practice that doesn't mean
> > anything), and with the exception of our already allied
> > Anglo countries (UK, Ireland, Australia), what benefit is
> > received by duplicating programming?
> >
> > Again, I'm opposed to this move, but I just thought I'd
> > throw out that pretty good point for the administration.
> >
>

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Re: VOA Plans to Cancel Virtually All English Services; NPR Fills the Gap

VOA could probably save money by simply rebroadcasting news programming from domestic radio networks (like ABC, CBS or especially NPR) to replace their own in-house English-language service.

But VOA would give-up editorial control, and I can't see them going for that.

Another possibility for the rumored al-but-elimination of VOA English-language programming is this: While the number of people in the world who speak English as their primary language is increasing (thanks an increase in the world's overall population), the percentage of the world's population who speaks English as their primary language is flalling. Chinese, Hindi, and Spanish have become the world's three major languages.

 

[davideduardo]

Re: VOA Plans to Cancel Virtually All English Services; NPR Fills the Gap

> > I worked at the VOA (many years ago) and got the
> impression
> > that most of the listeners to the English language service
>
> > were people whose first language was not English, but who
> > wanted to improve their English language (and specificaly
> > American English) skills. Furthermore, the English
> language
> > service was on the air 24 hours a day, while many of the
> > other language services were on a much more limited
> > schedule. So now they'll be listening to the BBC, learning
>
> > to speak with British accents and getting the news from a
> > British point of view.
>
> That makes perfect sense, and one of the reasons I think
> this is an idiotic move.

Keep in mind that the prevalence of SW radios that was seen in the 50's and 60's is no longer a reality. Those who would be interested in honing their English are most often middle and upper income persons, and have, today, satellite TV and many other connections with the outside world.

The average ruaral dweller in non-English speaking countries does not know any English and is not particularly interested.

I think the VOA is saving the taxpayers some money, as SW is an anacronism. Even experienced SW broadcasters like HCJB (with a 75 year history on the band) are moving to lower powered SW tranmissions and fewer weekly hours while they help build local FM stations from Burkina Faso to Bolivia.

 

[NewsVet]

Re: VOA Plans to Cancel Virtually All English Services; NPR Fills the Gap

You're (wrongly) assuming that VOA only broadcasts on shortwave. Actually, it also broadcasts on AM and FM and streams on the Internet. So those "middle and upper income persons" don't have to rely on SW -- and framing the issue that way is more than a little misleading.


> Keep in mind that the prevalence of SW radios that was seen
> in the 50's and 60's is no longer a reality. Those who would
> be interested in honing their English are most often middle
> and upper income persons, and have, today, satellite TV and
> many other connections with the outside world.
>
> The average ruaral dweller in non-English speaking countries
> does not know any English and is not particularly
> interested.
>
> I think the VOA is saving the taxpayers some money, as SW is
> an anacronism. Even experienced SW broadcasters like HCJB
> (with a 75 year history on the band) are moving to lower
> powered SW tranmissions and fewer weekly hours while they
> help build local FM stations from Burkina Faso to Bolivia.
>

 

[davideduardo]

Re: VOA Plans to Cancel Virtually All English Services; NPR Fills the Gap

> You're (wrongly) assuming that VOA only broadcasts on
> shortwave. Actually, it also broadcasts on AM and FM and
> streams on the Internet. So those "middle and upper income
> persons" don't have to rely on SW -- and framing the issue
> that way is more than a little misleading.

The AM and FM coverage is quite limited. And all, including the web, are irrelvant since English broadcasts are to be discontinued.

For the sake of argument, where in South America, an entire continent, can the VOA in English be heard on AM? Or FM? Or in any other language? And where, in most of the continent, are there web connections that are not priced by the minute or block of time, making listening to streams less than interesting.

The only relatively successful AM or FM broadcasts are the Arabic, Farsi and Spanish broadcasts of VOA and Radio Marti. Interestingly, none is branded as the VOA.