The Future - AM + Streaming only (no FM & HD)

[gr8oldies]

I'm actually referring to the transmitter in Marathon, Florida on 1180 kHz that relayed programming to Cuba and that, I believe, later became part of Radio Martí. It was quite audible in the Midwest at night, with audio that was clearly being fed by a conditioned phone line (it had that "network" sound in the days before satellite distribution).

That would never have had call letters. The 1180 in Marathon was a VOA transmitter before Radio Marti

 

[davideduardo]

Wasn't WLWO owned by Crosley? It was on short wave.

WLWO targeted international audiences.

And, in the later 30's both NBC and CBS had international short-wave services. Predominantly they targeted Latin America. They were not commercially successful, as most programming was in English and had to compete with a lot of local and regional SW stations in that zone.

Heck, even Costello in New Orleans had a rockin' SW station for a while, trying to sell international ads to Coke and Chevy for Latin America; it failed because he did not realize that those advertisers had local agencies and budgets in each country in the region.

 

[CTListener]

WLWO targeted international audiences.

And, in the later 30's both NBC and CBS had international short-wave services. Predominantly they targeted Latin America. They were not commercially successful, as most programming was in English and had to compete with a lot of local and regional SW stations in that zone.

Heck, even Costello in New Orleans had a rockin' SW station for a while, trying to sell international ads to Coke and Chevy for Latin America; it failed because he did not realize that those advertisers had local agencies and budgets in each country in the region.

KUSW Salt Lake City tried as "The Rock of the West" for a while before, like WRNO, having failed to lure advertisers, it was bought out by Godcaster Trinity and became KTBN. In the '60s and early '70s, there was WNYW, "Radio New York Worldwide," whose back story is full of interesting questions. IIRC, the CIA had something to do with WNYW as well as the shadowy Radio Swan, which broadcast anti-Communist programming from tiny Swan Island in the Caribbean.

 

[davideduardo]

KUSW Salt Lake City tried as "The Rock of the West" for a while before, like WRNO, having failed to lure advertisers, it was bought out by Godcaster Trinity and became KTBN. In the '60s and early '70s, there was WNYW, "Radio New York Worldwide," whose back story is full of interesting questions. IIRC, the CIA had something to do with WNYW as well as the shadowy Radio Swan, which broadcast anti-Communist programming from tiny Swan Island in the Caribbean.

Radio Swan, which became Radio Americas, was hardly "shadowy". It was operated by the Gibraltar Steamship Company, with offices in Miami in a commercial building just off Flagler downtown. It, interestingly, shared its office with that of AIR, the Asociación Interamericana de Radiodifusión (Interamerican Broadcasters Association) the group that unites all the broadcaster associations on the Americas.

Gibralter Steamship was a shell, owned the CIA.

Radio Swan was provisioned by regular flights out of a private air field in Miami. The facility on Swan Island, a joint Honduras / American protectorate, was a full studio and staff along with generators and a 50 kw transmitter and directional antenna. I rode on a flight in 1962 when I took a spring vacation to Miami and met some Swan/Americas staff when visiting WFAB; they took me over to the Americas offices where I got the "wanna' come along on a flight? There is one tonight...."

The station, on 1165 kHz, was pretty much 100% anti-Castro material, reporting on the daily atrocities of the new Cuhban regime such as dissidents being assassinated or imprisoned and property being confiscated and food being rationed. The staff was mostly made up of former newsmen from Cuban radio stations.

The secretary of AIR at the time was Ramón Goicochea, who had been Goar Mestre's "right hand man" at CMQ radio and TV in La Habana.

The only thing shadowy about the station was the conspiracy theory started by a Canadian DXer named Stanbury who insisted he had proven by directional finding that the station was not on Swan Island and was part of a great lie about Cuba.

 

[semoochie]

No one followed my "rabbit hole" yet. Where's Alice when we need her?

 

[davideduardo]

If you didn't like the last "rabbit hole", here's a new one: The reason no one was prepared for Covid is because the previous administration shut down the program to take care of such things!

No one in any nation of the world, including China itself, was prepared for what at the time was an untreatable highly contagious disease that propagated worldwide in less than 60 days.

 

[davideduardo]

That would never have had call letters. The 1180 in Marathon was a VOA transmitter before Radio Marti

And it is still a VOA transmitter: "Radio Martí" is actually chartered as the "Radio Martí program of the Voice of America".

 

[CTListener]

Radio Swan, which became Radio Americas, was hardly "shadowy". It was operated by the Gibraltar Steamship Company, with offices in Miami in a commercial building just off Flagler downtown. It, interestingly, shared its office with that of AIR, the Asociación Interamericana de Radiodifusión (Interamerican Broadcasters Association) the group that unites all the broadcaster associations on the Americas.

Gibralter Steamship was a shell, owned the CIA.

Radio Swan was provisioned by regular flights out of a private air field in Miami. The facility on Swan Island, a joint Honduras / American protectorate, was a full studio and staff along with generators and a 50 kw transmitter and directional antenna. I rode on a flight in 1962 when I took a spring vacation to Miami and met some Swan/Americas staff when visiting WFAB; they took me over to the Americas offices where I got the "wanna' come along on a flight? There is one tonight...."

The station, on 1165 kHz, was pretty much 100% anti-Castro material, reporting on the daily atrocities of the new Cuhban regime such as dissidents being assassinated or imprisoned and property being confiscated and food being rationed. The staff was mostly made up of former newsmen from Cuban radio stations.

The secretary of AIR at the time was Ramón Goicochea, who had been Goar Mestre's "right hand man" at CMQ radio and TV in La Habana.

The only thing shadowy about the station was the conspiracy theory started by a Canadian DXer named Stanbury who insisted he had proven by directional finding that the station was not on Swan Island and was part of a great lie about Cuba.

Now that you tell it, the story is familiar. I think I read an article on Radio Swan in either Popular Communications or Monitoring Times that covered the station's background and mentioned that conspiracy theory as well.

 

[Mark Roberts]

That would never have had call letters. The 1180 in Marathon was a VOA transmitter before Radio Marti

I recall a few listings that showed it with call letters, and a few without. They never were said on the air.
Now just imagine some hapless FCC inspector stopping by and asking for the public file! "And did you maintain your online political files?"

 

[CTListener]

I recall a few listings that showed it with call letters, and a few without. They never were said on the air.

How was that legal? Oh wait. The government isn't going to fine itself.

 

[TheBigA]

I'm actually referring to the transmitter in Marathon, Florida on 1180 kHz that relayed programming to Cuba

That would never have had call letters. The 1180 in Marathon was a VOA transmitter before Radio Marti

Not an actual FCC licensed station.

 

[davideduardo]

I recall a few listings that showed it with call letters, and a few without. They never were said on the air.
Now just imagine some hapless FCC inspector stopping by and asking for the public file! "And did you maintain your online political files?"

I've never seen call letters, even though I was contracted to do the annual Congressionally-mandated review of Radio Martí on two separate occasions. The VOA-Marathon facility is not FCC licensed, nor is any other facility in the US or its territories.

The only VOA "stations" with calls have been those operated by independent private countries that leased their shortwave facilities to the VOA.

This is the same situation as AFRTS station operated to serve American troops. AFRTS stations in places like Puerto Rico, the former US Canal Zone and other places did not have FCC issued call letters, either. And in all cases, that is because the FCC did not grant or license those operations.

 

[kfbkfb]

The Incredible Carrier Pigeons of the First World War

From a pigeon which saved four lives, and 'Dreadnought' the pigeon, to an RAF pigeon who flew 82 miles in 22 minutes to deliver a message that helped with the rescue of two wrecked seaplane pilots, meet the incredible carrier pigeons of the First World War.

www.iwm.org.uk

Maybe this - just have a USA Gov department that keeps pigeon food stashed at various strategic locations in the USA and if the (future) wireless broadband network goes down (for reasons mentioned in previous posts), break out the pigeons.

IMHO, streaming only for what was previously distributed via radio & TV is inevitable and some sort of backup scheme should be implemented.

(www.streamingdiscussions.com URL is available)


Kirk Bayne

 

[TheBigA]

Maybe this - just have a USA Gov department that keeps pigeon food stashed at various strategic locations in the USA and if the (future) wireless broadband network goes down (for reasons mentioned in previous posts), break out the pigeons.

I know you're kidding, but do you think pigeons can fly in a hurricane or tornado?

It's up to the DHS. They're the ones in charge of any emergency situation.

 

[boombox4]

If you didn't like the last "rabbit hole", here's a new one: The reason no one was prepared for Covid is because the previous administration shut down the program to take care of such things!

Nope. The local hospital district is directly responsible to the people in the district. That's why we pay them in taxes, and that's why they get paid the amount of money they get paid for their services. The district's administrators make six figures or more, presumably for dealing with how the hospital responds to emergencies (including epidemics and the like) as well as the general operation of the hospital.

Like a neighbor (a progressive) said in early 2020 -- they charged her thousands of dollars for her to have a baby, but didn't ferret away enough of all the money they get to even have a container full of PPE. What did they do with all the money? Where was their responsibility to the public during pandemics? Answer: they weren't prepared. Which is part of my point. People in general aren't prepared for things they blithely think will never happen.

As for your political comment, the Obama administration did not have an actual pandemic plan, they only had a bureaucratic document full of flow charts bureaucratic jargon, and no references to PPE or ventilators or even the possibility of a vaccine. This has been covered before here on RD when the pandemic hit. I read the document.

And my main point still stands, concerning the lack of general preparedness that the public has concerning possible major disasters. People in general don't plan on disasters. They live in an optimistic, mental bubble where nothing bad hopefully ever happens.

Can't blame them though. It's human nature. Who wants to have the mindset of a prepper? Not anyone.

 

[Kelly A]

Like a neighbor

State Farm is there?

And my main point still stands, concerning the lack of general preparedness that the public has concerning possible major disasters. People in general don't plan on disasters.

Other than the cold war years and prior to that WWII, they haven't needed to. Not everyone is a 'Prepper' nor radio nerd. And you know what? It's probably a good thing they aren't.

They live in an optimistic, mental bubble where nothing bad hopefully ever happens.

If nothing bad has happened to you most of your life, what would you expect?

Can't blame them though. It's human nature. Who wants to have the mindset of a prepper? Not anyone.

True that!

 

[gr8oldies]

I've never seen call letters, even though I was contracted to do the annual Congressionally-mandated review of Radio Martí on two separate occasions. The VOA-Marathon facility is not FCC licensed, nor is any other facility in the US or its territories.

The only VOA "stations" with calls have been those operated by independent private countries that leased their shortwave facilities to the VOA.

This is the same situation as AFRTS station operated to serve American troops. AFRTS stations in places like Puerto Rico, the former US Canal Zone and other places did not have FCC issued call letters, either. And in all cases, that is because the FCC did not grant or license those operations.

IIRC the feeds we use to hear (raw feeds of network news, Paul Harvey, other spoken word programming) from AFRTS to individual stations was transmitted on VOA shortwave transmitters

 

[Mark Roberts]

I've never seen call letters, even though I was contracted to do the annual Congressionally-mandated review of Radio Martí on two separate occasions. The VOA-Marathon facility is not FCC licensed, nor is any other facility in the US or its territories.

Not disagreeing with you, but, for what it's worth, this is a listing from "White's Radio Log" within Science & Mechanics Communications World for Spring-Summer 1972 (but where I noted that I had bought it on August 30, 1971) which showed up only in the listings by call letter. It was absent from the listing by frequency, which I'll put in the next post.

(I had to scan it sideways because this magazine is fragile and my scanner has an annoying fixed panel that got in the way of a scan in the proper orientation.)

 

[Mark Roberts]

Not disagreeing with you, but, for what it's worth, this is a listing from "White's Radio Log" within Science & Mechanics Communications World for Spring-Summer 1972 (but where I noted that I had bought it on August 30, 1971) which showed up only in the listings by call letter. It was absent from the listing by frequency, which I'll put in the next post.

Here's the 1180 (and other frequency) listings in that same issue complete with my teenage scrawlings.

 

[kevtronics]

Not disagreeing with you, but, for what it's worth, this is a listing from "White's Radio Log" within Science & Mechanics Communications World for Spring-Summer 1972 (but where I noted that I had bought it on August 30, 1971) which showed up only in the listings by call letter. It was absent from the listing by frequency, which I'll put in the next post.

WLWO was Crosley's shortwave station in Ohio, which became the VOA Bethany Relay Station:

Voice of America Bethany Relay Station - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org