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UNITED KINGDOM   BBC Transmission finally sold.
BBC COMPLETES SALE OF TRANSMISSION BUSINESS FOR 244 MILLION POUNDS.
The BBC today (Fri, Febr 28) announced the successful completion of the
sale of its Home Service Transmission business to Castle Transmission
Services (Castle), a consortium led by Castle Tower Corporation (CTC).
The price agreed for the business was 244 million pounds. This money
will be invested in the BBC's transition to the digital age. BBC Deputy
Director-General Bob Phillis who has overseen the sale process, said:
"When the Government set BBC Transmission on the road to privatisation,
we were determined that our interests and those of our licence payers
would be protected with guarantees on both quality and cost.
"We are delighted that in Castle we have found a purchaser who best
satisfied those criteria as well as offering excellent financial terms.
Castle will not only guarantee the existing level of quality service.
Their aim is not just to maintain the business but enhance it. They will
inherit a dedicated and professional group of staff whose expertise is
unmatched in broadcasting. This is a good deal for the BBC, our licence
payers and our staff."
Castle take over responsibility today, Febr 28th, and 500 BBC staff will
transfer to the new company under TUPE. The consortium, whose company
will be based in the UK, brings together more than 60 years of
communications and broadcast experience. Led by CTC, it also includes
TeleDiffusion de France, a subsidiary of the France Telecom Group, and
financial investors, Candover Investments plc and Berkshire Partners
LLC.
The sale was subject to the approval of the Department of National
Heritage. The Government announced its proposals for the sale of the
Home Service and World Service Transmission businesses on 27 Nov 1995,
at the time of the publication of the draft of the BBC's new Royal
Charter and Agreement. In a statement at the time, the BBC said:
"....We are glad to retain the freedom and flexibility to manage the
sale ourselves. As a result we shall be in a stronger position to
represent the interests of our transmission staff who have done so much
to create an effective, efficient and valued transmission service of
high quality across the whole of the UK.
"These decisions will enable us better to manage the BBC's transition to
the digital age; we shall invest the proceeds of the sale within the BBC
on digital production technology; and we shall seek to manage the sale
of BBC Transmission to support the development of DTT and the role of
publicly funded broadcasting within it."
The BBC's Steering Group overseeing the sale was chaired by Bob Phillis,
Deputy Director-General. The other members included: Rodney Baker-Bates,
Director of Finance and IT; Patricia Hodgson, Director of Policy and
Planning; Rod Lynch, Chief Executive BBC Resources; and Sam Younger,
Managing Director BBC World Service.
BBC Transmission operations began in Nov 1922 from a single transmitting
station on the roof of Selfridges store in London's Oxford Street. All
txs are now monitored automatically from the Technical Operations Centre
at Warwick.
BBC Transmission was honoured with a Royal Television Society innovation
award for its new digital distribution network. Its commercial work
includes Thailand's first UHF TV network and multi-million pound
services for cell-phone operators.
Included in the Home Service deal: Freeholds and leaseholds relating to
738 HST tx sites, including equipment.
Site sharing agreement with NTL:
The benefit of contracts of employment with some 500 highly qualified
staff. Transmission HQ at Warwick and most of the equipment there.
Freeholds and leaseholds relating to property in Daventry and at
Brookmans Park (N London). 10-year contract for transmission of BBC-1
and BBC-2 analogue tv; BBC analogue national, regional and local radio;
DAB phase 1 and other services. Contracts with third parties for other
services. The BBC has been advised during the bidding process by the
merchant bank Lehman Bros. and by the legal firm Linklaters & Paines.
(BBC Press release, via Richard Buckby, BBC Nottingham, Fri 28)
USA   Glenn Hauser's "World of Radio" Wed 1230-1300 UTC 15685 kHz
deleted. Sun 1000 UTC 3210 will be deleted in April. First airing Thurs
2130-2200 UTC 9475 kHz will be replaced by 15685 kHz.  (GH WoR, Feb 27)
When checking RFA Tibetan 1300-1400 UTC, came across of RFA's fourth
channel in Vietnamese language, coming from unknown site on 9440 kHz at
1400-1500 UTC. //channels 6240 and 7520 kHz, but 5865 unheard to hardly
readable signal level, not propagating in early afternoon towards
Europe.
New RFA program language can be expected soon?
Then 1515-1519 UTC noted UNID Vietnamese progr on 7520 kHz, signing off
suddenly at 1519 UTC. Came on air again at 1527 UTC, open carrier, and
started at about 1531 UTC endless tape: male announcer in English
announcing twice "This is channel three, Radio Free Asia program channel
three", followed by Russian female announcer [phonetically] "Eta
threezat kanal peeritachiy Radio Svobodnia Asia", repeated over and
over again.
So decided to look out for parallel channels, discovered poor signal - no
time delay - on 11705 kHz underneath possibly R Liberty Tajik sce via
Lampertheim scheduled 1500-1600 UTC. At 1610 UTC short 1000 Hertz test
tone occured. Deep fading on 11705 kHz.
7520 kHz cut off tape at 16.29:30 UTC. 11705 kHz lasted seven minutes
longer, closed at 16.37:10 UTC.
Radio Free Asia is technically a private corporation, but is funded by
about 10m dollars a year in federal government grants - the US federal
govt. Congress has charged Radio Free Asia with broadcasting news and
information in eight language to Asia - Mandarin, Tibetan, Cantonese,
Burmese, Korean, Khmer, Laotian and Vietnamese. The first broadcasting,
in Mandarin to China, began last Sept 30th.
So assume, either Cantonese, Khmer, Korean, or Laotian will be added
soon.
RFA Burmese 1500-1600 on usual 6240, 7540, 9440 kHz.
RFA Mandarin 1500-1600 could be observed on 7495, 7530, and Palau 9910
kHz, but heard US type pop mx.  1600-1700 UTC on single channel 7495 kHz
only, parallel 7530 kHz carrier only, no audio feeder signal noted.
(WB, Mar 1)
RFA in Mandarin at 2300-2400 UTC added using channel Delano 11970 kHz.
(Kim Elliott, VoA Communications World, Mar 1)
_____
A disaster has struck VOA-Europe, Voice of America's popular FM radio
programming which has been available throughout Europe and much of the
rest of the world too. It had changed name on the first of the year to
VOA-Express because it was truly becoming a "global radio network", but
then when privatization negotiations apparently broke down (largely due
to bureaucratic inefficiencies in the U.S. Government, I'm told --
perhaps some organizational jealousies and infighting as well), it was
suddenly and cruelly cut off the air virtually without warning.
The official story coming out of VOA's upper echelons is that they
simply changed broadcasting mode and that VOA-Express continues, but the
truth is that virtually all the old VOA-Europe staff were fired and the
programming totally changed, from "music and more" with lively disc-
jockeys  to 1950's style talk programs with dull announcers. At the same
time they switched from analog satellite delivery to digital delivery,
which they're touting as an improvement, but the fact is that most
affiliate stations which have been rebroadcasting the signal (like
Svenska Kabel here) don't have the equipment required to receive the new
signal. (Svenska Kabel says that they are getting the equipment --
they're one of the richer affiliates and can afford it, but in many
countries they cannot.) But the bigger problem (for those who can afford
the new equipment) is that, once the signal is "restored", we will find
out that the programming has changed completely.
Meanwhile, millions of listeners worldwide have been left in the dark --
there was no announcement until just hours before the cut-off on January
25, and VOA's web page announcements don't discuss what's really
happening at all. But there is an email and fax campaign to save VOA-
Europe in its old programming format, with a website at:
HTTP://www.worldonline.nl/~medcom
If you want to email your concerns or questions about this situation to
President Clinton (or elsewhere), your support would be most
appreciated.
For instance, you can email to: president@whitehouse.gov
The following cc-list is in a handy to copy format:
vice.president@whitehouse.gov
first.lady@whitehouse.gov
Senator_Stevens@stevens.senate.gov
Brian_L._Armstead@Dir.VOA.GOV
affiliates@voa.gov
VOA-Express@VOA.GOV
Ombudsman@VOA.GOV
express@VOA.GOV
inquiry@usia.gov
Robert_C._McLean@veur.voa.gov
Eric_A._Phillips@veur.voa.gov
Margot_R._Braswell@veur.voa.gov
editor@usatoday.com
webmaster@usis.usemb.se
webmaster@nytimesfax.com
webnews@washpost.com
cnn.feedback@cnn.com
talk2us@lonelyplanet.com.au
webmaster@reuters.com
______
Re: VOA Scandal
Hi ...,
Thank you very much for your detailed response -- I wasn't aware of all
the *other* problems with VOA which you mention (copied below for those
copied now)!
I do think that the loss of VOA-Europe may be the biggest problem (in
terms of total listeners, and excluding countries which weren't able to
get its signal, which obviously need support as well).
Do you have any ideas how to get the word about this current disaster
out to fellow Americans (I'm from Alaska myself) who might call their
representatives in Congress, or radio talk shows, or whatever? Thanks
again!
>Rick,
>
>Thank you for your message.  I have to say that I am not surprised by what
>you have stated.  I have long felt that there are big problems with the the
>administration, and policies at the Voice of America.
>
>Since before the closure of the Mason, OH, facility, it seems that people
>within the V.O.A. and U.S.I.A., have been trying to cripple the agency, or
>at least make it as ineffective as possible.
>
>Case in point were statements made by V.O.A. managment that the Mason
>facility could be closed with no adverse affect to coverage of the globe.
>We know now that this was not further from the truth. The facts do not
>support the claims made by people such as Joe Bruns. Technical monitoring
>by professionals have proved losses of service to Latin America, South
>America, and Eastern Europe.
>
>There is also some concern about the other facilities, such as Greenville,
>NC. As I understand the situation there, they have many transmitter
>problems which have caused losses of service, and have had antenna problems.
>
>Then there is the debacle of the ABB transmitters being moved from Mason to
>the new Sri Lanka transmission center where they, and the antennas, are
>routinely damaged by not only local fighting, but incompetance of technical
>personel. When a tower is installed so that it bows, one has to wonder who
>was in charge. One transmitter was distroyed.
>
>Perhaps what is more disturbing about this situation is the fact that while
>the Vice President, and others have been made aware of these abuses, nothing
>is done! Not only are we talking about millions and millions of taxpayer
>dollars being lost, but the United States is loosing it's primary tool for
>communication within the world. The V.O.A. is a vital service to the
>world, and much needed to keep the United States issues and ideals strong in
>the eyes of the world. The way it is being operated now is a farce and a
>insult to intellegence.
>
>I am, in fact, ashamed at the fact that Vice President Al Gore and others
>have not investigated this matter, and removed the people responsible. But
>then, if Vice President Al Gore and others do not care to get involved, does
>not not indicate to you the character and the ideals of those people? Is it
>because that is their directive, or because they are being fed lies about
>the agency to advance someones personal adjenda?
>
>All I can tell you is that from all I have heard, and given my background in
>business, it does not take too much common sence to realize that there are
>some serious abuses here. My questions are... 1). how long is it going to
>continue "unchecked", and 2). When will the administration deal with the
>problem, fix it, and restore the V.O.A. to what it was a decade ago?
>
>Perhaps we need a Congressional investigation, or at the least, alert the
>media such as "Fleecing of America" at NBC Nightly News, that there are
>these abuses.
>Fred Vobbe, Editor, National Radio Club's  DX Audio Service
(Rick.Wicks@economics.gu.se, Febr 23/25,
Research Associate, Goteborg University Economics Dep't)
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ANDY SENNITT, WRTH: Bob - thanks for publishing my response re WRTH97.
However, I see there is further criticism from Guido Schotmans, and I
would like to comment on it.
Guido says: "What annoys me most is the fact that Andy Sennitt ignores
most of the tips and correction sent in by readers. I know his point of
view: he prefers information directly from the broadcasters themselves".
This is not necessarily true. I spent four years working at BBC
Monitoring and I am well aware that you cannot always trust information
provided by broadcasters. But equally well, I cannot always trust
information provided by readers. Some of the biggest "mistakes" we have
published over the years came from believing information sent to us by
individuals, presumably in good faith, but which turned out to be
misinformation. We've even had two highly experienced DXers in the same
region squabbling over whose information is more accurate, neither being
willing to accept that his version of contradictory information was
correct.
What is true (and this is a different matter entirely) is that I suffer
from "information overload". There is simply too much information coming
in to process efficiently, and some of it is contradictory. And far too
many people wait until the last possible moment before sending updates,
so that there simply isn't time enough to get it all in before the
deadline. Sometimes, well meaning people send me a completely re-typed
version of the entry for a whole country, and I have to go through it
line by line only to discover that 90% of it is identical to what is
already in the book. If someone sends me a couple of lines to say that
they have heard a clear ID from a particular station on a new frequency,
it is much more likely to be included.
Although Guido himself is very active, and I know his information is
reliable, he has not sent me any information directly for a very long
time now - possibly because he assumes I am going to ignore it :-) Well,
one thing *is* certain...I definitely can't publish information I
haven't received!  Finally, a plea to anyone sending information to
WRTH...please give the *source* of your information. If you heard
something yourself, say so. If you saw something in a DX bulletin that
contradicts something in WRTH, give the name of the bulletin *and* the
original source. And please read what you have typed before you send it
- you would be surprised how many times people E-mail me something, and
a few hours later I get a second E-mail correcting mistakes in the first
one.
73. (Andy Sennitt, Editor-in-Chief, World Radio TV Handbook, PO Box
9022, 1006 AA Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Tel: +31 20 4875122, fax: +31
20 4875120, E-mail: , Febr 11)  - via EDXP
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BBCM-BBC MONITORING information primarily sourced to German AGDX
umbrella organization may not be further reproduced, except with BBC
MONITORING permission.
Extracts of items sourced to EDXP may be further reproduced, but only by
organizations or individuals which have on-going exchange arrangements
with EDXP.
This file is put together on a voluntary basis, and is also included
in our WWDXC WWW homepage,-German AGDX Club-direct address:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/wwdxc/topnews.htm
or via Link of Homepage:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/wwdxc
Both actual and previous week issue are available.
e-mail  wwdxc@compuserve.com
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vy73 de Wolfgang  DF5SX   -   CompuServe 100523,3446
Crossposted from Packet Radio (HAM).
I am not responsible for the contents of these contributions!
GRTX Martijn R. PE1NQR
Member of the Benelux DX-club
--- TimEd.01+_GEcho.11+
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