sabato 19 novembre 2016

Radio Bulgaria on mediumwave; new BNR regional station at Kardzhali

Radio Bulgaria closed their shortwave service in early 2012, switching most of their multilingual service to online streaming. Their Turkish output however can still be heard through the ether on 576 kHz from the country's high-powered and only remaining mediumwave transmitter at Vidin, presumably intended mainly for Bulgaria's sizable Turkish minority. These broadcasts are at 0600-0700, 1300-1400 & 1830-1930 UT [presumably an hour earlier in summer] and in contrast to the slick modern presentation of the exclusively online Radio Bulgaria programming they open with the same interval signal and signature tune Radio Sofia/Radio Bulgaria has used since the 1960s, identifying as 'Bulgaristan Radyosu'.

These broadcasts can also heard be heard via Radio Kardzhali, which opened on 9 May 2016 as the latest of nine regional stations of Bulgarian National Radio (BNR). Kardzhali Province has an ethnic Turkish majority and the station transmits on 90.0 MHz FM with its own programmes in Bulgarian at 0900-1200 local time (currently 0700-1000 UT), the rest of the time relaying either Horizont [BNR 1st Programme] or 

Radio Bulgaria broadcasts in Turkish at the times given above. Radio Kardzhali and 18 other BNR radio services are available on live web streams from the organisation's multilingual website at www.bnr.bg. Recent clips of Radio Kardzhali and Radio Bulgaria Turkish Service - the latter complete with old-style interval signal and signature tune - can be heard on the Interval Signals Online website @ IntervalSignals.net


(David Kernick, via dxld yg)