FM-season 2009 starts

FM-season 2009 started to me on 18th of May with very weak opening to Lyon-area, France. The real job starts within next 1-2 week.
New feature for this season is "sensational" FM-receiver Sony XDR-F1HD (more). It is interesting to compare this device to elder receivers. I have two new Sonys side by side (Click the photo).

Later this summer I will go to Utö-island again for FM-DXing for 9 days with 5 other DX-ers.
First time this big group is joining in FM-pedition! Utö-FM-DX-blog will be updated during the pedition.

Visting FM-stations in Riga, Latvia

I visited Latvian capital Riga with my wife between 11-14 March 2009. Among the sightseeings in this very beautiful city I visited many FM-stations, too!!

Basic radio-info:
* Riga has 717 000 people (about 42% both Latvian and Russian). 2.3mill people in Latvia.
* There are 12 commercial FM-stations in Riga (half Russian/ half Latvian).
* 3 national commercial stations: Radio SWH, Star FM and European Hit Radio.
* There are not very tight and clear music-formats on radio (excl. rock). Reason must be small market.
* Most of the FM-transmitters are located in the big TV-tower. It is the 3rd tallest building in Europe (368,5 m). FM-signals have too high level in the Riga centrum. FM-receiver overloads very badly!!!

I did not make any appointments with the stations beforehand, I just walked in (which is not a good way) and therefore I did not try to take much time per visit. These days people are busy at the radio stations everywhere.
However, all stations were friendly and showed me kindly places around and answered the questions!

MixFM, Radio Baltkom, Fit FM, Jumor FM
The first visit was a group of 4 stations which are all located in the same floor: Mix FM (102.7 MHz), Baltkom (93.9), Fit FM (99.5) and Jumor FM (88.6). This group is quite new compination as Fit FM, Jumor FM and Baltkom are founded about 1-2 years ago. The owner is Russian based company.

Mix FM is the main product in Russian language on 102.7 MHz (elder pop-station). Baltkom is news-radio in Russian (with very interesting way of programme production) with stylish music. Fit FM is music channel in Latvian and Jumor has no presenters (music and tv-soundtracks).
Journalist/DJ 'Eleonora Rozevelt' (arist-name) kindly showed me all the stations. She also recorded a jingle from me in Finnish language for Mix FM! I hope it will be played... All these stations sounded very good!
The SWH Group
Radio SWH is the oldest commercial station in Latvia. It is founded in 1993 and is now nationwide with 4 regional studios. I was surprised when I heard this station first time around 1995 because it sounded very professional from the very beginning!! Jingles had very good production! Later the founder Zigmars Liepiņš, confirmed me that he used US based consulting to build up the station.
Zigmars sold SWH-stations to big Irish-based media company Communicorp in 2007, but he is still involved in the board of the company and visits the station every now and then. This was bad news for me because I thought it would have been a pleasure to meet him personally!!
Communicorp is also operating in Finland with stations Suomipop, Metro FM and Groove FM.
Click the photo for bigger view >>

SWH is operating three channels: Radio SWH (Riga 105.2 MHz), SWH Plus (105.7 MHz, Russian language) and SWH Rock (89.2). SWH Rock has only 2h live-DJ daily and the rest is non-stop. I suppose this is the only rock-channel in Baltia. It is mostly tuned by Russian speaking people.
SWH's revenues for 2008 was over 2mill Euros. Really big station with many safety-guards outside! Self-advertisment manager Laura Dukjana-Lice kindly gave station-tour!!

Radio Skonto 107.2 MHz
It was also a great pleasure to see Radio Skonto, good old local radio in Riga.
Today the trend is that FM-stations are grouped under big companies who run many channels at the same time, but Radio Skonto is positive exception. I thought first that this station is a small one and close to death, but it was a big surprise that it is still very well tuned and professional. They even have music-inquires which is very expensive to arrange.
Unfortunately Programme manager was not present at that time, but young sales-lady gave kind and professional information. It was also surprise that advertising agencies sell 75 % of the Skonto's revenues. This has always been a problem in local-radio market in Finland, ad-agencies sell almost nothing...
Elita Marga was on the air, but she was too 'shy' to be photographed - but she had time for my questions between hosting the listerners. The have about 200 000 weekly listeners. Click >>>
All stations had very modern equipment and facilities - looked and sounded out professional. I did not try to solve the price-level of radio-advertising, but it must be high in Latvia because there were more people working at the stations than I expected. I suppose the base for that is the high price-level of television advertising, but I am not sure.

Go to see Riga! It is beautiful and clean culture-city with hard history under Polish, Swedish and Russian control with German influence...

Radio Sanluchino, Bologna and Discoradio, Caravaggio, Italy

I e-mailed old recording to Radio San Luchino (www) Bologna, Italy. I heard that station in Finland in summer 1991 on 104.7 MHz. In the clip there was a woman giving sms-number to the station (mp3).
At that time I got no reply, but today, the same lady who was talking on that 17 years old clip, replied to me:
"...con emozione confermo che la voce è la mia..mi chiamo Bruna Zamboni e lavoro a Radio Sanluchino da 25 anni.... Complimenti per la tua bella famiglia - cordiali saluti da tutto lo staff di Radio Sanluchino"
So, Bruna Zamboni told she listened that old clip with great emotions because she was talking on it (and she has been working for the station now for 25 years!) !!

It is a great pleasure to mail old clips to the stations because they might bring memories to the staff! The oldest one I just sent was Radio Parma (102.0 MHz, www). They confirmed my recording from 1983 and identified that the speaker on the clip was Platinette (www), who is famous drag-queen today!!

Today, also Discoradio from Caravaggio, North Italy mailed verification. The reception was from summer 2001. Station manager M. Lagonegro tuned my clip.

Radio Potenza Centrale and Radio Globo, Rome

Two replies today from Italy!! Radio Potenza Centrale (www) from Potenza, sent quick confirmation to my mp3-clip. RPC is now big station with large tx-network in South Italy, founded 1973 as a mobile pirate radio broadcasting from a car!!
Potenza-province is quite difficult to hear in Finland.

Another reply came from Rome. Radio Globo (www) is great sounding dance-station with very profesional production. I heard this station on 99.6 MHz several years ago. Direttore artistico, Lucio Scarpa, sent me e-mail wondering my reception. This is very big station sounding excellent (my mp3-clip). Here is a team of The Morning Show:

Radio Omega Sound, Roma, Italia

This week I got a reply from the beautiful city of Rome, Italy!
Radio Omega Sound (www) confirmed my reception.
I heard this station in Utö-island last June and signal was absolutely clear on 91.4 MHz (mp3)!

This is now over 32 years old station!

This week I got also kind replies from Reggio Emilia-area. I have short message from Play Studio Dance Network (www) from Bologna and Radio Centrale (www) from Cesena. Radio Centrale is also 32 years old station. The station owner, who founded the station, replied and confirmed my old clips (mp3 from 1989!) !

Reply from Radio Metro, Udine, Italy

Last week I got e-mail from Udine-based Radio Metro (www). It is very big network in N,NE Italy with 20-30 transmitters from Venezia to Padova and Udine. I heard their Padova-relay on 91.1 MHz.

I got this late mail from my mid-December postings. Usually 90 % of stations reply with 1-2 days. After that there is not much expected to have.

Quadrantids 2009 Meteor shower - no results

On Saturday 3.1.2009 at 12.50utc there were peak of Quadrantids meteor shower. It was expected to be good enough for short E-skips of European FM-stations.
It was quite good giving quite tense and long signals! Many DX-ers here in Finland identified stations, mainly high-power transmitters from North- and Central-Germany.
I was listening but I got no interesting results.
I tried to hunt new Irish regional networks anround 102 and 105 MHz. This autumn started i102 and i105 in Ireland with quite big transmitters. However, there were no sign of Irish stations. On lower band (above 88 MHz) I noticed BBC several times but that's all.

So, next 5 months will be total silence on FM-DXing. Now there could be some time to listen recrodings from the past years. I still have hours and hours to check...

R. DeeJay Alexandroupolis - R. Amore, Napoli

This week I got two QSL-e-mails, both from great South European historical culture-cities.
Radio DeeJay (www), Aleksandroupolis, Greece confirmed my tentative report. I heard their relay on 93.3 MHz which is located in Orestiada. Listen their very professional jingle (taken from their webpage).

Another nice QSL came from Napoli, South Italy. Radio Amore (www) confirmed my reception of their Napoli-transmitter 105.8 MHz. They told that the station has 12 repeaters around Campania and this tx has 4 kW power.
Very exotic QSLs for the end of 2008!

Xmas-card from Radio Vladimirci, Serbia

In May 2008 I visited a little Serbian FM-station Radio Vladimirci (www)with extreme-DXer Jim Solatie (Espoo, Finland).
I heard this station here in Finland on August 2007 (mp3). When we visited the station, Sandra was on the air (click the photo>).

Now, on Christmas day 2008, I got a nice Xmas-card from this station (see below)!

Vladimirci is broadcasting on FM on 89.6 MHz to a very little Vladimirci-city (only 1.900 people, 20 000 in the whole municipal). According to the photos found from internet this station seems to be very lively and going strong.

Letter and photos from Radio Blu, Monopoli, Italy

I had nice letter and many photos from Filippo Rattile from Radio Blu in Monopoli-city, (Bari-province) South Italy. Here is a complilation of them. They also put my photo to their website.

QSLs from Italy - now totally 305 stations!

This month I e-mailed reception reports to 35 Italian FM-stations! I got 17 replies back!! All very nice and clear confirmations of my listening. Thanks to all stations who kindly replied!!!
Now I have totally 305 Italian FM-QSLs!!! 225 of them are letters (with stickers etc.) between years 1985-2000 and last 80 QSLs are e-mails from this century.
Here is a list of stations who replied during December 2008. These are mostly from South Italy:

- ARC Rete, Paternopoli (AV) - 99.5 MHz
- Radio Santa Maria dei Miracoli, Andria (BA) - 105.9 MHz (www) - Small religious stations in a little town Andria in Bari-province
- Radio Flor Levante, Terlizzi (BA) - 91.8 MHz (www)
- Radio Blu l'Onda Italiana, Monopoli (BA) - 92.9 MHz (www)
Filippo Rattile from Radio Blu made nice story of me to their web-page and blog. Nice surprise!!
- Radio Argento, Monopoli (BA) - 95.4 MHz. I have heard this station many times.
- Radio One, Bitonto (BA) - 96.3 MHz
- Radio Citta Futura, Bari (BA) - 101.0 MHz (www). Big website.
- Radio Onda d'Urto, Brescia (BS) - 98.0 MHz (www)
- Radio Europa Stereo, Lucera (FG) - 99.0 MHz (www)
- Radio Nostalgia Piemonte-reg., Genova (GE) - 94.0 MHz (www)
- Radio Onda Verde, Napoli (NA) - 97.8 MHz (www) My photo is on their page, too (here)
- Quinta Rete, Napoli (NA) - 93.9 MHz www (www)
- Radio Parma, Parma (PR) - 102.0 MHz (www) I mailed them very old clip, from 1983!!!! This seems to be a big tv-station!
- Radio l'Olgiata, Roma (RM) - 96.6 MHz (www) Started 1975 !!!
- Radio Delta, Rovigo (RO) - 103.6 KHz (www) Very big station!
- Rete Uno, Manduria (TA) - 92.1 MHz (www)
- Stella FM, Trissino (VI) - 97.4 MHz (www)

There are more to come... It is great to give a surprise to stations that they have been received in Finland on FM.