KAGV from Alaska testing on 1110 kHz mediumwave

A new mediumwave station has begun broadcasting in Alaska on 1110 kHz. KAGV in Big Lake began testing on November 16-17, partly using a backup transmitter of 2.5 kW. "On Thursday and Friday (November 18-19) we fired up our main transmitter at 10,000 watts. This transmitter is a Harris DX10 Solid state transmitter. We currently have two bad modules in the transmitter which will be fixed shortly. This should increase our modulation a bit," says KAGV Station Manager David Horning. DXpeditionists in Lemmenjoki, Finland, have reported to DXing.info that KAGV was first picked up on November 20 by Hannu Niilekselä. The station identifies as "Alaska's Gospel Voice", and "I AM Radio Network".
     Horning tells DXing.info that they have been working on this station for almost three years and their construction permit from the FCC times out on December 19. "This radio station is owned by Voice For Christ ministries (VFCM) in Nenana, Alaska which also owns and operates KIAM 630 AM, and KYKD an FM in Bethel, Alaska," Horning explains. VFCM is also a satellite network and will be feeding some of the programming from KIAM to KAGV via satellite.
     Horning says that he hopes to begin regular broadcasts on December 14 or 15. According to Horning, the broadcasts will be primarily religious in nature with news and information programming and also music. "Our power will be 10,000 watts 24 hours a day." KAGV is located just north of Anchorage. The station can be contacted by calling at +1-907-892-8820, or by email.
(DXing.info, November 25, 2004)

Afghan station heard in Europe on 1602 kHz

An Afghan radio station has appeared on 1602 kHz mediumwave and has been heard all the way in Europe. Gert Nilsson was the first to pick up the station in Sweden on November 18. Independentely, Martti Karimies from Finland heard the station on November 20. Both initially reported the station as unidentified, but later Internews, an NGO operating in the Afghan media scene, identified the signal as Radio Khost. According to previous station listings prepared by Internews, Radio Khost has earlier operated on 1200 kHz. Radio Khost was launched in 2002 (see DXing.info news in June 2002 for details), and first broadcast on 1300 kHz. Radio Khost is a government-run station for Khost (also spelled as Khowst) and its surrounding areas in eastern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan.
(DXing.info, November 25, 2004, updated on December 7)

Radio San Andrés from Peru testing on 5544.6 kHz

A new shortwave station from Peru has been heard on 5544.65 kHz. Björn Malm from Ecuador picked up Radio San Andrés for the first time on November 17, signing off at 0355 UTC. According to Malm, the station is located in San Andrés, Provincia de Cutervo, Departamento de Cajamarca.
(DXing.info, November 18, 2004, last edited on November 21)

Radio Livres Télérama from France testing on 1062 kHz

Radio Livres Télérama, or Télérama for short, has begun test broadcasts on 1062 kHz mediumwave. The station is transmitting from Meudon near Paris, France, with 2 kW of power. Télérama was first reported heard by Thierry Vignaud on fr.rec.radio newsgroup on October 29. Currently programming consists of a test loop, but in the future the station will air music (world, golden oldies, jazz, classical, French and Breton) as well as cultural talk programming. Télérama was licensed in 2003 (see DXing.info news in March 2003). It has a permission to broadcast also on 1485 kHz (in Marseilles, Rheims and Toulouse) and on 1584 kHz (in Montpellier and Nantes), but it is not known whether these frequencies will be activated.
(DXing.info, November 12, 2004)

English-language mediumwave station launched in Beijing

Radio 774, the first provincial-level foreign-language radio station in China, has been launched in Beijing. The station broadcasts from 2200 to 1600 UTC on 774 kHz mediumwave, as well as on 97.8 and 99.4 MHz on the FM band, with different program feeds. Programming on 774 kHz contains 90 minutes of Chinese daily, but most of the programs are in English, including relays of international broadcasters. Other languages, possibly German and French, will be added by 2008, in time for the Beijing Olympics. The purpose of the new station is to provide news and information to the growing international community in the capital. Radio 774 is owned by Radio Beijing, the domestic service broadcasting company of the Beijing municipality. The station began broadcasting on September 17.
(DXing.info, November 6, 2004)

Toronto getting a new Latin format X-band station

CHSL is broadcasting with a Latin format from the San Lorenzo Latin American Community Centre in Toronto, Canada. CHSL is currently testing at local daytime, from around 1100 UTC to 2400 UTC. The tests have been conducted using 250 watts of power, but according to Niel Wolfish of the Michigan Area Radio Enthusiasts on DXLD 4-165, the station is planning to increase power to 1000 watts around November 9. Official on air date should be around November 20. According to CHSL's application to the governing body CRTC, the new station will direct its programming primarily to the Spanish-speaking community, and will also provide programming in Italian, Portuguese and Tagalog as well as ethnic programming in English and French.
The station can be reached by writing to CHSL, c/o San Lorenzo Latin American Community Centre, 22 Wenderly Drive, Toronto, Ontario M6B 2N9, Canada.
     Reportedly also CHEV from Markham, Ontario, is currently on the air on 1610 kHz. This low-power community station is transmitting daily at 2300-0400 UTC, but plans to increase broadcasting hours. Still, CJWI from Montréal, Quebec, remains the most powerful Canadian station on the frequency.
(DXing.info, November 1, 2004)

The frequency of 1584 kHz has been vacant since Laser Hot Hits briefly began operating in late 2002 (see DXing.info News in December 2002).
      The station is using the name Radio Paradijs, and is currently transmitting at a power of 15 watts.

The purpose of the radio news section is to inform about new mediumwave (AM) and shortwave broadcasting stations worldwide. Other news are published only on major international broadcasters or issues very relevant to DXers. New programs and schedules are not covered.

The news are edited by Mika Mäkeläinen. Extracts from news items may be quoted if the website http://www.DXing.info is mentioned as source. See terms of use for details.