Friday, February 09, 2007

2YB Access Radio, Wellington 783 Verification

Possibly the best New Zealand station I heard during KONG15. The story goes like this: At 1231 UTC on October19 I was searching the band for North Island stations. When I came to 783, I heard BBC World Service, and I soon found out it could be Access Radio. I found their webstream, and it was evident that it was the same edition of the World Service. I followed the webstream up to 1300 and did hear an Access Radio ID on the stream. Difficult to follow both the receiver audio and PC audio though, so for quite some time I wasn't sure. When I went through the recording just before the hour I heard...nothing! Only the BBC WS ID and news.

A few weeks later I decided to check again. Very strange, at 1259 there was indeed a distinct "Wellington Access Radio" identification! I don't know what I missed the first time. Maybe I listened too close to the full hour. I sent an email report to Access Radio in January and apparently they did reply but it never arrived at my inbox... so I made a follow up request which landed a prompt response from Station Manager Kedron Parker.

Access Radio was the first of 11 community radio stations when it was established in 1981. They relay BBC WS from 1.00 to 5.00 am local. During the day they broadcast in English, Samoan, Tongan, Cook Island Maori, Vietnamese, Tokelauan and Hindi.

They were (presumably) heard very briefly also once during KONG16 at the end of October. Now that we know that they're there, it might be easier to hear them again. But 783 has awful interference especially from China. You really have to be at the right spot at the right time!

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