Personally, I read this information from the MW Circle group on FB (it appeared originally in the open_dx Yahoo mailing list), but it was reported also elsewhere on the Internet:
Roberto Rizzardi also remembered to me, in a post on the ndblist e-mail reflector on Yahoo, that - according to a report by Mike Terry (mwdx Yahoo group) - "The German national public broadcasters Deutschlandfunk and Deutschlandradio Kultur will disappear from longwave at the end of this year. Wasteful channels are going off the air due to cost considerations. The money saved will be invested in digital terrestrial radio (DAB+). At the end of 2015 the mediumwave transmitters of Deutschlandfunk will also close.
Deutschlandfunk currently still broadcasts through longwave 153 and 207 kHz and seven mediumwave frequencies including 1269 and 549 kHz. Deutschlandradio Kultur broadcasts by means of the longwave frequency 177 kHz. The mediumwave frequency 990 kHz went off last year".
As an european NDB listener, I could think this is not so bad news for the frequency range around 207 kHz and 225 kHz, where some canadian NDBs should become easier to catch, but of course it is sad to admit that LW are getting poorer, day after day. Is the history of long-haul radio broadcasting coming to an end?
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| The impressive 646 meters of Warsaw Radio mast in Konstantynów, before its collapse in 1981 (Wikipedia) |
Roberto Rizzardi published the following update in a post on the ndblist mailing list on Yahoo:
RispondiEliminaFrom PlayDX mailing list:
Polish Radio won't terminate its longwave transmissions on 225 kHz
It appeared that the information in the international DX press that the Polish Radio is going to switch off its longwave transmitter is wrong. It appeared first on the EuroRadio forum and later was passed to many DX circles and mailing lists, but there's no such information on the "Jedynka" website, nor in its Facebook page.
Dominique from Poland got interested in the issue and contacted Roman Czejarek, Polish Radio employee and active participant in the construction of the Solec Kujawski transmitter site.
Here is the answer: "I do not know anything about such a plan. No one has given such information, at least here in Poland."
He also gave some interesting facts: The longwave transmitter is 40-50% cheaper for the Polish Radio than the network of FM transmitters. That's because the transmitter site in Solec Kujawski is wholly-owned by the Polish Radio and the FM transmitters are leased from a private company.
3 months ago marked the 15th anniversary of the PR1 longwave transmitter site. On the event, the general director of the Polish Radio said that more than 40% of the PR1 audience is listening to the station via longwave radio. He also said that they receive many listeners' letters from Poland and all over Europe.
In 2012, a new campaign for switching off the longwave transmitter began, but soon the station started to receive many letters of complain which were then read on the air and it was finally decided that the campaign should be terminated.