KBS World Radio Survey

[Ct Yankee]

I have been a listener (also, correspondent, annual calendar recipient, and occasional contest winner) to KBS for at least two decades.  I was a very dedicated listener when they had a relay from Sackville.  Out of the blue yesterday, for the first time ever and they had my address for decades, I received a listener survey to complete by August 31.  I am wondering if they are pondering a reduction in transmissions for the B16 season.

[MDK2]

I sent them a reception report for the one lone time I was able to copy their English service for 1300-1400, abd I made sure to complain about how hard it was to hear them compared to all the different English VOK broadcasts we can hear. They have a Spanish relay from WRMI. Hopefully they're considering adding an English one. I have heard that WRMI's going rate is $65, surely they can swing that.

Please send it in with any argument in favor of expanding service you can think of.

[Ct Yankee]

Oh, it's going in with a request for more shortwave English Language programming to North America....we shall see.

[Paul B. Walker, Jr.]

I sent them a reception report for the one lone time I was able to copy their English service for 1300-1400, abd I made sure to complain about how hard it was to hear them compared to all the different English VOK broadcasts we can hear. They have a Spanish relay from WRMI. Hopefully they're considering adding an English one. I have heard that WRMI's going rate is $65, surely they can swing that.

Please send it in with any argument in favor of expanding service you can think of.

It's actually a little less then $65 an hour for one off broadcasts like i do on WRMI and less then that if you buy bulk time.. But in reality, outside of a few dozen DX'ers, who would listen to KBS in north america?

[MDK2]

It's actually a little less then $65 an hour for one off broadcasts like i do on WRMI and less then that if you buy bulk time.. But in reality, outside of a few dozen DX'ers, who would listen to KBS in north america?

I don't know, but $65 is a cheap price to reach any audience if you ask me. They already have two daily beams intended for us, but the morning one is ridiculously in the 19m band before it's really open (in my location at least - maybe that works well for east coasters, but their beam's azimuth is actually aimed straight down the middle of the Pacific so who knows) while the evening one is on the same frequency and time as CRI's Cuban relay, so no hope of being heard over that at all. But the point is that they seem to think it's worth trying to reach a North American audience at least two hours a day.

[Paul B. Walker, Jr.]

It's actually a little less then $65 an hour for one off broadcasts like i do on WRMI and less then that if you buy bulk time.. But in reality, outside of a few dozen DX'ers, who would listen to KBS in north america?

I don't know, but $65 is a cheap price to reach any audience if you ask me. They already have two daily beams intended for us, but the morning one is ridiculously in the 19m band before it's really open (in my location at least - maybe that works well for east coasters, but their beam's azimuth is actually aimed straight down the middle of the Pacific so who knows) while the evening one is on the same frequency and time as CRI's Cuban relay, so no hope of being heard over that at all. But the point is that they seem to think it's worth trying to reach a North American audience at least two hours a day.

I did the math, and i figure $2400 a month for 2 hours a day 7 days a week in english.. thats $2400.. to reach maybe a few dozen DX'ers and other english speakers in the US.. would you pay that bill?

[MDK2]

Again Paul, they already are trying to reach a North American English-speaking audience. They have likely researched the market already. Might as well be effective in that instead of ineffective, and they are already doing business with WRMI (there's a Spanish language relay).

EDIT: I was mistaken, their Spanish language relay is with WHRI. And their latest schedule has the 0200z English transmission labeled for South America now.

[Paul B. Walker, Jr.]

Again Paul, they already are trying to reach a North American English-speaking audience. They have likely researched the market already. Might as well be effective in that instead of ineffective, and they are already doing business with WRMI (there's a Spanish language relay).

EDIT: I was mistaken, their Spanish language relay is with WHRI. And their latest schedule has the 0200z English transmission labeled for South America now.

Please refresh my memory as to the frequency and times of the North American English broadcasts

[MDK2]

Please refresh my memory as to the frequency and times of the North American English broadcasts

1300z on 15575 AM (this one is still labeled as specifically for North America on their guide, and it's followed by a Korean transmission at 1400z.)
0200z on 9580 AM (this one used to be listed for North America, it now says South America. There's a Japanese transmission on the same frequency at 0100. I think it might be a typo and that it's still intended for North America - not many English or Japanese speaking SWLers in South America I imagine.)

http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/about/about_shortwave.htm