foreign jingles and stations in ALB - attention

[PFM907]

just listening to Radio Travel Albania via w³ and recognized they are using jingles in italian jingles next to english ("one oh four point six fm" / "tourism connection" / "you are listening to...") and albanian ones ("Pik AL"):

"la radio que..... sempre!"

"cento quatro punto sei"

they also play lots of Italian pop music.

so be careful during ES DX, you might lose this very interesting ALB log while thinking it's from Italy


87,7 - FIERI / Manastiri i Ardenices
90,6 - SARANDA / Maja e Milletit
91,3 - VLORA / Fshati i Zvërnecit
98,6 - LLOGARA / Maja e Çikes
104,6 - TIRANA / Maja e Dajtit

also want to remind that several ITA channels are re-transmit in ALB

RADIO MARIA ITALIA
92,5 - TIRANA / Maja e Dajtit
95,5 - SHKODRA / Maja e Taraboshit

RADIO ITALIA SOLO MUSICA ITALIANA
91,5 - ELBASAN - Maja e Petreshit
92,4 - TIRANA / Maja e Dajtit
93,7 - SHKODRA / Maja e Taraboshit

also

CHINA RADIO INTL CRI throughout Radio Ejani
106,0

RADIO WORLD FAMILY - throughout Radio Maria Albania
89.6 / 90.0 / 91.4 / 92.8 / 100.7 / 102.2

VOA Music Mix
107,4

BBC World Service
103,9

rfi radio france internationale
102,0

keep that in mind! btw many stations from ALB using jingles in british or american english too

[Julian Hardstone]

Thanks PFM907, that is very helpful.
I see that Radio Travel Tirana is online at http://radiotravel.al/
Do the other tx carry the same progrmme?

[PFM907]

yes there are no local elements between these hand-full of TRAVEL frequencies. (at least not YET).
the main transmitter is Tirana 104.6 (and only this frequency is mentioned within their jingles) and the signal is passed through direction south.

I even heard more Italian jingles on that station:

"Radio Travel...la frequenze della ...vacance"

"...questa stata..."

"La radio que te guida"


many Albanians know at least some simple words in Italian and there are also some Italian radio stations being transmit over there, as well as there have been RAI relays in Montenegro. for many years, the reception over sea abroad was the only way to get foreign radio + TV in the pre-satellite era

[Tim Bucknall]

yes heard Travel R in Italian, and Also an American accented news broadcast in English
great info on the Rai relays in Montenegro, anyway we can find out specific frequencies?

[John Faulkner, Skegness]

I've heard the same thing from a station in one of the Baltic countries. Trying hard to remember who this was, but their jingles were 'borrowed' one of the Dutch FM radio networks. There have been other instance of this too.

[Franco Martelli]

great info on the Rai relays in Montenegro, anyway we can find out specific frequencies?

Never heard of it: is it a pirate stuff?

[zach_m]

During the last sporadic opening to Balkans I received 87.7 (what I think is jugging by PI code) Travel Radio, with different PS name.

[PFM907]

I've heard the same thing from a station in one of the Baltic countries. Trying hard to remember who this was, but their jingles were 'borrowed' one of the Dutch FM radio networks. There have been other instance of this too.

regarding Baltic stations using "Western" jingles: all of them are quite young and private radio in EE, LT and LV was founded in 1990 or 91 after being released from the USSR. of course, until today you have huge Russian-speaking minorities in both, Estonia and Latvia - so you can find Russkoe Radio, Avtoradio, DFM, Humor FM, Retro FM...over there (the same in ex-USSR republics Moldova, Pridnestrowie, Armenia, Georgia).

there is also Star FM in both, Estonia and Latvia plus Power Hit Radio in both, Estonia and Latvia (as well as European Hit Radio in both, Latvia and Lithuania - formerly also in Hungaria!) - owned by swedish MTG Radio. For many years, Star FM has been using the same jingles (melody, singers) as Rix FM in Sweden. today, European Hit Radio and Star FM can be found on FM in Sweden, too. before, these were web-channels only.

European Hit Radio had stations in Hungary too. Sopron Radio went off air in 2006. They[who?] bought Pilis Radio Szentendre, but after a year, it was sold. The owners bought Roxy Radio in Budapest, but after two years, they sold it too. The last Hungarian EHR went off air in 2012, in Zalaegerszeg.

( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Hit_Radio )

I am sure you are talking about TOPRadio in Riga which uses the same air material as TOPRadio Vlaanderen. For, me it was a bit of a shock walking around in Riga for the very first time and watching a TOPRadio logotype on a car. It was exactly the same I knew from Flanders!

http://www.topradio.be/
http://www.topradio.lv/

[PFM907]

During the last sporadic opening to Balkans I received 87.7 (what I think is jugging by PI code) Travel Radio, with different PS name.

I actually guess, this is a mix-up of two PS-codes both used by Radio Travel.
Their RDS is totally dynamic with "__RADIO_" / "_TRAVEL_" so you certainly caught the first part.
The "NO" comes from "NOMADET_" which is an evening show: http://radiotravel.al/?event=nomads
This broadcast is also being re-broadcast several times, heard it around midnight on a Wednesday.

I heard Radio Travel again this year with Stromae - House'lleluja (Klaas Mix) and Paul van Dyk - For An Angel 2009.
The signal was on for about five minutes and only reached stereo for a few seconds but that was enough.
When I looked on another radio display afterwards, this is what I found back as a memory from my log:
(searching for it on google.al brought up the conclusion - it is a tour operator who stands behind Radio Travel)

[PFM907]

great info on the Rai relays in Montenegro, anyway we can find out specific frequencies?

Never heard of it: is it a pirate stuff?

I think, it was simply tolerated by the (more western-oriented) government of this ex-Yugoslavic part-republic.
Is it illegal that Montenegro intoduced the "Deutsche mark" as their only official currency in 1998 until 2002 ?
Is it illegal that even today the EURO is the only official currency there, without being part of ECB or Eurozone?

Unfortunately, information on that is few after so many years. In fact, they were using the same channels as in Italy.
So at a first glance, it would have looked liked tropospheric propagation and nobody would have recognized the relay.

For sure there have been RAI-tv (1st and 2nd channel) re-broadcasts at Lovćen, Bjelasica, Durmitor and Volujica sites.

In 1957, the first TV antenna was placed on Mount Lovćen. It was able to receive pictures from Italy.

(from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTCG )

By the way, the RAI programs (RAI 1 and 2) could be seen in Montenegro over several high-altitude locations (including Lovcen and Bjelasica).

(from http://radioforum.foren.mysnip.de/read. ... sg-1356984 )

In addition, it was possible to see Rai Uno and Rai Due via the Montenegrin broadcasting stations on the "Durmitor" and "Bjelasica" as well as on the "Lovcen", which radiate far to Albania.

(from http://radioforum.foren.mysnip.de/read. ... msg-390434 )

Bandscans with channel listings can be found here:
http://rtvforum.net/index.php/showthrea ... pid=116938

6 RAI UNO Volujica
10 RAI UNO Lovćen

I have read the same about Albania, people were able to watch RAI in the whole country. Near the coastline via tropo but even in the mountains.
When you look upon a map, it seems very unlogical that Italian transmitters would reach the hills in the North-Eastern parts of Albania.
So one might think, there have been relays as well, although there is no proof for that because the ALB government was much stricter.
There is only one source regarding a re-broadcast of RAI and yugoslavic TV from Mount Dajti near Tirana for the capital and for Durres.
I have also read RAI-oversea reception being tolerated during main news and fictional programmes, but jamming during christian shows or sport.

The neighboring TV signals of Italian RAI and Yugoslav RTV Titograd were particularly affected. During the 1960s, RAI was received in Tirana in decent quality. As time passed, the signal was strengthened by RTSH at Mount Dajti transmitter site only to broadcast the day's main news bulletin (TG1), films, and children's programmes. It is observed that in the news program, reports containing music concerts and papal activities, or even regular commercial spots were jammed. A similar phenomenon occurred with RTV Titograd's frequencies.

(from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Tel ... i_Shqiptar )

This is a very interesting aspect in history!