Italy MW closures

[Brookman Spark]

Thank you Franco. There is a lot to keep up with there!

[Franco Martelli]

There is a lot to keep up with there!

Yes, it's so.

Despite the obsolescence of medium waves, here in Italy there is a strange effervescence in this band; I think it's because it's nearly impossible to open a new radio for broadcasting in FM Band 2 (the band is too busy everywhere, also for "pirate" broadcasting, and the cost for buying a frequency from another operator is too high for small companies), and turning on a medium wave transmitter is maybe the entry level for a small company who is trying to start a new "business".

This morning between 10.40 and 11.30 CET, when I was doing my commitments, I have connected to a remote SDR receiver located in Ticino (I don't know if is the same you sometimes listen to), and I have been able to listen to 6 different LPAMs.
Excepting Amica Radio and Free Radio AM, I've never listened to them from my QTH (I wonder if some of them broadcasts only on daytime):

1206 Amica Radio Veneta
1404 Radio 106
1512 Miniradio
1557 Milano_XR Radio
1566 Radio Kolbe
1584 Free Radio Am

Here in Tuscany you can hear on 1368 Radio Centro Web and Radio One (I suppose they share the same tx, located in a unknown site between Florence and Pistoia) and sometimes you can hear some unintelligible amateur broadcasting on 1359 Khz.

So, there is a lot to listen to, but I think that it's necessary for the Authority in charge to clarify the situation.

[Franco Martelli]

Two new LPAMs have started very lately their regular broadcasting on medium waves; both are on 1602 kHz and both claim to having an autorization from MISE (it really seems that the Ministry have the decided to avoid publishing the list of autorized radios).

RTV Radio Treviso broadcasts from the city of Treviso (north eastern Italy) with classical music, Catholic religious broadcasts, local news.
Their e mail address is rtv1602@libero.it .
In the Internet you can find another Radio Treviso broadcasting as a web radio but it seems that there's no relation between the two radios.

Radio 3 Network broadcasts from Poggibonsi (Central Tuscany, at not more than 25 Kms from my QTH).
Their MW broadcast are in // with Band 2 (they broadcast on 91.7 and has been sometimes listened through Es in Great Britain and Northern Europe).
I sent a mail to the station manager and he answered me that they are running on very low power while they are completing their antenna system.

[Franco Martelli]

Antonello Napolitano has recently published the updated list of LPAM stations operating now in Italy.
It matches with my monitoring of last months and it confirms my impression that there is no more stations operating in Southern Italy (incl. Sicily and Sardinia): the whole of 20 LPAM reported are operating from Northern Italy and Tuscany.

You can find the list here: http://www.dxfanzine.com/
Then click on DX Fanzine No. 54 – February 2018 and scroll the page.

[dxradiofan]

Is Radio Studio X on 1584 still off air ? It's a shame if so especially as it was in c quam am stereo or certainly was for many years

[Tim Bucknall]

I like what Italy and Holland are doing with medium wave.
The UK should do the same.

[John Faulkner, Skegness]

Perhaps we will be able to expand on the number of LPAMs we have. Only a small few seem to get out at night.

[Franco Martelli]

Is Radio Studio X on 1584 still off air ? It's a shame if so especially as it was in c quam am stereo or certainly was for many years

Yes, RSX is still off air on medium waves: it was still in C quam am stereo but I wonder how many listeners in her area are capable to listen to this mode.

[Franco Martelli]

I like what Italy and Holland are doing with medium wave.

Well: here, at this time, it's just a mess.
Isn't definitely clear how many of 20 active LPAMs has a real authorisation to broadcast.
And the most of radios broadcast with very irregular schedules and with (for the most of time) sh***y non-stop oldies; who really benefits from that?

As a Dxer I have fun with all of this ; but as a simple user of broadcasting all this stuff over here seems so useless.

[Franco Martelli]

Free Radio AM is – according to an announcement in their website – under attack.
After Radio Oberfranken and others, a new fake station, probably broadcasting from Italy, has been heard on 1584 kHz, this time identifying itself as Free Radio AM.
That is a sort of ”Black clandestine station” that claims to be Free Radio AM, the legal radio station with this name, which has a license and operates from Trieste on 1584 kHz
The true Free Radio AM can be identified by matching your audio on 1584 kHz with their stream which can be found at http://www.assamgroup.it/
This Internet site also includes an announcement in Italian saying that the station «is under attack by some illegal radio operators that, especially, in night hours, use to broadcast on 1584 kHz different kind of contents with the aim of deliberately causing interference to Free Radio AM.
A number of different station names have been used for such transmissions which are aired via transmitter with enough power.
The situation has now become serious like never before. In the last days, those illegal broadcasters have carried station announcements saying that you are tuned to Free Radio AM.
They record and falsify our jingles and voices, which are modified with the addition of insults and blasphemies. Those illegal broadcasters not only deliberately interfere to Free Radio AM but also other radio stations in Europe, whose operators can believe that the origin of such interferences is the true Free Radio AM.
It’s quite evident that a criminal act is underway with the aim of forcing our station to stop broadcasting. Of all those facts, the Italian authorities are well aware since January 2018 but until now no action has been apparently made.
We dissociate ourselves from any broadcast with offensive and blasphemous language and hope that authorities will solve this case as soon as possible. We invite our listeners to report to us any kind of taboo language which can be heard over that station claiming to be Free Radio AM!» (Antonello Napolitano, Taranto, ITALY).

Source: http://www.dxfanzine.com/ no. 57 (May, 2018)