[HCDX] Radio Kiribati goes online

["Dave Kernick" <dak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Radio Kiribati apparently NOT on shortwave!

The national broadcaster of the Pacific Ocean island of Kiribati, Radio
Kiribati, can be heard live online at http://radio-tarawa.tskl.net.ki, via
the Icecast open source audio streaming server. There are two streams
available, a mono stream at a bitrate of 16 kbps and a stereo stream at 32
kpbs, both using the Ogg Vorbis multimedia streaming format.

The station was observed signing-on at 1825 UTC on Friday 11 November 2005,
opening with a choral version of the national anthem and identification in
the local language, I-Kiribati, as "Aio Banaan Kiribati" [latter word is
pronounced kir-ree-bass]. This was followed by a music programme presented
in I-Kiribati, then a relay of BBC World Service news in English at 1900
after which there was Radio Kiribati's own "Local and District News" in
English at 1920 UTC. It was noted that the interval signal/signature tune
used with English identification announcements is a pan pipes version of
Roxette's pop hit "It Must Have Been Love".

The Radio Kiribati stream was silent when checked again at 0200 UTC the
following day, but the last few minutes of the day's broadcast were caught
shortly before closing at 1055 UTC with announcements in I-Kiribati and this
announcement in English: "This is Radio Kiribati, the broadcasting service
of Kiribati, in the Central Pacific. We're transmitting from Bairiki Atoll
on a frequency of 846 kiloHertz, on 354.6 metres in the mediumwave band".

Radio Kiribati (formerly Radio Tarawa) is currently the country's sole
broadcaster. In 1998 an attempt to set up a commercial competitor, Newair
FM101, failed to get off the ground when the radio station's directors were
prosecuted for "importing telecommunications equipment without a permit".
However, the station still hopes to obtain a licence and retains a website
at http://www.users.bigpond.com/newairfm.

The small independent nation of Kiribati is situated in the Pacific Ocean
halfway between Hawaii and Australia.  It was formerly known as the Gilbert
Islands, part of the British colony of Gilbert and Ellice Islands, until the
two island groups were separated and given autonomy in 1975 (the Ellice
Islands becoming Tuvalu) then attained full independence in 1979.  Kiribati
today has 33 main islands occupying a land area of  811 square kilometres,
scattered over an ocean area the size of the continental United States, with
an estimated total population of around 103,000, including about 35,000 in
Tarawa, the capital. Local time is UTC +12 hours.

An edited audio clip of Radio Kiribati can be heard on the Interval Signals
Online website at www.intervalsignals.net. The 5-minute clip comprises the
following: "It Must Have Been Love" interval signal/signature tune & live ID
(English), canned ID (I-Kiribati), bilingual sign-off announcements, canned
ID (I-Kiribati), choral national anthem.

Dave Kernick


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