ERT Open (Voice of Greece): July 6, 2014

As I prepare the largest post I’ve ever published on the SWLing Post–a review and comparison of the PL-660, PL-880, ATS-909X and ICF-SW7600GR–I’ve been listening to the music I recorded Sunday night on ERT Open (Voice of Greece).

Regular readers know that I’ve always had a particular fondness of this station. Some nights they play hour long sets of music ranging from folk to modern (I especially love the folk) on 9,420 kHz. Their signal booms into North America as well; indeed, ERT Open can even be heard on a basic shortwave portable with relative ease.

Since I don’t speak or understand the Greek language, I can listen to this music while writing posts and catching up on email correspondence (I’m terribly behind at the moment).

For your listening pleasure: two hours, six minutes of ERT Open recorded on July 6, 2014 staring around 01:00 UTC.

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Radio Station of Macedonia (VOG): June 11, 2014

Last night, while learning the ropes of the new Elad FDM-S2, I noticed some great music on 9,420 kHz, the former Voice of Greece frequency.

It was then that I realized yesterday (June 11) marked the one year anniversary of the day that the Greek government shut down ERT and the Voice of Greece. If interested, click here for some audio I recorded that very night.

Amazingly, one year later, 9,420 kHz is still active out of the Avlis transmitter site and last night, the Radio Station of Macedonia (a.k.a., ERT 3) was playing an excellent mix of Greek music and jazz.

Click here to listen to the 51 minute recording, made with the Elad FDM-S2 software defined receiver, starting at 00:50 UTC:

Radio Station of Macedonia, ERT 3: May 23, 2014

For your listening pleasure: three hours, seven minutes of the Radio Station of Macedonia (a.k.a. Voice of Greece/ERT Macedonia 3) recorded on May 23, 2014 starting around 19:00 UTC on 9,420 kHz.

This recording was made using my WinRadio Excalibur receiver and a large horizontal delta loop antenna.

Click here to download as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Voice of Greece: March 6, 2014

(Photo Source)

For your listening pleasure: two hours, fifteen minutes of the Radio Station of Macedonia (Voice of Greece) recorded on March 6, 2014 starting around 01:50 UTC on 9,420 kHz.

Click here to download as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Radio Station of Macedonia (Voice of Greece): January 28, 2014

For your listening pleasure: 1 hour 29 minutes of The Radio Station of Macedonia (formerly Voice of Greece). This broadcast was recorded on January 28, 2014 around 1:50 UTC on 9,420 kHz.

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Voice of Greece/Radio Station of Macedonia: November 26, 2013

Crete, Greece (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

I’m not sure what the future holds for the Voice of Greece. In many ways, I feel that the Greek national shortwave broadcaster is already operating on borrowed time–but perhaps I’m wrong. I’ve been recording VOG a lot lately on 9,420 kHz and 7,475 kHz; most broadcasts these days contain very little commentary, only hours of a wide variety of international music with the occasional station ID (which, by the way, has recently changed). I feel like they’re just working to keep their seats warm.

TheGreekRadio.com recently commented on the SWLing Post about the current state of the Voice of Greece:

“After the forceful eviction of the redundant ERT employees from the Radio House in Athens, the shortwave frequencies no longer transmit the normal program of Voice of Greece as there is no such service produced in Athens.  This happened on the 7th of November, when you probably noticed the station ID change.

Mediumwave and shortwave frequencies have been now set to relay the radio program of “Radio Station of Macedonia” by the redundant employees of ERT3, from Thessaloniki. (This used to be the independent program relayed for a few hours before midnight on 7,450 until June’s ERT switch-off, when phone lines were cut and the “guerilla” program started). They keep doing a full program during the day, but being unemployed, it seems that they cannot carry on overnight.

The official interim public radio (one single service for entire Greece) so far does not care for [the take] over [of] the shortwave and mediumwave resources in Athens. Probably they do not have the staff to operate them, as only the necessary personnel was hired to keep the single radio service running on FM.”

Thus it looks like VOG’s shortwave service might be easily cut–and without warning. We already know that the Greek government is considering dismantling the Alvis transmitting site.

 With that said, I hope you’ll enjoy a bit of this Voice of Greece (or Radio Station of Macedonia) recording this weekend.  I say “a bit,” as it is nearly five hours long. I started this recording around 20:30 UTC on November 26th, 2013 (9,420 kHz).

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below: