WYFR Facility to Return to Shortwave as WRMI

[swman]

https://www.facebook.com/nasbshortwave/posts/730732046956577

News Release - Boletín de Prensa
Nov. 6, 2013

WYFR Facility to Return to Shortwave as WRMI

Legendary shortwave station WYFR in Okeechobee, Florida, which ceased transmissions on June 30, 2013, will resume broadcasting in December as a result of an agreement between Family Stations, Inc, and Radio Miami International, Inc.

According to the agreement, Family Radio will sell the WYFR facility to Radio Miami International. Family Radio programming for the Caribbean and South America will return to shortwave via the Okeechobee site, and Radio Miami's programming currently aired on WRMI in Miami will switch over to the Okeechobee facility. The station will also carry programs for other international broadcasters, including Pan American Broadcasting's Radio Africa network. A target date of December 1, 2013 has been set for the resumption of broadcasts. The current WRMI transmission site in Miami will be closed, and the WRMI call letters will be transferred to Okeechobee.

"We are very grateful to Family Radio for entrusting us with this magnificent station," said Jeff White, WRMI General Manager. "WYFR is an important part of the heritage of shortwave broadcasting, and we are very happy that it will continue to serve shortwave listeners around the world." The station first went on the air from Okeechobee in 1977, although the origins of the station and its predecessors go back to 1927. WYFR/WRMI is the largest shortwave station in the United States in number of transmitters and antennas. The facility is comprised of 13 transmitters -- twelve 100-kilowatt and one 50-kilowatt -- and 23 antennas beamed to all of the Americas, Europe and Africa.

White, who is also Secretary-Treasurer of the National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters (NASB), said that "many people made this transition a reality, not the least of whom was our former Secretary-Treasurer and current board member, Dan Elyea, who had been the WYFR Station Manager from the time it was built in the late 1970's until his recent retirement. Dan presented us to Family Radio Vice President Tom Evans. Tom and the Family Radio Board have given us their confidence, and we will do our best to keep this station going for many years to come."

For more information, contact:

Jeff White
E-mail: radiomiami9@cs.com
Tel: +1-305-559-9764

 

[ka3jjz]

Yes I saw this message on the DXLD Yahoo group, and no doubt this will show up shortly on the NASWA group as well (as Jeff is/was a NASWA member)

Mike

 

[WB4CS]

While I'm glad that they will be back on the air since we need as many SW stations as possible, I have to question if they will return to their previous broadcasting of religious programming?

Most of BC AM/MW in the US is either talk radio, sports, or religious. A good portion of SW is either news or religious. I'd love to see more music and variety programming on the SW bands. I know it's a pipe dream and SW is slowly becoming an extinct broadcast medium, but one can dream.

 

[lep]

While I'm glad that they will be back on the air since we need as many SW stations as possible, I have to question if they will return to their previous broadcasting of religious programming?

Why do "we need as many SW stations as possible"? I ask. For many years there were NO non-government SW stations in the USA and I am unsure that the public some how was worse off as a result of the previous policy not to license such stations. Even then, when they began to allow them a few years ago the target audience was 'supposed to be' outside the USA. Just curious.

 

[WB4CS]

We need them from a hobby perspective. In years gone by when I was a young, avid SWL I really enjoyed tuning the SW bands and finding interesting programming and music from across the globe. In 2013, anyone with a cell phone can immediately tune into almost any radio station in the world. I'm all for technology, but there's something great about tuning in an analog AM station from somewhere else. Due to internet radio, SW stations have been going off the air one by one in favor of the lower cost of online streaming.

The more stations that are on SW, the longer the SW hobby continues. That's why we need them.

 

[ka3jjz]

If I know Jeff (and yes, I've met him several times at past ANARC conventions), he may mix in some WYFR programming with the more secular stuff that WRMI has done in the past. And I might hazard a guess that Glenn Hauser's World of Radio program might also move over, but that's strictly a guess on my part

It depends very much, I think, on the terms of the buyout agreement, which we're not privvy to. Stay tuned. By the way, the DXLD had a preliminary schedule for WYFR posted just recently. How much of that schedule will actually be used is up for grabs

Mike

 

[902]

It's not just that Internet radio is taking up the slack for shortwave stations that have gone dark, but that external service broadcasts often cease once the shortwave outlet has gone dark.

Sure, there are a number of tabloids in a number of languages floating around on the Internet, but the external service stations often served to set the stage for global political events. Every once in a while you get a re-kindle of the old days. Most recently, the NSA and Egypt situations have the Voice of Russia doing lots of features reminiscent of the Cold War days.

The external service stations also provided a window on culture. Yeah, as we get toward this homogeneous global culture we don't need stories of people wearing wooden shoes or to hear the bells of the Vatican on Christmas. We're missing out. I learned a ton about geography and other lands by listening to my Globe Patrol regenerative receiver that I built when I was in 3rd grade. It only got worse from there.

 

[gpsblake]

I wonder if he will operate all 11+ transmitters at once? I like to see the Cubans try to jam all of those. WRMI hopefully will relay some international broadcasters and certainly getting them out of 9955khz is a good move.

 

[Jimepage]

Thats excellent news!!! I can rarely hear the transmitter on 9955 for WRMI and cannot wait to hear them on the new one! I could hear WYFR Clearly and suspect it will be the same for the new station. I really applaud WRMI's lineup of wide ranging shows, and yes more transmitters on SW the better! I had fears of losing SW completely and without that I can see expensive receivers turn cheap over night!

 

[n5ims]

Why do "we need as many SW stations as possible"? I ask. For many years there were NO non-government SW stations in the USA and I am unsure that the public some how was worse off as a result of the previous policy not to license such stations. Even then, when they began to allow them a few years ago the target audience was 'supposed to be' outside the USA. Just curious.

1982 is a bit more than "few years ago". February of that year is when WRNO Worldwide started broadcasting as a commercial SW station. While it was widely believed that it was illegal for a privately owned SW station to exist in the US, especially if that station was a commercial entity, Joseph Mark Costello, III could find nothing actually in the books to justify that belief. He spend several years and a good chunk of change to prove it was possible and present his findings and success story to the National Association of Broadcasters. Why did he do it you may ask? The answer is amazingly simple, he grew up listening to and loving SW broadcasts and after building several successful FM and AM broadcast stations wanted to add SW to his list. When folks said it couldn't be done, but never could give him any specific regulations on why not it became his mission to build one or be shown specifically why not.

There were many technical regulations, power restrictions and requiring a directional antenna among those specifically stated, and a few weird ones limiting the types of commercials that could be aired (such as you couldn't air commercials for products that weren't available in the intended reception area). There were few limitations on where the target audience was, it simply had to be published in advance. US coverage was legal, but limitations on content (mostly exclusive rights given to stations on syndicated programs) had to be carefully monitored to prevent violations (this limited the station to its standard DJ playing music or specific sports broadcasts where distribution rights could be written specifically for SW broadcasting).

I apologize if I took the topic a bit off course but wanted to honor a friend's pioneering work.

 

[gpsblake]

Brother Stair has bought time to be on 11 transmitters at one time starting on Dec 1 from the new WRMI. He was bragging that he will have more stations then Radio Moscow did during the 1980s. He also says it will cost him $40,000 a month to do this.

Which did make me wonder, at $480,000 a year, why doesn't someone like the BBC simply buy the air time instead? $480,000 a year doesn't really seem to be that much money and I think it would give them far more value.

 

[shortwaver]

If I know Jeff (and yes, I've met him several times at past ANARC conventions), he may mix in some WYFR programming with the more secular stuff that WRMI has done in the past. And I might hazard a guess that Glenn Hauser's World of Radio program might also move over, but that's strictly a guess on my part

It depends very much, I think, on the terms of the buyout agreement, which we're not privvy to. Stay tuned. By the way, the DXLD had a preliminary schedule for WYFR posted just recently. How much of that schedule will actually be used is up for grabs

Mike

Looks like you're correct about Glenn. WORLD OF RADIO SCHEDULE