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www.aib.org.ukCreating a Stir in Moscow
Next time you visit Moscow, turn on your radio. On FM
you’ll hear a selection of stations that probably wouldn’t
be out of place on your FM dial at home: music of all
genres from jazz to rock plus sports, talk and news.The
AM band meanwhile offers an eclectic mixture of religious
and music stations plus relays of the
big four
international
broadcasters: BBCWorld Service, Radio France
Internationale, DeutscheWelle and Voice of America. But
now a new AM station has launched that is destined to
create a real stir in the Moscow radio market. In February
WRN, the London-based international broadcaster and
transmission provider, was awarded a licence to broadcast
on 738 kHz by the Ministry of Press, Radio andTelevision
of the Russian Federation.
TimAyris
,Marketing Manager
at WRN, explains the broadcaster’s plans for Russia.
Billed as the
Voice of the World
,World Radio Network 738AM
(
Âñåìèðíîé Ðàäèîñåòè 738 êÃö
) took a mere seven months
from licence-award to on-air and promises a unique radio experience,
bringing together news, current affairs and magazine programming
in the Russian language from a host of international broadcasters to
both entertain and inform Muscovites. Where else could you hear
the Czech perspective on life inside the newly expanded European
Union; a view of NATO from Romania, one of the organisation’s
newest members; the winning entry from Bulgaria’s first SMS text
poetry competition; or Beijing’s preparations for the 2008 Olympics?
World Radio Network 738AM, that’s where.
At first sight (or should that be listen), World Radio Network 738AM
is similar to the model of international news network production
underpinned by a complex process of programme aggregation and
scheduling that WRN has pioneered for the last 12 years. Many will
be familiar with WRN’s international news and current affairs
networks that emanate from its London broadcast centre and which
are populated by programming from a host of national and
international broadcasters, including America’s NPR, China Radio
International, Channel Africa, Radio Korea International, Radio
Australia, Radio Romania International, Radio Netherlands and many
more. WRN’s various networks (of which there are versions in
English, French, German plus a proto-Russian one) are distributed
to listeners via digital broadcast platforms. For example, in the USA
WRN’s English network can be picked up on Sirius Satellite Radio
and Mobile Broadcast Network, the cellphone-based distribution
platform, across Africa and Asia via the WorldSpace service and in
other territories via a number of market-leading DTH and cable
platforms (Sky Digital, Canal Satellite, MultiChoice DSTV, USEN
440, Sound Planet). WRN has significant experience in the terrestrial
analogue domain with a number of local agreements with FM or
AM stations that carry WRN through the night because we offer
their listeners a unique international news service (examples being
the Clear Channel-owned Nyhedsradioen 24-7 that broadcasts across
Denmark, SAFM in South Africa and CBC in Canada).
However, WRN’s Moscow station differs in several key respects
from this usual WRN model of news network production. The number
of international broadcasters that produce daily or weekly
programmes in Russian is large and encompasses everyone from
REE in Spain, Iran’s IRIB, Radio Damascus, Radio Pakistan, Radio
Canada International, Voice of Vietnam, RAI International, Radio
Cairo, Greece’s ERA 5 and many broadcasters from CIS states and
former Warsaw Pact countries. 738AM has allowedWRN to approach
these broadcasters about participation on the station, many of whom
have not worked with WRN before and are still reliant on short
wave to distribute their programming on an international basis to an
ever-diminishing audience. Furthermore, being an AM station allows
us the opportunity to undertake focused marketing campaigns that
are not always possible on satellite-delivered services with huge,
continental-size footprints. In turn, the marketing not only attracts
listeners to the programmes produced by our broadcast partners
allowing them to assess the station’s success, but it permits us to
measure that audience using local industry standard techniques
which, in turn, will allow us to seek advertising. Although advertising
revenue is some way off, the commercial nature of the station is
allowing us to develop a number of co-marketing agreements with
large Russian companies to assist us in reaching out to those
Muscovites who are interested in the world beyond the Ring Road
and help us further build and develop our audience. The final
difference will be the future introduction of locally produced content.
This element will result in a truly content-rich, speech-based
commercial radio station.
A National Network for International Radio?
Future advertising revenue from the station will be ploughed
back into further marketing but it will also be used to part-fund
WRN’s roll-out across Russia. The plans for station expansion
in Russia are ambitious. World Radio Network 738AM is the
first in a proposed network of WRN-branded radio stations
broadcasting to a total of ten Russian cities including St
WRN’s London Network Control Centre
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